Things to Come
May 6–November 22, 2026
Venice
Italy
The Danish Arts Foundation presents Things To Come, by Danish artist Maja Malou Lyse at the Danish Pavilion for the 61st Venice Biennale, curated by Chus Martínez. The exhibition will be on view from May 9 to November 22, 2026 at the Giardini in Venice, and will open to the public following a preview and official opening on May 6, 2026 at 2pm.
Things To Come explores how the pornographic image, science and fiction intersect with human reproductive futures. The exhibition brings together two works: the film Things To Come, developed in collaboration with the collective DIS (Marco Roso, Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, and David Toro) presented in Brummer gallery, and Stars in My Pocket, an installation in the Koch Room.
Filmed in a real sperm bank and a special effects studio, Things To Come is conceived as a musical. A group of porn actors reunite to create a work that reflects on the role of images and desire at the threshold of a fertility crisis. While sperm counts are collapsing globally, the film frames this not only as a biological issue but also as a metaphor for a broader existential condition. It evokes a human species attempting to understand its role and agency at a moment when one era is ending and another—uncertain and unformed—is emerging.
Stars in My Pocket brings together elements that address the visible and invisible infrastructures shaping how life is imaged and understood. The installation navigates multiple systems of knowledge: science, through the clinical display of cryogenic boxes used to store and transport reproductive biomaterial in fertility banks; online male subculture, through clips and images of the emerging phenomenon “sperm races” presented on small screens embedded within the boxes; and fiction, through the spatial and narrative construction of the environment. The work proposes that the future of the species is inseparable from the narratives through which human experience is articulated.
The architecture of the pavilion has been conceived in collaboration with Common Accounts —the architecture and design practice founded by Igor Bragado and Miles Gertler. M+B Studio has been in charge of the production. Graphic identity and publication design is by Studio Claus Due. The accompanying book is expected to be released in early summer 2026 by Mousse Publishing.
To access the press kit, please click here.
