Nude artist hangs herself from a bell in a performance about a climate apocalypse

The new project by the Austrian artist and choreographer is a dark futuristic fantasy in which global warming, rising sea levels, and environmental collapse radically reshape human civilization. In Holzinger’s interpretation, the flooded world becomes a place where human survival is possible only through technology, artificial life-support systems, and collective adaptation.

In Seaworld Venice, Holzinger engages with one of Venice’s central themes — its fragile and contradictory relationship with water. For a city that has lived for centuries on the edge of flooding, water is both a source of life, beauty, and cultural grandeur, and at the same time a force of destruction and threat. The artist uses this duality as a central metaphor, turning water into a symbol of both creation and catastrophe.

The installation is filled with powerful visual and political imagery. One of the central elements is a jet ski endlessly circling in loops, serving as a satirical comment on hyper-tourism, which is increasingly damaging Venice.

Another major performative element features performers positioned on a giant weather vane, symbolizing collective action, resilience, and the need for shared responsibility in addressing the climate crisis. Their physical presence emphasizes interdependence and collective accountability.

One of the most radical parts of the project features a performer placed inside a tank, sustaining life through a system that uses biological fluids provided by visitors. This closed loop becomes a metaphor for global inequality, waste, and environmental injustice, highlighting how the most vulnerable populations are often forced to live amid the consequences of decisions made by wealthier nations.

A central moment in the installation is a bell performance that repeats every hour in short sequences. A naked performer, physically strained, hangs upside down from a massive bronze bell, using their body to set it in motion. The act becomes a powerful symbol of resistance, persistence, and struggle. The bell seems to signal the collapse of outdated patriarchal, religious, and political structures while also demanding attention to the ongoing climate crisis.

Video emerging from the Giardini della Biennale shows the performance in a dark, rainy atmosphere. Shot from a low angle, the camera emphasizes the drama of the scene: the naked athletic figure with long flowing hair uses every movement of the body to produce sound. The scale of the human body against the enormous bell reinforces a sense of human fragility in the face of vast historical and ecological forces.

Florentina Holzinger is well known for her radical artistic methods, combining extreme physicality, explorations of bodily limits, nudity, and sharp socio-political themes. Her work frequently addresses feminism, social norms, power, violence, and ecology through dance, theatre, and performance.