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After the exhibition on the work of Gaudí, the piece, authored by the sought-after Refik Anadold, will be auctioned at Christie’s in New York with a starting price of between one million and two million euros
Maybe the name of Refik Anadol don’t say much to digital art laymen but the creator is trading up. There are the 5 million dollars (4.7 million euros) that were paid for his piece ‘Machine Hallucinations’ at an auction at Sotheby’s last October. And there are the figures of the starting price, between one million and two million dollars (between 950,000 and 1.9 million euros), of his next work to appear in auction next May 10, in the Christie’s room from New York. The piece in question ‘Living Architecture: Casa Batllo’, It’s a show multimedia that has the architecture of Antoni Gaudí as the basis of creation and the building that the brilliant modernist erected for the industrialist Josep Batlló as a canvas. Come on, that the work has been created to be projected on the façade of the house on Passeig de Gràcia and so it will be done this Saturday before heading to the US. The ‘mapping’, which promises to be spectacular, will have five shows and, of course, can be seen from the street at 9:30 p.m., 10:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m., 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
The colorful projection will put the colophon to off festival (from May 5 to 7 at the Museu del Disseny) and will be the only NFT (Non Fungible Tokens) which will be auctioned later along with pieces by Andy Warhol, Vincent Van Gogh and Basquiat. Both things are related. The festival is one of the quintessential world quotes on digital creation and a NFT is what has managed to give uniqueness, originality and value to digital works of art capable of being copied and replicated infinitely. Come on, it is a unique digital file generated by means of ‘blockchain’, the same technology that is behind cryptocurrencies, which certifies the ownership and originality of a work. Simplifying (much): the difference between having an NFT or a non-NFT piece is like having an original oil painting by Picasso, for example, or a graphic copy of the canvas.
record auction
The subject may seem complex, which it is, but it has been revolutionizing the art world since February of last year, when beeple -the third living artist with a most expensive work sold at auction after Jeff Koons and David Hockney- achieved 69.3 million dollars (65.8 million euros) for the digital collage ‘Everydays: the first 5000 days’, the first NFT-certified piece to be sold at auction. So with the booming digital art market, it is not surprising that one of the novelties of the current edition of the Off festival -with this it will add 21 encounters- is the inauguration of ouchan NFT platform with different artistic collections that the event launches with a permanent vocation to sell and buy digital art. “It is not a ‘marketplace’ is an art gallery with all the contemporary features and all the logic of the NFT & rdquor ;, points out Pep Salazar, director of the Offf festival.
From the Flash to the metaverse
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The first exhibition of this virtual gallery responds to the name of ‘Roads Not Taken’ and will present the work of nine artists –the acclaimed Brendan Dawes, Boldtron and Six N. Five, among them- and of all techniques –from moving image to graphic design-. And the purchase, of course, will be in cryptocurrency. Although the works can also be enjoyed in the face-to-face world in the exhibition that the Museu del Disseny will host for the duration of the festival. The exhibition is one of the few activities open to the public at a meeting –“festival of digital creativity”, Salazar defines it- that focuses on new trends arising from the talent of digital creators and on new tools and technologies that they use: “20 years ago, when we started we talked about Flash, the revolutionary tool of the moment that allowed us to compress videos on rudimentary websites that worked with 64Kbps modems, now we talk about metaverse, virtual realities and augmented realities & rdquor ;, summarizes Salazar.
The festival -which is attended by professionals from 50 countries- is for beginners but its workshops, conferences, creative sessions and masterclasses can be followed from the funzone, a space set up outside the Museu del Disseny with screens that will broadcast the meeting in ‘streaming’.