The Venice Biennale is preparing for a 2025 season of extraordinary intensity and vision. The three sectors dedicated to Theatre, Music, and Dance will be led by prominent figures from the international scene: Willem Dafoe, Caterina Barbieri, and Wayne McGregor, each bringing a personal, profound, and radical language. Their work revolves around three central themes – body, sound, and myth – which become tools for exploring our time.
Willem Dafoe: theatre as physical and poetic ritual
The 53rd International Theatre Festival, titled Theater is Body – Body is Poetry, marks Willem Dafoe’s debut as artistic director. A legendary actor and performer, his approach is both intimate and visionary: “The body, poetry, ritual” form the heart of theatre – an experience that transcends words and is rooted in physical presence and the encounter between actors and audience.
The programme includes artists who have shaped his journey, such as Romeo Castellucci, Evangelia Rantou, Richard Foreman, Thomas Ostermeier, and the Wooster Group, alongside emerging voices like Princess Bangura and the collective Industria Indipendente. A special tribute is also planned for Foreman, who passed away recently. This is theatre that challenges logic and opens the door to imagination, as a communal and ritual act.
Caterina Barbieri: music as a cosmic and generative force
With the title The Star Within, the 69th International Festival of Contemporary Music curated by Caterina Barbieri unfolds as a journey through music not only as an art form, but as a cosmic vibration, a spiritual experience, and a force for social transformation. Music, says Barbieri, opens us to infinity, teaches us the relativity of perception, and guides us beyond the ego. It is a star that shines from within.
Barbieri designs a fluid programme that traverses minimalism, electronic, drone, techno, folk, Afrofuturism, and early music. Among the featured artists: Laurie Spiegel, Suzanne Ciani, Eliane Radigue, Sunn O))), Guillaume de Machaut, Carl Craig, Nkisi, Basinski, and Fennesz. A mosaic of sounds that defies classification and reveals the power of music to build connections, foster community, and spark new imaginaries.
Wayne McGregor: dance as a generator of new myths
With Myth Makers, the 19th International Festival of Contemporary Dance curated by Wayne McGregor reflects on humanity’s profound need to create and reinvent myths. In a time of instability and global crises, art becomes a shared narrative, a symbolic space, and a tool for change. Through movement, dance becomes a language that questions, heals, and transforms – turning the spectator into an active participant in the creation of myth.
Over 160 artists from all over the world will take part in 75 events across 17 days, many of which are world premieres. Highlights include choreographer Twyla Tharp, Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, with a new piece set to music by Philip Glass; Carolina Bianchi, Silver Lion winner, with a bold and poetic trilogy. Other names include Antony Hamilton and his post-human innovation, alongside new works by Philippe Kratz, Bullyache, Virginie Brunelle, Marcos Morau, Aakash Odedra, William Forsythe, Kor’sia, and many others.
One story, three languages
Three distinct festivals, three autonomous yet remarkably interconnected visions. Dafoe, Barbieri, and McGregor bring to the Biennale a deep and multifaceted reading of our present through body, sound, and symbolic narration. As Venice increasingly becomes a crossroads of international art, the 2025 Biennale promises to be an immersive experience where the performing arts once again serve as tools for collective reflection, creative resistance, and renewal. In an uncertain present, artistic research becomes a compass — and the Biennale, more than ever, is its essential stage.
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