For the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Dries Verhoeven, in collaboration with curator Rieke Vos, presents The Fortress. The work begins with the Dutch Rietveld Pavilion in the Giardini: an idyllic park of national pavilions that reflects a world order from a bygone era. Western powers still occupy the most prominent positions. Nations that, in reality, are fortifying their borders, rearming themselves, or attacking one another stand side by side here with open doors, in apparent harmony.

Designed by Gerrit Rietveld and completed in 1954, the Dutch Pavilion reflects the optimistic ideals of the post-war period: clarity, transparency and accessibility. It presents the Netherlands as a proud representative of the progressive free West. The Fortress destabilises this legacy. The work focuses on the instinct of self-preservation: the urge to safeguard borders, peace of mind and an untroubled self-image in times of uncertainty.

Six times a day, the pavilion undergoes a transformation. A limited number of visitors are admitted to the almost empty building, where they encounter the sunlit modernist space alongside cracks, stains and other signs of decay. Scattered throughout the pavilion are Biennale catalogues from the past 120 years, cast in epoxy resin like fossilised relics of a lost era – preserved, yet rendered inaccessible.

Steel roller shutters descend across the façades. Over the course of 25 minutes, the modernist monument transforms into its antithesis: a darkened bunker. What was once open and accessible becomes sealed off, opaque and impenetrable. As this unfolds, one performer breaks away from the audience. They express themselves through a vocal performance built around death metal grunts, a vocal technique in which the false vocal folds are used to produce a deep, guttural sound. As the space grows darker, the figure clings ever more stubbornly to a sequence of optimistic slogans and self-affirmations: “You are great,” “Love yourself,” “Keep going,” “Enjoy,” and so on. Appeals such as “Care” and “Engage”– once the language of solidarity and collective responsibility – are reduced to hollow phrases.

As the end of the Enlightenment announces itself, the performance suggests, irrational impulses begin to prevail. Armed with desperate resolve, a rasping voice and a petrified book in hand, the figure resists the encroaching darkness. Art is presented as a weapon: an instrument for protecting the illusion of the innocent bystander.

La Biennale di Venezia runs from 9 May to 22 November. From Wednesday to Sunday, the pavilion is accessible at 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00 and 17:00. On Tuesdays, the work can be viewed as a closed sculpture.