Once again we close out another calendar and enter the New Year 2026. The Associated Press describes 2025 as “marked by conflict, political upheaval and extreme weather across the globe…” This was said of last year, and the year before. And the year before that. We see the escalation of major conflicts despite the pretense of peace agreements and cease fires. But new for this year is the pretense of peace prizes.
On nature’s front, 2025 is an active and deadly year for earthquakes, with over a dozen major occurrences and over 8,000 fatalities, including in Kamchatka, Myanmar, Afghanistan in Kunar Province, as well as others in China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Guatemala. By mid year, wildfires are recorded to have claimed over 100 million hectares globally with nearly half occurring through the African continent. The most extensive fires in the Northern Hemisphere include Canada, Russia, and the United States. Several major hurricanes form across different global regions, including the Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, and Central Pacific basins, though this year with fewer landfalls.
On the human side, 2025 sparks new waves of Gen Z protests in Togo, Kenya, Nepal, Madagascar and Morocco, and elsewhere. They make news, and in certain cases even bring about change. The No Kings protests take place across many cities in the U.S., as well as Canada, Europe, Japan and Mexico. Air India Flight 171, a London-bound Boeing 787, crashes after take-off from Ahmedabad killing 229 passengers, 12 crew members, and 19 people on the ground. A lone survivor walks away. The former President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is arrested after being served a warrant from the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Firefly Aerospace becomes the first commercial company to successfully land on the Moon with no technical issues, with its Blue Ghost Mission. It happened.
Sweden sees the deadliest mass shooting in their history as a gunman kills 10 students and injures another 15 at an adult learning center in Örebro. Sudan remains embroiled in a devastating civil war approaching its third year between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, marked by intensified fighting, drone attacks on infrastructure, and mass displacement.
Australia bans social media for toddlers under 16, aiming to protect youth from mental health risks, cyberbullying, and exploitation – a move which may inspire other countries to follow. Elsewhere in Australia, a tragic attack occurs at Bondi Beach during a public Jewish celebration where a father and son duo opens fire on a crowd of people attending the “Chanukah by the Sea” event, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more.
In Europe, Bulgaria and Romania complete the process of joining the Schengen Area, lifting land border controls. The EU strikes $100+ billion loan to back Ukraine and shelves plans of using Russia’s own frozen funds against them. Europe’s new Entry Exit System finally sees a start and end date, scheduled to be in full force by the spring of 2026.
In France, Marine Le Pen of the National Rally is banned from running for political office for five years following her conviction for embezzlement, making her ineligible for 2027. Prime Minister Bayrou loses a no-confidence motion filed against him in the National Assembly after surviving four previous motions. He submits his resignation and his seat is taken up by Sébastien Lecornu. Former president Nicolas Sarkozy is sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for criminal conspiracy over alleged Libyan financing in the 2007 election. Sarkozy is the first former French president to be sent to prison. Pieces of the Crown Jewels are stolen in a heist at the Louvre Museum.
In Italy the Vatican hosts Jubilee 2025, themed “Pilgrims of Hope,” making Italy a major destination mixing tourists and pilgrims, or tourist-pilgrims. Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church since 2013, dies at the age of 88, and is succeeded by Pope Leo XIV. Italy passes into law designating femicide as its own category of crime, aiming to address rising violence against women following several high-profile cases.
With the war in Gaza, several ceasefire deals are brokered, then broken. The State of Palestine is recognized as a sovereign state by 157 of the 193 member states of the United Nations, but still short of full UN Security Council membership, essentially blocked by the United States. Israel intercepts the Global Sumud Flotilla, a fleet carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, in international waters, arresting 443 activists from 47 countries. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu makes an official request for preemptive pardon from President Isaac Herzog before his own pending corruption trial. A man, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, nominates another man convicted of 30+ felonies for the Nobel Peace Prize. This may require fact-checking, but it’s most likely a first.
In the U.S., 2025 opens with Trump beginning his second term, out of the gate swinging, marking his territory and setting the agenda by signing a series of Executive Orders, including a blanket pardon of the January 6 state capitol rioters. He surrounds himself with a staff of loyalists including a few who bought their seats to out-perform even his 2017 picks which we deconstructed in Art & Politics in America.
The inauguration banquet sets the tone for what is to come – a veritable swamp of tech giants and architects of AI, each with one hand in the pot of gold, the other grasping the buoy of Project 2025.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announces the end of fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram under the new administration. The same man who was banned from their platforms for disinformation and inciting violence has become their king and they all feast now at the same table, displaying the power of reconciliation when interests align, in case we didn’t understand the art of the deal.
