An apocalyptic vision of artificial life: in an attempt to conquer nature, the body becomes a testing ground - and is exposed to increasingly radical climatic conditions.

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Venue

Main stage, Barnhusgatan 12-14

Duration

120 minutes

17 Oct

19:00

18 Oct

15:00

Note! Age limit 18 years. Please note that a number of scenes contain highly explicit nudity, explicit descriptions of violence, sexual violence, intense self-pain, vomiting, needles and blood. Stroboscopic effects and loud noises are present. This may be disturbing for some spectators. The performance is spoken in German and English with English subtitles.

The year is 2025. We live in a year without summer. Reality is filled with sudden moments of shock that feel like an apocalyptic vision. The world has been plunged into darkness and stripped of all certainty: survival becomes ritual and our despair dances hand in hand with ecstasy.

In 1816, the original 'year without a summer', Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupts. Ash fills the sky, the sun disappears, crops fail and the world goes hungry. That same year, 18-year-old Mary Shelley spends time on Lake Geneva with other poets. Storms and darkness inspire them to tell ghost stories. Mary imagines Frankenstein - a scientific genius who forces nature to bend to his will. A story about defying the limits of life, with a monster composed of body parts, ending in destruction.

Florentina Holzinger and the ensemble explore the narratives we shape about our world, our bodies, health, decay and identities: the 21st century quest for eternal life, the promise of medicine, and the risks of unbridled technological development in a world shaped by AI, robotics and bioengineering. "A Year Without Summer" borrows this quest to improve nature to the limit - playing off the promise of eternal life against the certainty of death.
But what happens when creation becomes the monster? When creation becomes (like) us?

Florentina Holzinger is back in Sweden with a brand new work and in A Year Without Summer Holzinger creates a contemporary stage vision in which artificial life, the eternal ideal of youth and the vulnerability of the body collide.

A Year Without Summer premiered at the Volksbühne in Berlin on 21 May 2025. Tickets sold out in a matter of hours.

Dansens Hus co-production.

Florentina web

About Florentina Holzinger

Florentina was born in 1986 in Austria. She studied choreography at SNDO Amsterdam. After graduating in May 2011, Florentina Holzinger presented the solo Silk and received the Prix Jardin d'Europe at Impulstanz. Joint works with Vincent Riebeek such as Kein Applaus für Scheiße (2011), Spirit (2012) and Wellness (2013) attracted international attention. Their work was shown at numerous festivals internationally.
TANZ (2019), presented in 2022 at Dansens Hus Stora scen, has received several awards, including the Austrian theatre prize "Nestroyest".

For the 2021 Ruhrtriennale, Holzinger created his first large-scale work, A Divine Comedy. Ophelia's Got Talent (2022), was created as an artist-in-residence at the Volksbühne in Berlin. Her first opera project, SANCTA, premiered in 2024 and attracted great media attention. In the same year, she played her first leading role in the film MOND, directed by Kurwin Ayub, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival.

She will represent Austria at the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale in 2026. 

Mayra Wallraff © Nicole Marianna Wytyczak
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Post-call on 17 October at 21:20

Post-show talk with choreographer Florentina Holzinger and Hendrik Folkerts curator for International Contemporary Art and Exhibition Director at Moderna Museet. This is an post-show talk you must book a seat for.

You can find tickets here!

Dance circle 18/10 at about 17.10

After this performance, you will have the opportunity to participate in a dance circle where you, together with other interested people, will discuss what you have just seen. The dance circle is led by Myra Nilson. This is an event you must book a place for.

You can find tickets here!