'Age of You' exhibit at MOCA Toronto calls into question the meaning of identity in a digital world

Photo from Moca Toronto

Running until January 5 2020, Age of You is an exhibit curated by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland, and Hans Ulrich Obrist and commissioned and produced by MOCA Toronto. All about what it means to be an individual in today’s world, Age of You calls upon viewers to think about how one’s identity has changed with the evolution of technology.

Age of You acts as a preview of Basar, Coupland, and Obrist’s anticipated book The Extreme Self, a sequel to their book The Age of Earthquakes, written in 2015. As you walk through the exhibit, you are traveling through the outline of 13 book chapters that cover topics like beauty, belief, work, wealth, and democracy. A modern interpretation of Marshal McLuhan’s 1967 book The Medium is the Massage, the exhibit analyzes the impact of media and how the development of the Internet has given birth to online personas external from ourselves and how this has translated into and shaped culture.

With over 70 contributing artists from art, design, filmmaking, photography, performance and electronic music supporting the blown up pages at the core of Basar, Coupland, and Obrist’s immersive exhibit, visitors will feel as if they’ve fallen into the deepest parts of the web. As if browsing through emails and chat rooms, you’ll be browsing through installations and slogans from “Democracy needs morning after pills. Brexit could have been stopped with one simple revote. Why didn’t that happen?” to “Admit it: You read the comments section first. In fact: You only read the comments section.” Forcing you to confront your online behaviours and consider the state of society today, Age of You feels like an exhibit that came at just the right time.

Giveaway!

If you’re interested in visiting Age of You at MOCA Toronto, Shiplake Properties is holding a contest to giveaway 3 sets of two tickets and one grand prize of 4 tickets and a $250 gift certificate to Sugo. How to enter:

1. Leave a comment on their Facebook post about the giveaway and tag your friends.

2. Head on over to Instagram and give them a follow @shiplakeproperties.

3. Like the post about the giveaway on Instagram.

The contest is open until November 2nd. Winners will be chosen at random and announced on Monday November 4th.