Benedetta Panisson

 Queer Sea Marriage: Towards NUA, a Collective Performance

On August 31, 2025, we staged the performance demo of NUA, the collective outcome of the Queer Sea Marriage project, now exhibeted at Padiglione Italia – Terrae Aquae at the Biennale.

For me, it was an overwhelming emotion to witness something come alive that surpassed even the beauty I had imagined. A collective, intimate, silent immersion of my Venetian community into the Adriatic sea, at the beach of San Nicolò, Lido of Venice. The sea in its fluid power, a few special guests from distant islands, and the golden hour.
We are beginning to share images from the backstage, moments we built together that reveal how much participatory work is needed to bring to life such a minimal imaginary, a suspended space, a reduction of the human impact to the marine environment, an ordinary action becoming extra-ordinary.
The pleasure, silence, and calm connection of those who immersed themselves in the sea stood in contrast to my own frenzy, my unstoppable excitement, my running back and forth through the waves to photograph and film everyone in those few minutes when I knew the sun would gild you in light, like the gold of the wedding ring the Doge once cast into the waters to marry them.
A distilled instant of pleasure and intimacy reduced to a bare minimum: just bodies and water.
With all my heart, thank you to each of you who found time and space in the sea to contemplate this living creature in the age of sea level rise, just steps away from the MOSE massive wall protecting Venice from high tides. This was a closed-door dress rehearsal, a glimpse of what it could grow into in the near future.
From the process of Queering the Marriage of the Sea, we gave up the formulas of dominance, the pomp, the golden rings, the hierarchies—seeking instead to preserve the deeper value of the ancient Venetian ritual: our interdependence with the sea.

More soon!

A special thank-you to Collezione i Cotroneo for the support, Marianna Biadene, performance curator, Jose Liranzo for assisting and backstage content, Federico Sutera for drone images, Padiglione Italia Terrae Aquae, curated by Guendalina Salimei, 19ma Arhitecture Biennale, Ogilvy and Roberta la Selva, That’s Contemporary, Carla the baywatcher, the sea, Venice.

The project Queer Sea Marriage has started from a transcultural and ecofeminist analysis of Venice’s traditional ancient Marriage to the Sea ritual, which still conveys values such as domination over a feminized sea, opulence, patriarchy, and a hierarchy of power between humans and the marine environment, but also the ongoing interdependence, even affective, between Venice and the sea. Since the year 1000 the Doge’s pronounced formula was: “Desposamus te, mare. In signum veri perpetuique dominii” (“We wed thee, O sea, as a sign of true and perpetual dominion”). Today, the ceremony is performed by the mayor, following the historical tradition. It takes place where the M.O.S.E., a controversial flood protection system, now stands between the lagoon and the sea, fulfilling technologically what was once believed to be achieved through marriage.

Performance Proposal
The project culminates in NUA, a collective performance, reduced to its bare essentials: just bodies and water. NUA is inclusive, contemplative, silent, ecological, de-hierarchized, and intimate union between the Venetian community and the Adriatic Sea. An imaginary between human and sea so intimate that it could belong to any sea-bound community. In the Venetian dialect, this word carries two meanings at once: “naked,” referring to stripping this collective immersion of all symbols of power and forms of domination, down to its bare essence, and “they swim”, evoking physical interconnection with the sea.
This moment of intimacy between Venetians and the Adriatic Sea will not only offer a space of calm and silence, but will also serve as a powerful statement about the importance of image-making and narrative control by local communities. It underscores the need for self-representation, imagery created by Venetians rather than for the sake of exoticism or economic exploitation. NUA is a contemporary alternative, not a replacement. carefully conceived and shaped in every form and outcome through a participatory local process, an international web of interconnection, and a network of selected partners with proven excellence.
Its aim is to keep alive and re-signify, in the age of climate change, global sea rise, and a vision of inclusivity rooted in queer thinking and in both artistic and academic practice, the intangible cultural heritage of a resilient community such as that of Venice. The symbolic value of this collective action is also reflected in the choice of location: the beach of San Niccolò, just steps away from the MOSE. Here, the image of a community immersing itself together in the sea becomes not only a representation of crisis, but also of how to face it—with sensuality, awareness, and creativity. At the same time, it seeks to spread—locally and globally—an intimate imaginary of interconnection, interdependence, and pleasure between sea people and the marine environment.

The project, now part of the Italian Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale, will stage a demo performance in the summer of 2025 as a step toward a larger version planned for 2026. Marianna Biadene is the performance co-curator and local project coordinator.

I would like to thank the Collezione i Cotroneo, Rome, for their support.

Since its very beginning, the project has moved on two parallel tracks: being local by rooting itself in the Venetian community, while also building relationships, exchanges, and networks with other sea-based communities. Between 2025 and 2026, through a series of collaborations with arts institutions, academic partners, and associations, it will further develop research in marine ecology, anthropology, interspecies studies, and artistic practices—placing the sea and our relationship with it at the center.

