Global crypto-art trend reaches Chile through Gallery Weekend

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In late September the first sale of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) – unique codes equivalent to digital works that are sold and purchased on specialized platforms by collectors and brokers worldwide – will be held in a digital art collection curated by Gallery Weekend Santiago (GWS).

Sales will be open from September 29 through December 29, 2021. Works will be available for purchase using Ethereum (Ether) cryptocurrency or through credit card and once the sale is completed, GWS will mitigate emissions generated by the sale of NFT with the purchase of carbon credits.

Blockchain technology has not only revolutionized the global economic ecosystem, with multi-billion cryptocurrency transactions on the world’s most important exchanges. It has also exploded in the art world with the emergence of NFTs.

From September 29 and as part of the 5th edition of Gallery Weekend Santiago, the first sale of a collection of NFTs will take place in Chile. An exhibition curated by GWS, consisting of 20 works by renowned national artists, mostly in audiovisual format, will be offered for sale on the OpenSea platform and will be available for purchase exclusively through www.galleryweekend.cl.

Artists taking part 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 (Espacio O), Patricia Dominguez (Patricia Ready Gallery), Maria Luis Murillo (Madre Gallery), Sofía Garrido, Pollo Lavín (Factoria Santa Rosa), Gianfranco Foschino (Aninat Gallery) and Alvaro Díaz.

This unprecedented sale launches the exhibition “El arte lo dijo primero” (Art Said It First), related to the drive of contemporary visual arts to anticipate the conflicts echoed with greater clarity 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 digital exhibition, which highlights the premonitory capacity of the work itself.

As Chilean artist based in New York and a participant in the exhibition María Verónica San Martín says, one of the appeals of this unprecedented sale is the curiosity aroused for many “how the same work can be capitalized in a physical and virtual way at the same time;” and on the other hand, how the initiative is part of a digital revolution that is occurring in the art world “a revolution that was coming and that the pandemic only accelerated and that thanks to a digital platform that disseminates the works, allows them to have a democratic reach, producing an immediate reciprocity between the work and the public.”

According to Claudio Caiozzi, another of the recognized young national talents part of this exhibition, participating in this unprecedented experience is something “super entertaining because it is a world with which I am not very familiar, but a world that I like very much, I am closely linked to cryptocurrencies, so I very much enjoy all that is emerging from the crypto world, I think it is also an experience to learn and become more familiar with it.”

Regarding the paradigm shift that has brought with it art’s immersion in the digital world, Caiozzama says he believes that “art must always evolve and open new paths in different ways, along with the evolution of humanity. We could not limit ourselves only to painting and sculpture, which are so old and classic. I love that art is adapting, that art manifests itself in the same evolution.”

The first NFT sale in Chile is presented by Gallery Weekend Santiago as one of the great novelties in this year’s edition, part of the 5-day program of physical and virtual activities that, as always, will feature 14 galleries in the capital. Lectures, guided tours, exhibition openings, documentary premieres and an open-door art party complete the event’s offer in its 5th edition.

The particularity of an NFT piece is that it is an artwork that does not necessarily exist in the physical world and the buyer who acquires it does not receive a video, a painting or a reproduction of it. Instead, the buyer receives a Digital Token, or “Virtual Voucher” that serves as a virtual certificate of ownership and that can be traded in the crypto art world.