From the 24th to the 28th of August, the most famous digital artists and projects gathered in Decentraland. Find out what happened at Metaverse Art Week 2022!
Decentraland, the virtual world on Ethereum, hosted the third edition of Metaverse Art Week from the 24th to the 28th of August. After the first metaverse Fashion Week this March, Decentraland dedicated five days to contemporary art on the blockchain. In the metaverse’s art districts such as Soho Plaza or the Voltaire Art District, events, exhibitions and panel discussions dedicated to digital art on blockchain took place. The theme and title of Metaverse Art Week in Decentraland was ‘The World is Made of Code‘. Reality can be considered as a set of codes, patterns and formulas that shape both the natural and especially the virtual world. The initiative therefore welcomed artworks and immersive experiences inspired by the drawings and mathematical patterns found in nature. Top artists from the NFT scene and beyond participated in Metaverse Art Week. Find out about the art projects in Decentraland and what happened at Metaverse Art Week 2022!
The theme of the Metaverse Art Week: the relationship between mankind and technology
The immersive art installations, performances and conceptual art exhibitions of the Metaverse Art Week opened a debate on the topic of the relationship between individuals and technology and how the latter shape reality. This theme is inspired by the guiding questions of the Art Biennale in Venice opening in April 2022. The artists currently exhibiting in Venice have questioned the changing definition of mankind in relation to technology, as well as its pervasive and transformative presence. Decentraland’s Metaverse Art Week explored ‘code’ as a factor that brings virtual worlds to life, and how ““the human spirit is hardwired to elicit an emotional response when presented with art inspired by the mathematical designs present in nature” . The Decentraland initiative was a moment of alignment between the reflections of the contemporary art world and the new frontier that is Web3.
An audio-guided tour and Artnet debates
One of the novelties of the Metaverse Art Week was an art walk with an audio guide made possible by Audio Art Tour. Once you successfully landed in the welcome area with your avatar, you could request a pair of virtual headphones with which to listen to the guide along the entire route of the exhibitions in Decentraland. Just like in a museum, the voice of a guide explained the works in detail and presented the projects. During the five days of the event, Artnet, one of the largest online art communities, organised artistic performances, live-poetry sessions and the creation of pieces of art with artificial intelligence in connection with the theme of the Art Week.
Frida Kahlo’s artistic legacy on show at Decentraland
Frida Kahlo‘s family, in collaboration with Ezel (a platform offering services to create Web3 experiences, opened a permanent installation called Frida Kahlo Family Red House in Decentraland. It tells the story of the first half of the artist’s life and displays some never-before-seen works. For the occasion, unpublished artwork, artefacts and family histories of the Mexican painter were digitised. The founders of Ezel claimed to have collected almost 800 unique pieces that belonged to the artist, including sketches, original artwork and other objects used in Kahlo’s daily life.
Each piece of content was scanned using high-resolution image capture tools, requiring at least 30 different images and videos. Decentraland users will be able to visit the works within the installation that replicates the Red House owned by the family in Mexico. Pedro Quinzaños Cancino, the founder of Ezel and a friend of the Kahlo family, said in an interview that when he suggested the project to Frida’s heirs, he was met with some resistance and scepticism. Later, the Kahlo family chose to rely on emerging technologies such as the metaverse to tell stories that would otherwise have disappeared.
The Sotheby’s and UXart Lab exhibition
During the event, UXart Lab exhibited the works of some Latin American artists from the 1960s such as Marta Minujín, Gyula Kosice and Eduardo MacEntyre who best represent kinetic and pop art, but also contemporary and digital artists such as Alberto Echegaray Guevara. These artists are currently exhibiting in real life at the Venice Biennale. Another art company that is no stranger to virtual galleries in Decentraland is the auction house Sotheby’s. Its vice-president Michael Bouhanna explained that their experience with Decentraland allowed them to experiment with cutting-edge exhibitions for digital works and transpositions of physical works. At the Metaverse Art Week, Sotheby’s reaffirmed its interest in NFT and blockchain art by presenting new pieces in the exhibition such as jewellery sculptures in collaboration with Metagolden. Decentraland’s Metaverse Art Week was also attended by a number of NFT marketplaces such as Rarible, OpenSea, SuperRare and Know Origin. The latter presented an installation entitled ‘Crypto Winter’, which mocks the volatility of cryptocurrencies.
The Ukrainian Museum of War History
At Metaverse Art Week, an exhibition space was also reserved for the works of the Meta History Museum of War: the NFT project that chronicles the war in Ukraine step by step since the beginning of the conflict. The aim of the digital museum, founded on the 25th of March 2022, is to document what is happening on the frontline through artistic expression and to raise funds for the reconstruction of the country’s artistic heritage. From the sale of these non-fungible tokens, more than $1 million has been raised.
Cash Labs’ gallery with Damien hirst and Estée Lauder’s POAPs
Cash Labs, a Web3 content creation platform, launched its first art gallery in Decentraland. Among the artists it presents are Damien Hirst, Laurel Charleston and Justin Aversano. The Cash Labs exhibition has been organised on four levels, the first group working under the theme ‘From Physical to Digital’, and it is the level where Hirst is exhibited. The second level is entitled ‘Art for the Metaverse. The third level of the Cash Labs exhibition is dedicated to the first NFT collection by Nick Knight, the British fashion photographer and founder of SHOWstudio.com. On the fourth and final floor, users who visited the entire exhibition received a free POAP by Estée Lauder as a certificate of participation.
These were the highlights of what happened at Metaverse Art Week 2022 in Decentraland, the public reception was good but there was no shortage of criticism. Some participants pointed out that the graphic layout of Decentraland’s metaverse was still primitive and unsuitable for conveying the complexity of contemporary art. For Decentraland, however, this can only be constructive criticism.
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