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An exhibition at MAXXI in Rome investigates the ironic component that runs through Italian culture

by Redazione , published on 05/04/2026
Categories: Exhibitions / Disclaimer
MAXXI in Rome is hosting, from April 2 to September 20, 2026, Tragicomica, an exhibition that brings together more than 300 works and focuses on the ironic component that runs through Italian culture.

MAXXI in Rome hosts, from April 2 to September 20, 2026, the exhibition Tragicomica. Perspectives on Italian Art from the Second Twentieth Century to the Present, curated by Andrea Bellini and Francesco Stocchi, offering a broad and multidisciplinary rereading of Italian cultural production from the post-World War II period to the present day through the works of more than 130 artists.

The exhibition brings together more than 300 works and focuses on the ironic component that runs through Italian culture, what Giorgio Agamben has called the “stubborn anti-tragic intention,” understood not as a simple attitude but as a true national sensibility, traceable from its origins to Dante’s Commedia, where complex themes are addressed through a register close to everyday life and in which high and popular culture are intertwined.

Tragicomics, staging. Photo: Simon d'Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomedy, staging. Photo: Simon d’Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomics, staging. Photo: Simon d'Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomica, installations. Photo: Simon d’Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomics, staging. Photo: Simon d'Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomica, installations. Photo: Simon d’Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomics, staging. Photo: Simon d'Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomica, installations. Photo: Simon d’Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomics, staging. Photo: Simon d'Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.
Tragicomica, installations. Photo: Simon d’Exéa. Courtesy of MAXXI Foundation.

The chronological span covers more than eighty years, highlighting those artists who have made the relationship between the tragic and the comic the focus of their own research and their gaze on reality, with the intention of thus offering an alternative narrative of Italian art capable of questioning the traditional canon and restoring a more articulate and stratified vision of national artistic history. The exhibition also expands its field of inquiry beyond the visual arts, involving cinema, theater, architecture, literature and philosophy through an articulated public program.

Works are placed in dialogue in a continuous confrontation between iconic and other lesser-known works, creating novel juxtapositions. Artists featured include, among others, Gianfranco Baruchello, Elena Bellantoni, Mirella Bentivoglio, Tomaso Binga, Alighiero Boetti, Monica Bonvicini, Maurizio Cattelan, Adelaide Cioni, Roberto Cuoghi, Gino De Dominicis, Luciano Fabro, Lucio Fontana, Chiara Fumai, Silvia Giambrone, Nicole Gravier, Piero Golia, Piero Manzoni, Liliana Moro, Valerio Nicolai, Paola Pivi, Giuseppe Penone, Carol Rama, Lorenzo Scotto Di Luzio, and Gilberto Zorio.

An exhibition at MAXXI in Rome investigates the ironic component that runs through Italian culture
An exhibition at MAXXI in Rome investigates the ironic component that runs through Italian culture

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