Florentina Holzinger's performance piece "Seaworld Venice" can be seen in the Austrian pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale and quickly became a talking point, says Klara Kristalova. Still, she was a bit reluctant to go there.
Every hour, a naked woman climbed a rope into a large bell.
She hung upside down by her feet with metal weights on her hips. As she swung, the bell started to tick, but that was only part of the installation, there were a number of performances going on.
In a small room, a naked woman was jet skiing around a pool at insane speeds. In a sort of kitchen, women were spraying pee on each other instead of cleaning.
It was disgusting and violent, says Kristalova, who later discovered that she was more taken with it than she had initially thought.
"At first I just thought it was spectacular, is this what you have to do to get attention? But then I saw that it was a great picture of how we just destroy, exploit and abuse everything," says Kristalova, who after a while didn't even think about the women's lack of clothes.
They changed the image of naked women in art. They were truly people of action.
This summer we ask artists, craftsmen and other cultural creators about which cultural experience has changed or shaken them in a decisive way. First up was Helen Sjöholm.
Sculptor Klara Kristalova is exhibiting a gigantic reclining female figure, shaped like a tree with outstretched arms, in the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
