BID/ART Satellite Project
BOHEMIA LIES BY THE SEA
On light, longing and the paradox of location
The Satellite Project of the 5th Biennale Internazionale Donna (BID) in Trieste employs the concept of the satellite—originally satelles, the Latin word for “companion” or “attendant”—as a metaphor for connection, observation, and exchange. Historically understood as an “artificial moon,” the satellite orbits a central body while maintaining an autonomous presence. This duality becomes a key curatorial framework: the idea of orbit and proximity, of sending and receiving, of independence and relationality.
Transferred into the artistic realm, the satellite becomes an ambassadorial figure. The Austrian contributions act as such artistic satellites: emerging from their own cultural context while entering into dialogue with Trieste’s international environment. They transmit questions, impulses, and sensitivities across borders—geographical, social, and symbolic. A satellite bridges distances; likewise the artworks presented here build connections between the Austrian art scene and the diverse audiences of the BID.
Austria has been continuously represented at the BID in previous editions, traditionally in Magazzino 26 at Porto Vecchio. This year marks a significant shift: for the first time, Austria presents an autonomous Satellite Project. This curatorial expansion allows for greater conceptual clarity and depth. The participating artists articulate precise, innovative positions that address global and human concerns from contemporary female and feminist perspectives. Their works function as nodes of transmission, carrying social, ecological, and emotional discourses from Austria into the cultural orbit of Trieste. Three Austrian artists also appear in the international exhibition at Magazzino 26, forming a direct link between the central Biennale presentation and this satellite constellation—uniting the two through their artistic presence.
Within this framework, women’*s art is not positioned as peripheral. It appears instead as an active companion to contemporary society, in constant exchange across boundaries of medium, data, emotion, imagination, and geography.
Bohemia by the Sea: A Utopian Proposition
The title of the 5th BID, LA BOHEMIA STA SUL MARE (“Bohemia Lies by the Sea”), expresses more than a geographical impossibility. It proposes a conceptual and philosophical reflection that resonates across literature, history, and visual art. The Biennale connects the paradoxical coastal Bohemia in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale with Ingeborg Bachmann’s powerful reimagining of this impossibility in her 1964 text Bohemia Lies by the Sea. Set within the distinctive atmosphere of Portopiccolo Sistiana, this curatorial framework invites reconsideration of the improbable, the poetic, and the possible.
In Bachmann’s reinterpretation, the paradox of Bohemia by the sea transforms into a utopian locus—an imagined realm for those who have lost their footing. This place cannot be found on any map; it must be created through language, imagination, and belief. It is a space in which descent does not imply annihilation but arrival: reaching a grounding from which renewal becomes possible. Such renewal is sustained by solidarity, empathy, and the shared vulnerability of those who live at the margins of conventional narratives. It also reflects on the lived realities and fragile hopes carried by millions of people who cross the seas in search of refuge — shaped by displacement, restrictive migration policies, and experiences of persecution.
In this context, it becomes evident how the lived realities of women* and marginalized communities continue to be systematically overlooked and pushed to the margins.
This exhibition seeks to draw attention to these layered and often invisible realities — giving space to voices, experiences, and conditions that urgently call for recognition.
This Biennale - Satellite Project extends Bachmann’s idea by invoking the spirit of the historical Bohemia of artists, thinkers, and outsiders who privileged creative freedom over material constraints. Nostalgia and longing—often dismissed as escapism—become here productive forces: tools that allow for rethinking reality and imagining alternative futures. For Austrian artists, this idea manifests itself through light, through an attentive engagement with nature and memory, and through practices that articulate hope as a generative energy for consciousness to positively reorient itself towards the future.
Light as Matter, Energy, and Principle
At the heart of this exhibition lies an inquiry into the nature of light. Light remains one of humanity’s most enigmatic phenomena. It is the basis of life: solar light (latin lux) supplies the energy from which living organisms draw vitality. Physically, light reveals a dual nature—wave and particle—travelling at immense speed as quanta of energy while remaining invisible until it encounters resistance. Only through reflection and refraction does light unfold into colour, emerging where it meets the world.
This interplay of visibility and resistance extends beyond physics into biology. Contemporary biophoton research demonstrates that light is present in our cells: living organisms absorb information from natural light and emit light themselves. In this sense, humans are beings of light—resonant, radiant, and fundamentally connected to the cosmos. We arise from light, interact with it, and ultimately return to it.
