SEAWORLD VENICE , Florentina Holzinger’s contribution to the Austrian Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, will find a unique resonance in Bregenz on July 11, 2026: as a composition for four percussionists, ten performers, a crane, and a bell. Holzinger’s Études are unique, site-specific performances in which she prepares and develops the themes and elements for her large-scale productions. The Lake Constance Étude for Bregenz invites the audience to experience a contemporary ritual on the shores of Lake Constance.

Bodies and objects plunge into the water and emerge transformed. Accompanied by drumbeats, they form a freely suspended structure, a “wind chime on steroids.” In her Lake Constance Étude, Florentina Holzinger uses motifs from folk tales in which mostly female underwater creatures must now share their underwater world with the trash hidden beneath the surface, in a seemingly idyllic landscape. In a hybrid ritual, the Lake Constance Étude lends new meaning to concepts like sin and redemption. Above, around, and within Lake Constance, the performers connect with their technical equipment and inscribe themselves into the already artificially altered natural world.

The Lake Constance Study was developed specifically for the Kunsthaus Bregenz and the complex ecology of Lake Constance. It brings together key elements from Florentina Holzinger’s practice: the orchestration of performative images of a feminism underpinned by technology and desire, mechanical elements, and physical performance conjure new myths from the stillness of the water.