They’ve been around for a few years, but in the early years they didn’t play a role in connection with art: the non-fungible tokens, or NFTs for short. It was only when the auction house Christie’s auctioned off the digital work “Everydays. The First 5000 Days” by the American digital artist Beeple and accepted a cryptocurrency for it that NFTs also conquered the art world. During the pandemic, digital art in the form of NFTs has become the art scene’s most hyped must-have. Because where museums were closed, art fairs canceled, the entire analogue art circus had practically come to a standstill and physical viewing, but also appropriation and trade had shifted to the digital, new digital art forms popped up everywhere – and above all the NFTs.
It actually makes no difference what exactly the certificate of authenticity of the non-fungible token refers to. It is important that its uniqueness is confirmed. And so, with the help of NFTs, in times of infinite reproducibility, digital art became what art has been for centuries: something unique. The value of these works of art is based exclusively on the fact that their uniqueness is recorded in a data set, a so-called blockchain, with the help of cryptographically unique, indivisible, irreplaceable and verifiable characters. Therefore, an NFT only exists once and can only be purchased as a whole. Artistic NFTs are gaining more and more followers worldwide.
Betty Mü, specialist in video mapping and immersive art, is also taking part in the NFT May for Xcircle.
(Photo: Betty Mü/Courtesy XCricle)
Exhibitions and workshops all over the city
Now, of all places, Munich, which is so closely linked to the analogue art world, is about to start NFT-May 2022, Germany’s largest series of events for NFTs in art and culture. From May 5th to 31st there will be a festival, an exhibition, lecture series, workshops, zoom projects and podcasts – the latter coming from Minneapolis. The events are organized by the Blockchain Bayern association and supported by the Bavarian State Ministry for Digital Affairs, especially Bavaria’s Digital Minister Judith Gerlach. Various Munich institutions such as the Munich Urban Colab and the Villa Stuck Association have also pledged their support, and even the Department for Labor and Economics is involved.
Everything digital or what?
(Photo: NFT-Mai/Muc.xyz)
The venues are also diverse: Sugar Mountain is one of the highlights, where the Freeman Contemporary Circus hosts a festival with Pepe Arts as organizer and master classes for artists and collectors. MCBW, Munich’s major design fair, invites you to an event on virtual fashion and digital collectibles in the age of NFTs in the Munich Urban Colab. The Blitz Club and the Pacha are participating, there the NFT platform XCircle will present NFT shows with the Munich AR specialist Betty Mü, among others. The Lazy Gallery attracts visitors with an exhibition and workshops. And Haus der Kunst will be hosting the NFT May 2022 over two days, where for Muc.xyz Confirmed speakers include: Jiayin Chen, director of NFT@artnet, Yat Siu, chairman of Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong game software company, Minister of Digital Gerlach and digital specialist Annette Doms, expert in technology-based art and blockchain-related art businesses and lecturer for art history at the LMU. The selection of locations and the list of events alone shows the different interests that the topic of NFT encounters.
“Munich can play a leading role in the NFT area”
Annette Doms considers NFTs to be one of the most significant contemporary innovations in technology and finance, and a significant cultural phenomenon. She is convinced: “Munich already has a large blockchain community. Munich can play a leading role in the NFT area.” Doms knows what she’s talking about. In 2013, together with Benedict Rodenstock and Irmin Rodenstock Beck, she founded “Unpainted”, a platform for digital art, and organized art fairs in Munich for digital art that was not media art. At that time, the art form itself was still in its infancy and only specialists dealt with NFTs.
And Florian Matthes, Professor of Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich and CEO of Blockchain Bayern, also sees the great potential of NFTs in the field of art: “Digital art is currently the area in which NFTs are receiving particularly great attention and where they can be experienced for the first time However, there are many other application scenarios in which this blockchain technology shows its strengths and which affect many people in their everyday lives. Educational certificates as proof of participation in further training are such an example. The NFT May 2022 is a very nice platform to show people what’s possible.” And Christian Pfeiffer, spokesman for NFT-Mais, promises: “By combining all events, we are showing the growing relevance and radiance of NFT art.”
NFT May Munich, 5.-31. May, various places, all information at www.blockchain-bayern.de/nft-mai