Buse Ilgaz

'As children become more independent, they seek to create a separate identity from their parents, craving their own special places like secret forts, dens, and hideouts. This universal drive is essential for healthy development. Nowadays, as kids play outside less and spend more time online, they find fewer opportunities to act on this impulse physically. Instead, they carve out private identities on the internet, away from parental supervision. During these crucial developmental stages, wrong influences can cause irreversible damage to their psyche...

 

This work is a monumental scenography and a cautionary tale. It explores a coming-of-age story about a teenager's self-discovery and their experience as part of the first generation with unrestricted internet access.

 

Our young, curious protagonist builds a secret lair in their closet, starting to interact with the outside world and keep secrets. Over time, they struggle to maintain their purity and grip on reality against malicious external forces and a nonstop stream of information online.

 

This scene speculates on the initial joy of technology and the peak of optimistic futurism, which later turned sinister. It reflects "the future we were promised" in childhood, which we now realize will never come to be. The result is confusion, fear, and delusion, common in our generation and those to come.