Artists

Matt Copson

Press release

Luma Westbau is pleased to present the first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland by British artist Matt Copson (b. 1992, Oxford, UK).

Copson’s multidisciplinary practice explores existential questions and contemporary subjectivity through video works, sculptures, operas, and performative installations, incorporating lasers, sound, and text.

The exhibition centres on Copson’s Coming of Age trilogy, a 30-minute animated bildungsroman told via laser-projected drawings that transform the space into a theatre. Each wall presents one act—Coming of Age, Age of Coming, and Of Coming Age. The central figure, the Baby, moves between them, leaving behind props that anticipate its return. The songs, composed by Caroline Polachek with a libretto by Copson, are performed by a boy soprano.

Spanning the second and third floors, this immersive installation stages a theatrical exploration of insatiable desire: to grow, to leave a legacy, to be adored, to entertain, and to be entertained. The Baby becomes a mirror for fundamental truths of human experience, confronting both sense and nonsense.

A work from the Maja Hoffmann / Luma Foundation Collection, the exhibition is accompanied by Copson’s first monograph, Sob Story, co-published by KW Berlin and CURA.