Artistic Practices: Visible Invisibility
Art history has long explored light not merely as illumination, but as meaning: from the golden glow of medieval iconography to the dramatic chiaroscuro of the Baroque, from the dematerialised forms of Impressionism to contemporary light-based installations. The Austrian artists in this Satellite Project expand these legacies into the present. Through fluorescent objects, luminous paintings, sculptural works in metal and textile, immersive videos, expansive sound installations, and performance, they investigate what may be described as a “visible invisibility.”
Light becomes material and message, substance and aura. The works challenge viewers to enter into sensory and intellectual engagement, confronting complexity as a necessary force for transformation. Ambiguity becomes not a barrier but an invitation.
Fragility as a Form of Strength
In a moment of global uncertainty, the exhibition foregrounds fragility as a powerful counterforce—an element of emotional truth rather than weakness. Longing, wistfulness, and vulnerability articulate a desire for connection, authenticity, and care. They point toward a form of resilience grounded not in hardness but in sensitivity.
Contemporary philosophical thought reflects this perspective. It emphasises that vulnerability is a shared human condition and that forgiveness, openness, and emotional integrity can become acts of resistance against systems of domination and control. Hope, accordingly, must be attuned to life’s inherent fragility. It is through such hope that new ways of thinking and new paths into the future can emerge.
In this exhibition, artistic practice becomes a space where the unspoken gains visibility. The assembled works give form to emotional energies that connect people across genders, cultures, and histories—affirming fragility as a generative force.
A Manifesto of Light
BOHEMIA LIES BY THE SEA within the Satellite Project of the Austrian artists invites audiences to imagine the impossible, to trust in the transformative power of light, and to recognise fragility as a creative resource. It is an invitation to pause, to feel, to reorient—to find oneself again.
This Biennale stands as a luminous manifesto for women* in the arts. Their presence is unmistakable: intellectually rigorous, emotionally resonant, and culturally indispensable. The Satellite Project amplifies these voices and illuminates their contributions within the broader context of the Biennale Internazionale Donna.
Curating this exhibition and contributing to the Biennale’s vital commitment to women* in the arts has been an extraordinary pleasure.
Marlene Elvira Steinz
Curator
Participating artists – Satellite Pavilion:
Julia Bugram, Julia Dorninger, Marion Kilianowitsch, Gabriele Kutschera, Dora Mai, Teresa Maria von Matthey, Viktoria Morgenstern, Lea Radatz, Michaela Schwarz-Weismann, Birgit Schweiger, Hannah Stippl, Heike Stuckstedde.
Guest artists – Satellite Pavilion:
Noémi Kiss, Billi Thanner, ISA Stein.
Marlene Elvira Steinz
Curator
Marlene Elvira Steinz is a curator and scholar with an interdisciplinary background in art history, classical archaeology, philosophy and comparative religions. For over twenty years, she has devoted her research to the artistic and cultural history of women, with a particular focus on redefining their historical visibility and critically expanding the paradigms through which their contribution is interpreted and transmitted.
Her professional career spans museums, galleries and auction houses, extending to the wider art system beyond institutional contexts through independent initiatives and public cultural programmes. Alongside her curatorial practice, she is recognised as an expert in art and antiques, a field in which she combines scientific rigour with consolidated market experience.
Steinz publishes regularly, gives lectures, speaks at opening events and develops curatorial projects that connect contemporary artistic practice with broader cultural, philosophical and historical reflections. Her work is distinguished by its interest in interdisciplinary dialogue, feminist cultural analysis and the creation of spaces where neglected or marginalised narratives can be critically re-read and made visible again.
BID - Biennale Internazionale Donna
Iscrizione al n. 1515 del Registro regionale delle associazioni di promozione sociale di cui all’articolo 20 della L.R. 23/2012
MAIN EXHIBITION \ TRIESTE
Magazzino 26 \ Porto Vecchio
Thursday and Sunday \ 10:00 – 19:00 Friday and Saturday \ 10:00 – 20:00
SATELLITE PROJECT \ SISTIANA
Porto piccolo Art Gallery + Spazio O2
Friday to Sunday \ 15.00 – 20.00
Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - web by lucadeluigi
© BID Art Biennale 2026 All rights reserved.