20th International Festival of Contemporary Dance
Time Does Not Exist
Artistic director Wayne McGregor
Taking place from July 17th through August 1st, the 20th International Festival of Contemporary Dance directed by Sir Wayne McGregor is titled Time Does Not Exist and explores “the themes of memory, identity, and existence, encouraging our audiences to reflect on and perceive their connection with their own lifetime – an invitation to changing relationships and states” (Wayne McGregor).
DISCOVER MORE ABOUT THE FESTIVAL!
140 artists for over 60 events and a programme consisting entirely of new works: 9 world premieres, 3 European premieres, 8 Italian premieres.
The Lions of Biennale Danza 2026 bring to Venice the Bangarra Dance Theatre (Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement), the first company consisting entirely of Australian Aboriginal dancers, and the dancer, choreographer, director and activist Mamela Nyamza (Silver Lion) with her eponymous company.
The programme includes: Emanuel Gat; Eiko Otake, trained in Japan and Wen Hui, the charismatic pioneer of modern dance in China; the Lappish choreographer and director Elle Sofe Sara together with the Icelandic choreographer Hlín Diego Hjálmarsdóttir; the Franco-Malagasy choreographer Soa Ratsifandrihana; Omar Rajeh, central figure in the diffusion and development of contemporary dance in Lebanon; Adam Linder, an Australian working between Los Angeles and Berlin; Molissa Fenley the history-making American dancer and choreographer, who will be in Venice as author, performer and mentor of sixteen young dancers and two choreographers of Biennale College.
The exhibition, Life Lines, created in collaboration with the Historical Archive of La Biennale – ASAC will enrich the Festival. Through film, photographs, text, documents, objects and talks, the exhibition “will captivate, inspire, and remind us that the body is a living archive, and the living archive is itself a body”.
Like every year, the Festival will hold laboratories for specialists that are also open to the public, featuring many of the guest companies and choreographers. Encounters and conversations that will bring the public closer to the scheduled performances.
The programme may change.
INFO and TICKETS:
Ph. +39 041 5218 828
Bruce Nauman and Marlene Dumas at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana
Archèus: Labirinto Mozart
