en.cryptonomist.ch
At first, the success of the sale of Beeple’s work with Christie’s auction house for over $69 million left the most seasoned of the art world astonished.
Yet, after a few weeks of uncertainty and disbelief, there are those among professionals in the more traditional art sector who have tried to understand the uses of NFTs.
These include many artists, already acclaimed by galleries, curators, museums and collectors, who have approached them without too many qualms: the internationals Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami, Urs Fischer or Jeremy Deller to name but the most important and best-selling.
In Italy, the names of those who are creating NFTs of their own works are almost unheard of, but they include Alterazioni Video.
A collective founded in 2004 in Milan and formed by Paololuca Barbieri Marchi, Alberto Caffarelli, Matteo Erenbourg, Andrea Masu and Giacomo Porfiri who live in Los Angeles, Milan, Berlin and New York.
Their artistic research includes films, installations, performances and investigates the misinformation of reality, the relationship between legality and illegality, between truth and fiction: among the latest exhibitions they have produced “Incompiuto: la nascita di uno stile” presented in 2019 at Kunst Merano Arte where the materials collected and reworked over ten years brought to light the phenomenon of unfinished public works in Italy.
This time, the collective, always attentive to changes, has created the first NFT, as stated in a recent article by Michela Moro for Il Giornale dell’Arte.
It is said to be a portrait of the artist Takashi Murakami as he signs the posters of his first NFT, alongside the meme of the sceptical child, symbol of Africa, a viral shot taken in 2012 in Uganda by an activist.
As stated by Alterazioni Video, the child protagonist of the meme has been tracked down, now 12 years old, and is the recipient of the sum that will be collected from the sale of the NFT, the price of which apparently amounts to 100 ETH.
Paololuca Barbieri Marchi, one of the members of the collective, comments on the work:
“The image/operation is a commentary on the speculative bubble behind NFTs. The bubble will burst and the NFTs will remain in support of visual culture, but it will certainly be a stormy ride”.