CAMILLE HENROT: COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE

Camille Henrot brought her interdisciplinary practice to the stage for the first time with the world premiere of Commedia dell’arte. Co-commissioned by Performa, Aspen Art Museum / Wheeler Opera House, and LYRA Art Foundation, Henrot’s performance incorporates the stock characters and comic ploys of the Italian Renaissance theatrical tradition within a modern-day New York City apartment building. The delivery of a package triggers a cascade of uncanny events among tenants, as the tragi-comedic play attempts to make sense out of the senseless, ultimately collapsing into it.

Henrot incorporates the stock characters and comic devices of Italian Renaissance theatrical tradition into a present-day New York apartment building, where a delivered package sets off a chain of uncanny events among the tenants. As the tragi-comic play attempts to make sense of the senseless, it ultimately collapses into absurdity.

The performance was developed in collaboration with set designer Adam Charlap Hyman, Charlap Hyman & Herrero, costume designer Sandra Berrebi, writer Estelle Hoy, playwright Justine Gelfman, choreographer and rehearsal director Sigrid Lauren, and lighting designer Dan Stearns, with original music by Mauro Hertig and Aaron David Ross, and performed by Samori Etienne, Maya Margarita, Christina Catherine Martinez, Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Isa Spector, and Alex Tatarsky.

World Premiere at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen as part of the Aspen Art Museum’s 2026 AIR Festival with the Performa presentation to follow in New York, September 2026.

Camille Henrot is an artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and film. Inspired by literature, poetry, cartoons, social media, self-help, and the banality of everyday life, Henrot’s works capture the complexity of living as both private individuals and global citizens in an increasingly connected and overstimulated world. Her acclaimed film Grosse Fatigue (2013), created during a fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, layers anthropological archives, natural history collections, and cascading desktop browser windows into a dense audiovisual meditation on excess, categorization, and the human impulse to construct meaning. The film was awarded the Silver Lion at the 55th Venice Biennale and was recently ranked #7 by ArtNews in its list of the 100 Best Artworks of the 21st Century. Henrot is the recipient of the 2014 Nam June Paik Award and the 2015 Edvard Munch Award, and has had numerous solo exhibitions worldwide, including at LUMA Arles (2026), Munch Museum, Oslo (2022), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2017), and the New Museum, New York (2014).

Commedia dell’arte is directed by Camille Henrot, written by Camille Henrot, Estelle Hoy, and Justine Gelfman, and music composed and performed by Mauro Hertig and Aaron David Ross. It features set design by Adam Charlap Hyman of Charlap Hyman & Herrero in collaboration with Camille Henrot, choreography and rehearsal direction by Sigrid Lauren, costume design by Sandra Berrebi, and lighting design by Dan Stearns. The work is performed by Samori Etienne, Maya Margarita, Christina Catherine Martinez, Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Isa Spector, and Alex Tatarsky. It is produced by Eliza Ryan (Aspen Art Museum) and Julia Simpson (Performa), with stage manager Philip Trevino, associate producer Dria Brown, and technical directors Ryan Jenkins and Theresa Tomi Faison. 

Additional support is provided by Henrot Studio Director Léa Trudel, Henrot Studio Assistant and Scenic Production Coordinator Morgan Connellee, Henrot Studio Production Manager Anna Cano Girones, Henrot Studio Scenic Production Assistant Sonia Ruscoe; Wheeler Opera House Executive Director Mike Harrington, Production Manager Michael Baca, Assistant Production Manager Cody Kosinski, Audio Engineer Iurii Kozin, and Theater Technician Matt Thompson and Stage Hands Mircea Oprea, Oksana Veres, Clare Williams and Sierra Williams. Set and prop fabrication by SAFCORE, JoJo Li, Rae Swon and Henrot Studio. Make-up design by Ayami Nishimura; Set design collaborators Louisa Nolte with Aydan Nova and Alexia Doan of Charlap Hyman & Herrero; set and prop fabrication by SAFCORE, JoJo Li, Rae Swon, and Henrot Studio; set and props coordinator Nina Diwan; Costume fabrication by Sandra Berrebi, Rae Swon, Tony Peto, Alder Beghma, Soven, Véronique Boisel, Loucas Chabot, Branica Sanadrovic, Martha Grauer, Anna L’Hostis, Pénélope Diehl, and Mylo Coustures; wardrobe assistant and art handler Kayleigh Snowden; fashion stylist collaborator Myssia Ghosn, seamstress and costume assistance by Kate Williams and costume assistance by Zo Roze; production assistant Carl Zurhorst. Costume support from Atelier SOVEN, Crocs, Doc Martens, Duran Lantink, GCDS, Herno, Iconisme Paris, La Botte Gardiane, Le Monde Béryl, MAZARIN, On, Rohan Mirza, and Sheerly Touch-Ya. Movement research dancers for choreographer: Liana Zhen-ai and Ragin Smith. Developed with residency support from the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and L’Alliance New York. Textiles generously provided by Kvadrat.

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SELECTED PRESS

‍New York Times, September 2026

Frieze, September 2026

The Art Journal, September 2026

ARTnews, August 2026

Artnet, August 2026

Interview Magazine, August 2026

Observer, July 2026

Financial Times, July 2026

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