Matt Copson (b. 1992, United Kingdom)
Age of Coming, 2021
laser animation with sound, 16'00”
courtesy of the artist and Lodovico Corsini Gallery, Brussels
© Matt Copson. Courtesy Lodovico Corsini, Brussels
Adolescence is a universal story about a state of mind – vulnerability, shame and the search for meaning – with which both teenagers and adults can identify.
How does modern art describe the transition from childhood to adulthood, and the problems teenagers face these days? Can artistic tools help them build relationships and create alternative means of communication in the chaotic world, overwhelmed by a barrage of images and information? Can they offer actual support in the emotional crises those people face, and restore their sense of agency?
A common motif in the videos, installations and other works presented at the exhibition is the experience of adolescence in the reality of today’s world. There is the close proximity of the ongoing war, and the climate disaster that reinforces the sense of uncertainty about the future. Another aspect is the violence experienced at the hands of peers and the system – one of the major causes of the mental health crisis. And finally, there is the chaos created by the onslaught of images, fake news, and the constant social media pressure.
The artists invited to the exhibition explore the boundaries between childhood and adulthood. We particularly encourage you to see the work of British artist Matt Copson. His laser opera Age of Coming reflects on adolescence as a process and the existential anxieties that accompany it.
Age of Coming is the second act of the laser opera Coming of Age. Its protagonist is an unnamed child—an infant suspended in time, neither growing nor aging, but constantly transforming. Throughout, the child confronts an existential crisis: it is told that the world is burning, and tries to learn how to cope with this knowledge. As a result, it becomes destructive, narcissistic, and demanding of attention.
The trilogy unfolds as the story of a figure attempting to understand reality: it reacts to it and absorbs it, yet finds no grounding within it. Instead of development, there is overload; instead of answers, an accumulation of anxiety, doubt, and questions. The narrative is set in a world devoid of hope, where the future remains uncertain—or even impossible.
Coming of Age reflects a state of suspension: between childhood and adulthood, innocence and cynicism, hope and its loss. It is an experience of a world in constant flux—a reality full of tensions in which opposites coexist: beginning and end, knowledge and ignorance, meaning and its absence. “What is life without hope?” asks the large, laser-animated infant.
More about the exhibition: https://zacheta.art.pl/en/wystawy/dojrzewanie?setlang=1