Florentina Holzinger, the Austrian artist known for provocative performances, has stunned audiences at the Venice Biennale with her installation 'Seaworld Venice'. The work features naked performers on jetskis, a woman ringing a bell with her body, and a diver submerged in the audience's urine. The Austrian Pavilion has become the talk of the biennale, drawing both awe and outrage.
In a one-off performance on the Venice lagoon, women naked but for tattoos and boots emerged on a barge. An electric guitarist clipped herself to a crane, climbing to a height and rocking out. A vocalist screamed like Yoko Ono. After 20 minutes, a cast-iron bell was hoisted from the water, with a long-haired woman suspended upside down inside it, slamming her body to ring the bell across the lagoon.
Holzinger, who herself hung naked from the bell, said: 'We are always in a “brace, brace” position when it comes to performance. We know what the reactions can be. But nothing could have prepared us for this.' She noted that Venice is the birthplace of the reclining nude, questioning: 'How can this nudity be deemed so provocative when it comes to real bodies?'
The installation runs eight hours daily in all weathers, with audiences milling freely. Sections of the pavilion contain pools for jetski stunts, contortion acts, and performers suspended from climbing harnesses. The work blends temple, gallery, theme park, and sewage processing plant.
Holzinger's previous work, the opera 'Sancta', has toured Europe, featuring a climbing wall, a pregnant pope on a robot arm, and nuns on rollerskates. She described the half-pipe on stage as a way for nuns to move: 'They are not going to be walking on the floor in a mundane way, but they are floating, skating.'
