VENICE — The Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art events, is showcasing a growing number of national pavilions that incorporate live performance, presenting both artistic innovation and logistical challenges. Since the Biennale’s opening on May 9, several countries have chosen to highlight performance art, a medium that requires the physical presence of artists and involves unique demands compared with traditional visual works.
Notable examples include the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, and Japan. At the Dutch pavilion, artist Dries Verhoeven stages six daily performances over five days each week, requiring three rotating teams of performers and medical supervision to manage the physical strain. Verhoeven’s piece, “The Fortress,” traps visitors inside a darkened space where a performer delivers guttural death-metal vocals intertwined with messages of self-acceptance, creating an immersive, if enigmatic, experience.
Austria’s Florentina Holzinger captures attention at her “Seaworld Venice” installation, wherein a nude performer floats in a water tank. Visitors are invited to participate by contributing urine to the system, a process that filters the liquid for the tank’s use. Despite the curiosity it generates, Holzinger and her team have acknowledged a certain fatigue, as this format does not translate easily into sustained theatrical narratives.
Belgium’s pavilion, presented by Miet Warlop, offers a more intermittent approach. Her performance “It Never Ssst” occurs on only select dates and was recently affected by last-minute cancellations. The pavilion’s static installation—hundreds of white tablets embossed with multilingual words meant for use during performances—often stands empty, a reminder of the challenges of maintaining live acts in a protracted event. Warlop has cited funding difficulties, explaining that securing resources for live performers is more complex than for traditional art objects.
In contrast, Japan’s Eri Arakawa-Nash engages visitors directly with “Grass Babies, Moon Babies,” handing out baby dolls upon entry for participants to care for during the exhibition, including a diaper-changing ritual that unlocks poetry via QR code. The Japanese and Korean pavilions are also collaborating on a 20-minute participatory opera during a brief series of performances in late August and early September. This project highlights the ephemeral nature common to many Biennale performances.
Some countries, such as Scotland, have opted against live presentations, instead offering installations inspired by performance traditions. The Scottish duo Bugarin + Castle have transformed their work into “Shame Parade,” an installation evoking historical carnival processions, foregoing their usual live drag performances. This decision underscores both practical considerations and the segmented programming across Venice’s multidisciplinary festivals, with limited crossover between the contemporary art Biennale and the city’s theater or dance events.
The broader tension between the necessity of live presence and the resource demands it entails is underscored by the example of Marina Abramovic. Celebrated for endurance-based performance art, Abramovic was honored this year at Venice’s Gallerie dell’Accademia with “Transforming Energy,” an exhibition featuring digital avatars rather than live performances. The use of digital surrogates has drawn mixed reactions, with some perceiving it as a departure from the visceral power of her earlier work.
Overall, this year’s Venice Biennale demonstrates both the appeal and complexity of integrating live performance within visual art exhibitions. While such presentations offer visitors unique, immersive experiences unattainable through static media, they also raise questions about sustainability, funding, and the irreplaceable value of human presence in performance art.