ICE arrests and deportations continue in the U.S. along with freezes in visa applications and the list of travel ban countries continues to grow. The failed efforts of the Florida detention center see new attempts brokering with Indian reservations, also failed, and recall Italy’s own outsourcing scheme with Albania.
The right-wing political activist and media personality Charlie Kirk is assassinated, his torch taken up by others at gatherings that resemble the RNC despite increased infighting and growing fissures from ideological contradictions.
The federal government of the United States shuts down from October 1 to November 12, 2025 with a gridlocked Congress failing to pass appropriations legislation for the new fiscal year, adding chaos to uncertainty.
The Epstein files take up a lot of bandwidth and are finally released, though curious what will be found since the DOJ has been the attorney on retainer for the President, and many of the documents are full sheet printouts of black redaction. Across the lake on a private jet, Prince Andrew loses his royal status as increasing evidence of his less-than-noble interactions with less-than-of-age girls comes into light.
Trump continues to put his name – and sometimes his face – on things beyond branded steaks and failed casinos. His rebranding spans the gamut from the Institute of Peace to the Department of War, the East Wing expansion into a ballroom, and the introduction of two new battleships to be the spectacle of power for the world to behold, borrowing the pomp of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, equally foolish, or the ostentation of the Crown Prince MBS, but with half the rizz, to procure a legacy and preempt history as it is written.
Vanity Fair publishes a poignant interview with White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, drafted over nearly a dozen sessions throughout the year, an exposé normalizing the dystopia and the dysfunctions of the ruling family, with brilliant and terrifying portraits by Christopher Anderson, formerly with Magnum Photos, now with the agency We Folk. And Zohran Mamdani is elected Mayor of New York.
The Word of the Year from Cambridge Dictionary is Parasocial; Oxford went with Rage bait; Macquarie Dictionary claimed AI slop and Merriam-Webster along with The Economist went simply with slop, essentially dispersing the blame.
TIME magazine’s Person of the Year is “The Architects of AI” – menacing, were it not for the imagined summer trailer. But also, why? The title might be more accurate as “The CEOs of Big Tech” given those listed. No doubt they made a lot of headlines; another contribution to the enshittification of year-end lists, if we can borrow a word from last year. We can pair the persons with the word to have Architects of Slop, and we’ll call it a year. But not before pre-ordering the home bot, still awkward and learning domestic chores. We may find some stains are harder to remove.
This year Artpil celebrated Our 8th Year Anniversary and covered many landmark exhibitions and festivals, including SPARK Art Fair Vienna 2025, Art Paris 27th Edition, miart 28th Edition. and Festival d’Avignon 79th Edition. Berlin Art Week, 2025, and photo festivals of Circulation(s) 15th Edition 2025, Belfast Photo Festival 2025, Photo London, 10th Edition 2025, Rencontres d’Arles Disobedient Images, Photo London 10th Edition, and the awards of World Press Photo 2025, Sony World Photography 2025 and Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize 2025. Film festivals included of 78 Locarno, The Festival de Cannes for its 78th Edition 2025, and Sundance, Film Festival 2025.
Earlier this month we featured Human Rights Day covering art presented at the United Nations. Other major exhibitions included Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well, with engagements through 2026 at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan through February 15, 2026, and at Grand Palais, March – September 2026; Dorothea Lang’s landmark exhibition organized by Camera for its circuit in Italy; Corps et Âmes featuring works from Pinault Collection at Bourse de Commerce; Joy Gregory: Catching Flies with Honey at Whitechapel Gallery on view through March 1, 2026; Marc Lagrange, Iconic at Echo Fine Arts through January 31, 2026; The Long Now at Saatchi Gallery celebrating their 40 years, on view through March 1, 2026.
We partnered with Muzeum Sztuki in Pursuing the Whole: The Katarzyna Kobro Award, and PhotoVogue’s new initiative led by Alessia Glaviano, Women by Women; We sponsored Torino Art Week participating with our own 30 Under 30 Women Photographers. We presented our own features of Cultural Pane, Erosion and Commercialisation of Culture by Michael Parfitt; the book publication POGO by Viridiana Morandini; and Ordinary Grief: A Story of Reconciliation by Parisa Azadi.
So the year comes to an end. Goodbye 2025. Another year begins. Perhaps we can learn something from Gen Z. Perhaps the toddlers in Australia will grow up with something new, something old. Looking ahead, Pantone announces the Color of the Year 2026 as Pantone 11-4201, or Cloud Dancer. Most of us won’t be up there dancing. But then again, perhaps in our dreams. Who knows.
Happy New Year.
