The DEKA exhibition celebrates ten years of the artistic duo MAT x ZEKKY by revisiting the decisive turning point in their work: the dystopian period of lockdown. Featuring a selection of emblematic pieces produced during that time, DEKA also serves as the premiere for artistic installations signed by the duo, following years of lending their expertise to other artists.

Collapse as a Quest for Meaning

MAT x ZEKKY’s artistic process found its full expression during the abrupt halt of modern civilization in February 2020. The collapse of social and economic certainties resonated with the idea that all eras of our civilization—even the most grandiose—have eventually faded away. Every great mythical and ancient dynasty has faced a twilight where art served as a sanctuary, a necessary creative retreat to provide meaning and hope for Humanity. Using whatever means were at hand (industrial scrap and vintage Louvre journals found in their residency at the time), they initiated an act of poetic resilience: assembling fragments to reconstruct meaning from the symbolic ruins of the "world before."

Vulnerability as a Creative Process

To translate this quest, DEKA deploys a spectrum of mediums that goes beyond the canvas. The exhibition offers a sensory immersion, ranging from the density of installations made of stone and ancient columns to the fleeting immateriality of digital and olfactory installations featuring ancestral incense rituals. This diversity of experimentation is a deliberate choice; it reflects the life of an artist, punctuated by established successes, doubts, and uncertainties. At the crossroads of immutable matter and the ephemeral, MAT x ZEKKY expose the vulnerability of the creative process. Each work, each medium, is an attempt—a new landmark placed in the void. The duo thus transforms uncertainty—the very essence of their condition—into a driving force to create new "guardians" or figures of trust, reaffirming that the act of creation is, in essence, the act of giving meaning to chaos.

The DEKA exhibition is an invitation to perceive resilience not as an immovable force, but as a constant dialogue between collapse and emergence, within the very gap where our life instinct resides.

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Opening Reception: February 13, 2026, at 6:00 PM Cloître de l'Abbaye Saint Martin Rue Marcelin Berthelot 02000 LAON

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Artist Presence during the exhibition:

• SAT March 14 Guided tour at 2:30 PM (Duration: 1h) Free - Reservation required: +33 3 23 22 86 86 or billetterie@ville-laon.fr

• SAT April 18 Guided tour at 2:30 PM (Duration: 1h) Free - Reservation required: +33 3 23 22 86 86 or billetterie@ville-laon.fr

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Free admission from Feb 14 to May 09, Wednesday to Saturday, 2:00 PM – 6:00 PM (excluding public holidays).

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In partnership with and supported by the City of Laon.

With the support of La Fileuse, the City of Reims’ art wasteland, and Crédit Agricole Nord-Est.

Collaborators on the exhibition installations: "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair": Darokin, Programmer / Digital Artist

"Per fumum, the breath of stone": Grégory Piaud De Glencoe (Lampyre), Perfumer

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Watch the video teaser

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