Tragicomedy as the Defining Aesthetic of Our Era

Key facts

• Tragicomedy was named by Plautus in the 2nd century BC.
• Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter starred in a 2025 revival of Waiting for Godot at Hudson Theatre, New York.
• Martine Gutierrez's Lottery performance at Paris Photo 2025 was halted after an hour due to safety concerns.
• Gutierrez's exhibition of Lottery photographs was held at Ryan Lee Gallery, New York.
• Anna Ting Möller's In Tandem (2025) was included in 'Dirty & Disorderly' at MASS MoCA.
• Illma Gore's 'Apocalypse Now' exhibition was held at Imaginart, Barcelona, in fall 2025.
• Dries Verhoeven represents the Netherlands at the 2025 Venice Biennale with Everything Must Go.
• The group show 'GAG' runs from October 2026 to April 2027 at George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York.
• Rachel Maclean's 'They've Got Your Eyes' is at FACT Liverpool from March to August.
• 'Tragicomica' at Fondazione MAXXI, Rome, runs from April to September, in collaboration with Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève.
• Tarzan and Arab Nasser's Once Upon a Time in Gaza won best director in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2025.
• Christopher Anderson's photographs of Donald Trump's inner circle appeared in Vanity Fair.