What's real/art
(En)Group exhibition of NFT at Galería Habana. May-June 2022
(Lea en español aquí)
Artists
In recent times, the terms non fungible tokens or NFTs--in reference to certain types of cryptoassets that, unlike the vast majority of cryptocurrencies known to date, were not designed to operate as money or payment mechanism--, has gained momentum in the digital currency ecosystem. An NFT is a digital title deed applicable to anything that can be owned. Token is a term that refers to a unique alphanumeric code registered on the blockchain, making it non-fungible. Like an inventory number or tracking code, the token locates the actual asset within a larger system. Its appeal lies precisely in its ability to make digital assets scarce and valuable because they are unique or produced in limited editions.
The NFT, in essence, is a phenomenon of the digital universe generated and driven by actors who had no relation to the visual arts. Technically anyone, with the necessary knowledge and with a concrete value proposition, can create their own NFTs and market them. The process does not require a programmer, as several platforms in the metaverse[1] allow transforming digital files into NFTs.
The status of the NFT as an artwork changed radically after the situation created by COVID-19, which forced the closure of almost all face-to-face events and put the focus on digital spaces. In 2020, interest in cryptocurrencies increased, which caused digital art and NFTs to excel in the market. Finally, NFT art communities grew steadily over the past three years and began to reach critical mass, which attracted larger audiences. A milestone in this regard was the auction at Christie's (March 2021) of the piece entitled Every Day: the First 5000 Days by artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, which had a starting price of $100 and was sold for the sum of $69 million.
This event triggered a surge in the NFT art market and caused artists and collectors to focus on this new form of creation. One of the most important auction houses in the world had legitimized, through an astronomical sale, a phenomenon that until then had not been taken seriously by the visual arts world.
But Roy, is it art? [2]
There are two contradictory tendencies. The first one states that the NFT can be considered the future of art; the second one questions whether it can be considered art per se. The problem seems to be about the possibilities of the medium, the supposed openness it presupposes and whether or not it is governed by a certain aesthetic that is worthwhile and in line with the prices of its specific market.
Certainly, the NFT marks a turning point in relation to the problem of authentication and commercialization of artworks with new media, and expands the creative possibilities with other resources such as augmented reality, CGI[3], artificial intelligence and virtual reality. This is a phenomenon that also seeks decentralization and the total autonomy of creators in all aspects. It does not need to be legitimized through art institutions.
In the universe of NFT platforms coexist diverse samples of the same phenomenon, from the digitized versions of works by Hokusai and William Turner belonging to the British Museum, to the sought-after Pepe the Frog memes. In this atmosphere of openness, it is difficult to discern where the artistic is to be found without resorting to specialized criteria. From the outside, without dissection, the lines between what's art or not at the NFT scene seem to blur; everything is on the same level, everything is contaminated and draws from the most unimaginable sources.
One can claim that it's a market event, that it's a matter of technology; one can try to separate the collectible part, the medium itself, which can be exploited in dissimilar ways, the blockchain and art, but all this intermingles, as they coexist in the same universe of which we are still learning its laws.
Despite all the controversy generated around NFTs or precisely because of it, it's interesting to expand to the physical space the works presented in the digital space. What's real/art , which aims to play with these concerns, shows part of the Cuban art scene that is venturing into this new medium and unveils obscure areas of the process of creating a NFT.
The exhibition does not aspire to answer all the questions surrounding the NFT phenomenon. It's a first approach that opens a debate forum on the possibilities surrounding this medium that goes beyond the artistic fact and the real plane.
However, the very fabric of this exhibition presents a fundamental dilemma: does it make sense to exhibit in a physical space a work conceived for the metaverse? In any case, this could call into question the very nature of works like NFTs.
Perhaps Beeple has the answer: the same artist who introduced NFTs to the mainstream, who consolidated them as a medium after Christie's auction and who established himself as one of the three best-quoted living artists worldwide, a year after his great commercial success -March 2022- has inaugurated the exhibition Uncertain Future at the Jack Hanley Gallery in New York, where he presented the prints of his digital pieces. Could it be then that art is still legitimized in galleries?
[1] It refers in general terms to shared and immersive digital environments, which people can access through different interfaces. The metaverse, in Spanish, is an imprecise term that could represent any virtual world. Used more recently to define a "new form of virtual universe," the metaverse has been around for a long time, as video game players have been living in virtual universes since before the creation of NFTs.
[2] Reference to Roy Lichtenstein's piece.
[3] Computer-generated images