Artist Talk: Florentina Holzinger

Everyone’s talking about her – we’re talking to her! Following the performance of »A Year without Summer«, Florentina Holzinger will be our guest at the »asphalt Artist Talk«. The Austrian choreographer’s work is among the most impressive that the arts scene currently has to offer. In Venice, Holzinger is currently representing her home country, Austria, with the performance »Seaworld Venice«, the crowd-puller of the 2026 Biennale, which the entire art world is currently talking about. In 2024, Monopol magazine ranked her number one on its list of the 100 most important figures in the art world. From the 2026/27 season onwards, she will be part of the artistic leadership team at Berlin’s Volksbühne.

Culture journalist Elisabeth Luft will talk to Florentina Holzinger about, amongst other things, her artistic work over the past few years, her radical aesthetic and why she thinks on a grander scale and more freely than many others in the traditional art world. How does the choreographer cope with her sudden rise to fame, and how does opposition affect her artistic work and the freedom of art?

The asphalt Festival and Florentina Holzinger share a long-standing, trusting collaboration. asphalt has already co-produced three of her productions: following the pieces »TANZ« (2021) and »Ophelia’s Got Talent« (2025), »A Year without Summer« will now be featured at asphalt in 2026. All three works were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen.

Elisabeth Luft, a cultural journalist based in Cologne, writes for WDR and Deutschlandfunk, amongst others. Whether covering theatre, dance, literature or cultural policy, her focus is primarily on feminist and power-critical perspectives, as well as ideas relating to environmental sustainability. She hosts the podcast »Wozu das Theater?« (Why theatre?), heads up blog editorial teams at theatre festivals and serves on various judging panels.

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