|
Dries Verhoeven has been selected to represent the Netherlands during the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Working in collaboration with curator Rieke Vos, Verhoeven will become the first artist to bring performance art to the Dutch Pavilion. The Mondriaan Fund advisory committee gave a positive recommendation of Verhoeven and Vos’ plan regarding its quality and international impact. The committee also believed that the plan would result in the pavilion being used in a distinctive new way. The upcoming edition of the Biennale Arte 2026 will take place from 9 May to 22 November 2026.
For the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, Verhoeven and Vos have proposed a performative intervention in the Dutch Pavilion. Through this intervention, Verhoeven responds to a smouldering state of uncertainty, he currently perceives in the Netherlands and Europe. The Dutch Pavilion, built in the optimistic post-war years, is not only the location of the presentation, but is itself the subject of the intervention.
Dries Verhoeven:
‘Geopolitical tensions are grave, and that’s putting it mildly. It has been many years since our future felt this uncertain. I want to attempt to make this unease tangible, within the “safe space” of the Biennale. To have the opportunity to do this in the company of so many fantastic artists is nothing short of a blessing.’
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.’
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
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.
|
