2023-04-29 10:15:07
It is a pioneering project in Europe. The Center Pompidou is currently exhibiting its first collection of “non-fungible tokens” (NFT), against a backdrop of turbulence in the world of digital art. Two rooms of the Parisian museum of modern art are thus devoted until January 2024 to 18 recently acquired digital works, presented on screens.
Among them, a “cryptopunk”, a character with a crest which is one of the emblems of the world of crypto-art, or “Bitchcoin”, an imaginary representation of a bitcoin (cryptocurrency), created by the artist Sarah Meyohas in 2015 This is one of the first NFTs, those computer files attached to a digital work of art.
After several years of speculative fever, the market for these tokens collapsed last year, as the cryptocurrency ecosystem was rocked by scandals. Transactions fell 94%, from $232.7 million in 2021 to $13.9 million in 2022, according to French analytics firm Artprice.
“Entering the history of art”
About half of the works exhibited at Pompidou have been donated by their authors. Others were acquired for just a few tens of euros, at the current exchange rate of the cryptocurrency ethereum, according to the NFT market platform OpenSea.
“For these artists, the idea is to enter the history of art and also to ensure the durability of their works, because the role of a museum is to preserve a heritage and therefore to ensure the longevity of the works,” explains Marcella Lista, chief curator of the new media department at the Center Pompidou and curator of the exhibition.
Marriage of technology and creation, digital art very quickly created its own icons and myths, in the absence of regulation. Californian artist Robness gave the museum an imaginary 3D portrait of the alleged inventor of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity has never been revealed.
“I am very grateful [au Centre Pompidou]. It’s a very moving experience,” Robness told AFP during his visit to Paris.
“It’s not going away”
The price of NFTs collapsed and their reputation was tarnished by controversies related to intellectual property. But Robness has no intention of abandoning this means of expression.
“This technology is like e-mail: it is not going to disappear, believes the artist. If you start worrying about market dynamics, you are wasting your energy. (…) It does not help you to create”.
For the promoters of the project at the Center Pompidou, the first European institution to launch its collection of NFTs, the process was laborious. Transactions are usually carried out with cryptocurrencies. However, the Parisian museum cannot invest in this risky universe and have “double accounting”, underlined Marcella Lista.
Purchases in euros and French contract
Purchases were therefore made in euros directly from the artists. And for each work, a contract has been signed under French law.
Like all NFT collectors, the Center Pompidou had to create an electronic wallet on OpenSea. This account, accessible to the public, is however only a showcase on the Internet, specifies Philippe Bertinelli, one of the other curators of the exhibition.
“We have a storage system on several servers, on several media, which allows us, in the event of loss, breakdown, fire, (…) to ensure the durability of the storage. »
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