Have we just witnessed the first authentic digitization of a work of art?
Acquired at the gallery for $ 95,000, an authentic print
of Banksy's
Morons (White)
, produced in 500 copies in 2006, was burned during a performance filmed and broadcast live on Thursday, March 4.
Consumed by the flames, the work was immediately reincarnated online, in a digital version equipped with an NFT (for "
non-fungible token
", or non-fungible token), that is to say its own virtual certificate of authenticity.
Which is neither more nor less than an unprecedented attempt to transfer the identity and aura of the work of art from the real to the virtual.
To read also: "Crypto-art": the digital work of the singer Grimes sold for 6 million dollars
"
Art will now live as NFT
", declared on Twitter the BurntBanksy collective created for the occasion by the company Injective Protocol, at the origin of the operation.
The young financial platform specializing in the encrypted technology of the "
blockchain
" - the chain of blocks used by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum - knows what it is doing.
For a few weeks now, an unprecedented excitement has surrounded digital objects at NFT: a true tamper-proof 2.0 virtual certificate of authenticity designed with the blockchain principle, the technology guarantees the perfect traceability of objects.
A revolution for digital worlds - where the authenticity and origin of images are often the last concerns - which is now reaching the world of art.
“I'm going to burn that Banksy. The reason is that if we had had both the NFT and the physical work, the value would have been primarily in the physical object, it
is explained at the start of the performance.
By removing the material object and keeping only the NFT, we can ensure that the NFT, due to blockchain technology, will remain the unique work.
»If there are still 499 copies of
Morons (White)
in the world, the engraving bearing the serial number # 325 can therefore only be collected virtually, depending on the spirit of the performance.
“The aim here is to inspire.
We want to inspire tech enthusiasts and artists.
We want to explore a new medium of artistic expression, ”
also said Mirza Uddin, the financial specialist for Injective Protocol who appears in the video.
"
We understand that the NFT medium provides artists and galleries with unbridled and limitless possibilities to experiment with their full creativity,"
Brian Swarts, the president of the Taglialatella gallery, who sold Banksy's print to Injective Protocol in January, told Artnet. .
For the gallery owner, who himself intends to embark on “
crypto-art
”, there is no doubt that NFTs have a bright future on the art market.
“
While we do not encourage the destruction of rare and significant works of art, we understand that the importance and context of artistic performance in the physical world will certainly translate and develop in the digital art world. and NFTs,
”he said.
Read also: The first judicial auction of Bitcoin will take place on March 17
A turning point for the digital art market?
The performance of Injective Protocol, which sold its “authentic” digital Banksy, could pass for a form of joke or a tribute to the caustic gaze worn by the British “
street artist
” on the art market.
The
Morons (White)
engraving
itself depicts the floor of an auction room in which buyers face a whiteboard on which is written, in English, "
I can't believe you're really buying." that shit, you morons
”.
More recently, the self-destruction of one of his works at an auction had also hit the headlines.
To read also: A canvas created by software sold for 432,500 dollars at Christie's in New York
Beyond this thematic continuity, the “
transformation
” of Banksy's work into “
crypto-art
” is part of a recent movement in the art world for NFTs.
Monday, to celebrate the 3 years of his album
Ultraviolet
, the DJ and musician 3LAU put on sale the NFTs of the 11 tracks of his cake: the whole flew for 11.6 million dollars.
At the end of February, original works by Canadian artist Grimes were sold for $ 5.8 million;
barely a week after the sale at 6.6 million of a work by the American Beeple.
Boosted by the Covid crisis and the current price of cryptocurrencies, the phenomenon affects other digital objects beyond the field of art, to the point where the field of the possible cracked open by this new encrypted technology makes you dizzy.
"
What if there was to be a Mona Lisa NFT produced by the Louvre?"
And what will happen if Nasa creates the NFT of "Moon Landing"?
“Asks Pierre Fautrel, from the Obvious collective, with enthusiasm.
With his comrades Hugo Caselles-Dupré and Gauthier Vernier, the three artists are pioneers in the field of “
crypto-art
”.
“
There are a lot of digital assets that are historic and that are owned like respected institutions like NASA or the NBA;
we could see a quantity of iconic images passing through NFT
”, specifies Hugo Caselles-Dupré.
Several sales in February seem to attest to the importance of the wave.
A seconds-long sports clip of basketball player LeBron James scoring a basket?
Awarded for 20,800 dollars.
An authentic copy of the same
Nyan Cat
- remastered for its tenth anniversary and uploaded by its creator, Chris Torres?
Awarded for $ 580,000.
In a perfect world, there would be NFTs on each of the images that are produced.
Pierre Fautrel, Obvious collective
Intrigued by the artistic side of this new market which has been taken over by multiple specialized platforms, such as Nifty Gateway or SuperRare, traditional auction houses are, to say the least, curious.
"
Two months after the creation of the SuperRare platform, in 2018, there was already an event at Christie's around crypto-art
", recalls Hugo Caselles-Dupré, while the house is preparing for March 11 its first sale of a NFT digital art object, a Beeple.
More than a banal whim of a contemporary artist, the NFT also makes paper certificates of authenticity obsolete, to the point where today's crypto-artists look with fear at these vestiges of the world before: "
We who are young in this world of art, we fell completely on our heads when we understood how paper certificates of authenticity worked,
exclaims Pierre Fautrel.
It's an A4 paper where we put our stamp and voila, let's move on to the music.
If a collector is ill-intentioned, nothing prevents him from making photocopies and reprinting our work.
"
For this new technology, the prospects therefore seem immense, almost limitless.
If the “
non-fungible tokens
” remain for the moment confined to the domain - already large - of the collection, its future has not yet been written.
For Pierre Fautrel, without a shadow of a doubt, “
in a perfect world, there would be NFTs on each of the images that are produced
”.
As to whether the performance produced around the Banksy print is destructive or - on the contrary - demiurgic, the question remains unanswered.
One part of the answer will be, without fail, the price of the NFT at the close of the sale.
