Exhibition dates: Saturday 9 May – Sunday 22 November 2026 (pre-opening 6-8 May)
Location: Dutch pavilion, Giardini, Venice
For the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, artist Dries Verhoeven and curator Rieke Vos present a performance and architectural installation titled The Fortress. The duo takes La Biennale di Venezia and the Dutch Pavilion as a starting point to explore Western society’s reflex for self-preservation amid major geopolitical uncertainty.
Designed by Gerrit Rietveld and built in the optimistic post-war years of the 1950s, the Dutch Pavilion can be seen as the epitome of openness, progress, and faith in the future. During Biennale Arte 2026, however, this modernist monument transforms into the antithesis of itself. With steel shutters, the sunlit structure turns its back on the outside world, becoming a dark, fortress-like enclosure. Inside, the encroaching darkness manifests in a raw vocal performance.
Dries Verhoeven:
“Together with a group of thirteen international performers, we are presenting a work about the search for stability in a world out of balance. Through the raw sounds the performers produce, they give expression to the social state of disarray that I currently observe – and the tenacity with which we, even in art, sometimes cling to values of yesterday.”
Reflecting on the Contradictions of La Biennale di Venezia
The artist and curator take the contradictions of La Biennale di Venezia, as they perceive them, as the starting point for this new work. They say:
“The national pavilions at La Biennale di Venezia represent a world order from a bygone era. In the Giardini della Biennale, former world powers – mostly Western – still occupy the most prominent positions. Countries that in reality are closing their borders, declaring war, or committing genocide, stand side by side, in brotherly harmony. The art world attempts to uphold the idea of enlightened ideals and a hopeful common future.”
The Fortress responds to this paradox.
Advisory Committee
The Advisory Committee’s positive recommendation to the Board of the Mondriaan Fund regarded Verhoeven and Vos’ plan, in light of the remarkable way in which the current global political developments are translated into a visual performance. Verhoeven will now add a striking new chapter to the presentations in the Dutch Pavilion, while simultaneously placing the pavilion itself in a new light.
The members of the advisory committee for the 2026 Dutch submission were: Amira Gad (curator at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Franziska Nori (Dir. Frankfurter Kunstverein), Manuel Segade (Dir. Reina Sofía), Jörgen Tjon A Fong (former Dir. De Kleine Komedie, curator, Senior Cross Media Editor at Omroep Max) and Barbara Visser (visual artist), with Eelco van der Lingen (Director Mondriaan Fund) as the committee Chair.
Eelco van der Lingen, Director Mondriaan Fund and commissioner:
‘Following the relocation of melanie bonajo to a church outside the Giardini in 2022, and Renzo Martens making way for the Congolese collective CATPC in 2024, conventions are once again being pushed aside, and hierarchy and national representation are being challenged. The building, the garden, the biennale and the relationship with the outside world all deserve to be discussed, and I am therefore looking forward to Dries Verhoeven’s intervention, and to the questions that it will raise.’
Please visit our website and follow us on Instagram for updates.
Dries Verhoeven & Rieke Vos
Dries Verhoeven is a visual artist and theatre maker. He creates installations, performances and interventions in the public space that critically reflect on the moral frictions in the late capitalist society. Rieke Vos is an art historian and curator working working across various disciplines. She has been Curator of Contemporary Art at Teylers Museum in Haarlem since 2023.
The Mondriaan Fund as commissioner
The Mondriaan Fund, the public incentive fund for the visual arts and cultural heritage, is responsible for the Dutch submission for the International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The presentation is funded from the international budget the Fund receives from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.