• First images and further details of The Fortress revealed
• Register here for the Press Preview on Wednesday 6 May, 11:30am

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. The project marks a historic first: it is the first time the Netherlands is represented at the Biennale Arte with a performance, and the first time the Dutch Pavilion itself becomes an integral part of the artwork.

A Pavilion Turned Inward

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.

As Verhoeven notes: “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.”