Exhibition
Unblock Gaudi Digital Art via Blockchain
26 May – 24 July 2022
While the Corona pandemic has shifted attention from exhibition rooms to digital screens, blockchain culture has generated an entirely new art market. Digital animations inspired by computer game aesthetics, animated colour gradients, geometric graphics, or renderings of virtual worlds are sold for up to eight-digit sums, and artists throughout the world are starting to discover new possibilities in a decentralised world. Three letters promise alleged investment security and the prospect of unlimited profits: NTFs, non-fungible tokens, so-called digital certificates of ownership with forgery-proof registration in the blockchain. A blockchain is a collective register or account book that is generally accessible on all its users’ hard drives where it is continuously updated.
The exhibition and series of events Unblock Gaudi. Digital Art via Blockchain explored the significance of blockchains and their practical applications. What is a blockchain? What are NFTs? How does crypto currency work? And how do artists’ products and objects gain digital distribution? These and other questions were examined not only in the exhibition but also in lectures and workshops. Blockchain technology has the potential to change our society fundamentally and is already revolutionising various markets as well as the structure of digital interactions. For non-specialists it is often hard to find access to this world. The aim of the project was thus to familiarise interested visitors with the technology and to discuss its effects on democratic processes and structures. The exhibition comprised artworks from different areas of digital art, such as generative art, motion design art, AI-generated art, GIFs, new recording technologies, and storytelling. For the duration of the show, the exhibits were exchanged in accordance with the events. Unblock Gaudi. Digital Art via Blockchain is a cooperation with the Gaudi network and Unblock.Gallery.
Project management: Tuan Khanh Hoang Nguyen, Paulo Perez, and Jascha Tutt