Klara Kristalova, Benjamin Orlow and Tori Wrånes will transform the Pavilion into a mythical landscape that evokes cycles of decay, renewal and transformation. The Nordic Countries Pavilion will present How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin? at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, running from 9 May to 22 November 2026. Curated by Anna Mustonen (Chief Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma), this collaborative exhibition by Klara Kristalova, Benjamin Orlow and Tori Wrånes will transform the Pavilion into a sculptural, mythical landscape that transcends cultural and national boundaries. The exhibition is commissioned by Kiasma and co-commissioned by Moderna Museet, Sweden, and OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway.
The exhibition unfolds through a series of interconnected installations inspired by Nordic folklore, fairytales and stories such as the Kalevala - the 19th-century creation epic of Finland and Karelia - but resonating beyond. Across hybrid works that merge plant, animal and human forms, the artists harness the language of myth as a universal point of reference to explore cycles of decay, renewal and transformation, and the deep interconnectedness of all things. In an era marked by environmental disconnection, geopolitical instability and the disruption of borders and identities, myth becomes a lens through which to reflect on our shared human condition and to navigate contemporary global challenges.
Each artist contributes a distinct yet complementary practice. Klara Kristalova (b. 1967, Prague, Czech Republic; lives and works in Norrtälje, Sweden) creates ceramic figures that combine fairytale imagery with the human body and the natural world, infused with uncanny details to suggest moments of vulnerability and transition. Benjamin Orlow (b. 1984, Turku, Finland; lives and works in London, UK) produces monumental sculptures that give physical form to cycles of transformation, drawing on historic motifs and material culture. Tori Wrånes (b. 1978, Kristiansand, Norway; lives and works in Oslo and Kristiansand, Norway) works across music, performance and sculpture to construct dreamlike, otherworldly environments that alter our perceptions and shift how space is experienced.
Together, their works span sculpture, sound, performance and spatial intervention, ranging from the monumental to the intimate. The installations extend across the interior and exterior of Sverre Fehn’s iconic 1962 Pavilion, a building defined by its porous relationship with the surrounding landscape and activated as an integral part of the exhibition. The result is a shared, evolving ecology where art, architecture and nature intersect, and the exploration of transformation becomes an ongoing, embodied experience.
The exhibition’s title, How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin?, refers to a famous philosophical thought experiment, symbolic of unanswerable questions and contested limits. Here, it becomes a way of asking how many bodies, beliefs and ways of being can coexist within a shared space. Through myth, material and spatial encounter, the exhibition opens a space for reflection on coexistence in an increasingly polarised world, collectively inviting visitors to consider their relationships to one another, to the natural world, and to time itself.