Porn Star, Parliamentarian, Jeff Koons' Muse: Cicciolina Returns to Venice

Venice Biennale 9 May–22 November 2026

Ilona Staller, the former pornography actress, Italian parliamentarian and muse to Jeff Koons, will next week entertain Venice Biennale-goers when she returns to the canals under her singing pseudonym, Cicciolina. 

Born in communist Hungary, the 74-year old rose to fame during the 1970s with her radio show Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?. And, in the following decade, became a staple of the Italo-disco genre.

The multifaceted performer told Ocula that her Venice gig will be geared towards interaction. “This show of mine is directly for the fans,” she said. Her event in Venice will be organised in collaboration with Berlin-based TRAUMA collective.

Cicciolina’s performance will be held alongside Things To Come, a presentation by The Danish Arts Foundation at the Danish pavilion, where she will host the opening evening and perform a selection of songs from her back catalogue.

The artist told Ocula that, among her own tracks, Hymn to Transgression from her 1987 album Avec Toi, and 1984’s Baby Love, are her favourites. And so, while her Venice setlist remains under wraps, these hits seem likely to make an appearance.

The Berlin based florist Studio Linne will contribute a botanical scenography to the show, inspired by Cicciolina’s iconic, signature flower crown. 

The performer, who recently told i-D magazine of the Rome penthouse apartment she shares with ten Persian Chinchilla cats, has also spent time serving in the Italian government.

From 1987 to 1992, as a member of the Radical Party, she proposed several laws hoping to enhance working conditions for sex workers and improve animal rights.

Cicciolina’s introduction to the art world came through her marriage—and muse status—to the artist Jeff Koons. Her performance at the Danish Pavilion will not be her first appearance at the biennale, as she featured in Koons’ controversial 1990 installation, Made in Heaven, which included sculptures of her in myriad sexual positions.

The two married a year later, though the union lasted just three years. In 2025, she re-released her photographic autobiography named, fittingly, Memoire which detailed the intricacies of their marriage, and the eventual legal action over the rights to her images that form the centrepiece of Made in Heaven.