In a time marked by climate crisis and rising seas, this performative gesture creates a shared, contemplative space. A silent immersion, eyes fixed on the horizon, raises a gentle yet radical question: Does the sea want this?

Images below: Italian Pavilion Terrae Aque, curated by Guendalina Salimei. 19th Architecture Biennale, Venice. Courtesy Italian Pavilion

Project Background
Queer Sea Marriage is part of the Italian Pavilion Terrae Aquae, curated by Guendalina Salimei, Biennale Architettura 2025, Intelligens. Natural. Articificial. Collective. Curated by Carlo Ratti, Venice.
Queer Sea Marriage was presented as an academic research project at the conference “Materiality at the Intersections of Ecologies and Religious Studies” (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, May 2024), with the support of Durham University. The Marriage to the Sea ritual was analyzed through the lenses of gender and visual studies, highlighting its patriarchal and exploitative relationship with the maritime element, the cultural construct of the sea’s feminization as a means of subjugation, and its aesthetic significance. Other historical examples of marriages to the sea were explored, along with contemporary precedents in performance art, such as the work of Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens. The discussion emphasized the importance of designing a collective performance and the deep interconnection between artistic practice and academic research.
The project was later presented at Undercurrents, Transeuropa Festival (November 2024), in a workshop curated by European Alternatives, Rete Arcipelago, Marianna Biadene, Associazione Gamaka, and Alessandra Marzini. This public engagement marked a crucial step in opening the project to broader participation, bringing together associations, university representatives, and local citizens. The event fostered enthusiasm, support, and momentum for the next phase: transforming academic research and artistic practice into an intimate, collective action with the sea.
In March 2025, the project has been part of Aquamour Festival, at "Hydrofeminism", with Anna Street, Francesca Chialà e Benedetta Panisson, at the Home of The Human Safety Net, and at the ueer Sea Marriage workshop, together with Kyoo Lee and Marianna Biadene, sharing the project's developments and the aesthetic and practical details of the upcoming collective performance.
In June 2025, Queer Sea Marriage is part of SIEF – International Society for Ethnology and Folklore Congress, at University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the panel “Coastal (Re)entanglements: Unwritten Remembrances and Assemblages in Verbal and Visual Arts and Performance”. This will allow the project to engage in dialogue with other maritime cultures and performative practices.
Interviews related to the project have been published in Transeuropa Journal 2024 and in Relazioni:, by Luca Sossella Editore. Each public presentation—whether in academic or artistic contexts—is carefully documented, ensuring the project remains an evolving, shared work-inprogress across multiple platforms.
In June 2025 Queer Sea Marriage is part of Queering the Ocean Program, at Ocean Space, invited by Perla Performance Research, IUAV, Burna Bonanno, Anja Dimitrijević, Venice.

Technical details
Academic Panels, workshops, ongoing live perfomance.

Exhibitions | Workshops | Talks
2025, Queer Sea Marriage is part of the Italian Pavilion Terrae Aquae, curated by Guendalina Salimei, Biennale Architettura 2025: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective. Curated by Carlo Ratti, Venice.
2025, Queer Sea Marriage at SIEF International Society for Ethnology and Folklore Congress, University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
2025, Queer Sea Marriage is part of Queering the Ocean Program, Ocean Space, invited by Perla Performance Research, IUAV, Burna Bonanno, Anja Dimitrijević, Venice.
2025, Aquamour Festival, curated by Sumus, “Hydrofeminism” conference with Anna Street and Francesca Chialà and workshop with Kyoo Lee, curator, and Marianna Biadene, co-curator and local project manager.
2024, Transeuropa Festival, curated by European Alternatives, various location, Venice. Workshop curated by Rete Arcipelago, Marianna Biadene, Associazione Gamaka, Alessandra Marzini.
2024, Queering the Marriage of the Sea, at Materiality at the Intersection of Ecologies and Religious Studies, organized by Giorgio Cini Foundation, Harvard University (Harvard Divinity School), NICHE, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, University College Dublin, Venice.

Queer Sea Marriage at Transueropa Festival | Nov 2024 | Venice, curated by Transeuropa Festival, Rete Arcipelago, Marianna Biadene, Alessandra Marzini. The project was presented at a workshop as an open process to analyze and deconstruct the traditional Marriage to the Sea, focusing on patriarchy, domination, feminization of the sea, trying to convert this dynamic in a performance proposal above all these hiearchy and heternormative powers. To the participants and the Venetian community an alternative collective perfomance has been proposed, with the sea, and its community, at the centre, focusing on the love for the sea, inclusivity, and an horizontal process. Giving up the gold ring, the opulence, the patriarchal wedding, and the distance between the powerful male figure and the aquatic element, in favor of a collective act of immersion in the sea—one that is inclusive, minimal, quiet, respectful, and above all, grounded in a dynamic of pleasure. The project is going to follow in the next few months and all participants, associations, and interested people will be updated. Extra materials will be soon available. Photo Credits: Transeuropa Festival, Claudia Correnti, Anita.