At the end of September, the first sale of NFT digital art or crypto art will take place, within the framework of the fifth version of Gallery Weekend Santiago, which this year will be held in a hybrid format. At least 13 works by national artists will be available for sale where the crypto currency Ethereum (Ether) can be used for purchase, or through a credit card and once the sale is completed, GWS will mitigate the emissions generated by the sale of NFT with the purchase of carbon credits.
Blockchain technology has not only revolutionized the world of the global economy with multi-million dollar transactions of crypto currencies on the most important exchanges in the world; It has also made a name for itself in the art industry, venturing into auctions of so-called non-fungible tokens (NFTs), unique codes equivalent to digital works that are sold and bought on specialized platforms by collectors and brokers around the world.
NFTs (Non Fungible Tokens) are digital files that are granted the quality of certified original through Blockchain tools. Thanks to this model, any creative work can generate a digital original, which opens up unthinkable opportunities for artists from the point of view of languages, formats and new marketing possibilities.
Because of this, NFTs have attracted a lot of attention recently, accompanied by an explosive increase in the number of artists and investors participating in this new market, as well as in the number and value of transactions. The best-known work, Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days,” was auctioned this year by Christie’s for $ 69 million, the third-highest value ever paid for a work by a living artist.
Starting next September 29 and in the context of the fifth Edition of Gallery Weekend Santiago, the first sale of an NFT collection will take place in Chile. An exhibition curated by GWS, made up of a number of 20 works by renowned national artists, works mostly in audiovisual format, which will be put on sale on the OpenSea platform and which can be purchased exclusively through www.galleryweekend.cl.
The artists participating with their works in this sale are Martín Gubbins (AFA Gallery), Marcos Sánchez (NAC Gallery), María Verónica San Martín, Mono Lira, Francisca Alvarez (Artespacio Gallery), Josefina Bardi (Artespacio Gallery), Andrea Wolf ( Isabel Croxatto Gallery), Cristián Velasco (Isabel Croxatto Gallery), Denisse Lira (Patricia Ready Gallery) Patricia Claro (Aninat Gallery) Caiozzama (Espora Gallery) Ciro Beltrán (O Space), Patricia Dominguez (Patricia Ready Gallery) Maria Luis Murillo (Gallery Mother), Sofía Garrido, Pollo Lavín (Factoria Santa Rosa), Gianfranco Foschino (Galeria Aninat) and Alvaro Díaz.
The sale will be open from September 29 to December 29, 2021, the works can be purchased using the crypto currency Ethereum (Ether) or through a Credit Card and once the sale is completed, GWS will mitigate the emissions generated by the sale of NFT with the purchase of carbon credits.
The particularity of an NFT piece is that it is a work of art that does not necessarily exist in the physical world and for which the buyer who acquires it does not receive a video, nor a painting, nor a reproduction of it. What you receive is a Digital Token, or “virtual voucher” that acts as a unique certificate of ownership and that can continue to be traded in the world of crypto art.
“You buy the work and the work can be a physical or digital painting, but what you receive in addition to the work is this NFT token (non-expendable token) that assures you that you are the owner of the work. If you go to the Louvre and you take a picture of the Mona Lisa and you frame that picture in your living room, you don’t own the Mona Lisa, you only have one copy. To be an owner you need the certificate that says you are the owner, and that is what the NFTs do. It’s a certificate of ownership, ”said Kabir Engel, GWS General Producer.
This unprecedented sale puts online the exhibition “Art said it first”, a curatorial that is related to the impulse that contemporary art has to anticipate the conflicts that echo with greater obviousness in a consumer society on the verge of collapse. The climate crisis, inequality, gender equity, and even the health crisis are recurring themes in this exhibition in digital format, which highlights the premonitory capacity of the work itself.
The first sale of NFT in Chile is presented by Gallery Weekend Santiago as one of its great novelties in this year’s edition, part of the 5-day program of physical and virtual activities that, as always, feature 14 galleries in the capital. Discussions, guided tours, exhibition openings, documentary premieres and an open-door art party, is what completes the offer that the event brings in its fifth version.
