After raising $440,000 selling NFTs on Binance, the Hermitage is now
curious if NFTs are about the art, or rather just the money.
The Russian State Hermitage Museum continues diving in the
nonfungible tokens (NFTs) industry by debuting its first fully-virtual
exhibition of digital art.
Shortly after raising over $400,000 via its first NFT auction
on Binance in September, the Hermitage is now hosting a free exhibition
of NFT artworks existing exclusively in the virtual space, the
so-called “celestial hermitage,” or the museum’s digital avatar.
Launched
on Nov. 10, the Hermitage’s exhibition is called the “Invisible Aether”
and is based on the concept of metaverse, allowing users to create
digital avatars and surf across the virtual site using PCs, smartphones,
virtual reality glasses and other devices. The virtual site mimics the
interiors of the local landmark Old Saint Petersburg Stock Exchange, but
the actual exhibition has nothing to do with trading, according to a
senior curator of the project.
“The
exhibition’s artworks are not for sale. We avoid all topics related to
the price of these pieces in order to focus on showing what digital art
really is, because the cost of art is secondary to its value,”
Hermitage’s director of contemporary art, Dimitri Ozerkov, told
Cointelegraph.
Ozerkov noted that Hermitage will return all of the
artworks to its original owners including artists and collectors right
after the exhibition ends on Dec. 10. “Further events are outside the
remit of the museum,” he added.
At a press conference on Thursday,
Ozerkov emphasized that Hermitage has “no financial interest” in
conducting the free exhibition, noting that the museum is striving to
find out the real value of NFTs. “We want to see what’s left of the NFT
if you take away the money aspect,” he said.
The selection of
artists and works for the “Invisible Aether” exhibition was made by two
curators including Ozerkov and Anastasia Garnova, a member of the
Hermitage contemporary art division.
“We believe that selection by
curators is crucial for a museum exhibition, as it makes it more
integral in terms of topics and chapters. The selection principle is
based on the artworks’ importance for understanding the essence of the
NFT,” Garnova told Cointelegraph. “Artists were not able to apply for
participation in the exhibition,” she added.
Related: Beyond the NFT hype: Creating lasting business models for artists
The full list of artworks is available on the official website
of the exhibition, featuring a total of 37 pieces including
Schrödinger’s Cat by CryptoKitties, a popular blockchain game built by
Canadian studio Dapper Labs on the Ethereum network. The list also
includes an artwork by Saint Petersburg-based artist known as Darkzuu.
The
exhibition also stars NFT platforms and major industry players like
Snark.art, Masters digital, The Art Exchange, Rarible, Superrare,
KnownOrigin, ArtBlocks, Alterhen.art, and OpenSea.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/invisible-aether-world-s-largest-museum-launches-nft-art-exhibition
