Starting from the pioneering work on Linda and Gamma, coordination models and languages have gone through an amazing evolution process over the years. From closed to open systems, from parallel computing to multi-agent systems and from database integration to knowledge-intensive environments, coordination abstractions and technologies have gained in relevance and power in those scenarios where complexity has become a key factor. In this lecture, we outline and motivate 25 years of evolution of coordination models and discuss their potential perspectives in the future of artificial systems.