{"id":4430,"date":"2023-03-03T11:01:05","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T11:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/03\/pioneering-nft-bitchcoin-is-entering-the-centre-pompidous-collection-in-a-landmark-acquisition-of-digital-works-artnet-news\/"},"modified":"2023-03-03T11:01:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-03T11:01:05","slug":"pioneering-nft-bitchcoin-is-entering-the-centre-pompidous-collection-in-a-landmark-acquisition-of-digital-works-artnet-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nft.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/03\/pioneering-nft-bitchcoin-is-entering-the-centre-pompidous-collection-in-a-landmark-acquisition-of-digital-works-artnet-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Pioneering NFT Bitchcoin Is Entering the Centre Pompidou\u2019s Collection in a Landmark Acquisition of Digital Works | Artnet News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In 2015, five months before the emergence of Ethereum, Sarah Meyohas<\/a> minted her first 200 Bitchcoins. The blockchain-verified tokens were intended to operate as art as much as digital currency, which collectors could hold, sell, or trade for art by Meyohas\u2014a conceptual transaction that tied the speculative worth of cryptocurrency with the subjective value of art. The young artist (and Wharton Business School grad) launched Bitchcoin at a gallery show where visitors could drop Bitchcoin for her photographic works, with a press release that cheekily trumpeted: \u201cInvesting in Bitchcoin is investing in Meyohas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However incisive, Bitchcoin could very well have been a low-key conceptual endeavor, if not for the sensation NFTs set off in 2020. Then again, amid the resurfacing of historic blockchain-backed works, Meyohas\u2019s name was rarely invoked in a space and marketplace dominated by top-selling, always-online male artists such as Beeple.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sarah Meyohas. Photo: Steve Benisty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But no more. Last month, the Centre Pompidou announced the acquisition of two Bitchcoins, which are joining 17 other NFTs being acquired by the institution in the first-ever such acquisition by a French national museum. These other works include an Autoglyph, a CryptoPunk, new works by Jill Magid<\/a> and Jonas Lund, and historic digital art by Robness and Fred Forest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s doubly exciting that my first museum acquisition can also be a historic one,\u201d Meyohas told Artnet News. \u201cI\u2019m thrilled for each of the 12 other artists involved as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The crypto artworks join the contemporary art museum\u2019s sizable collection of new-media works, which the Pompidou has been amassing since the 1970s. For curators Macella Lista and Philippe Bettinelli, who are overseeing the Pompidou\u2019s NFT endeavors, the acquisition entirely squares with a museum dedicated to \u201caddressing the impulses of innovation,\u201d they told Artnet News over email.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Larva Labs, CryptoPunk #110<\/em> (2017). Photo: \u00a9 Larva Labs<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt is interesting to see how [this] creativity started from outside of the art world, or from the specialized domain of digital arts, before slowly echoing among the general landscape of contemporary art,\u201d they said in a joint statement. \u201cArtworks related to the blockchain are moving many lines and provide a critical appreciation of what is going on today.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The museum plans to present the works as part of its permanent collection in spring this year (an online exhibition is also being gamed out for a later phase, possibly within \u201ca specifically conceived digital space\u201d). This showcase will occupy the fourth floor of the Pompidou where crypto art will be framed as part of the Conceptual and Minimal art traditions. As Lista and Bettinelli emphasized, \u201cNFTs didn\u2019t come \u2018out of the blue.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Agnieszka Kurant, Sentimentite-Mt Gox Hack<\/em> (2022). Photo: Kunstgiesserei St Gallen AG, courtesy of the artist and Zien.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While the acquisition is heavy on new projects\u2014ranging from the conceptual, such as\u00a0 Agnieszka Kurant\u2019s <\/span>Sentimentite-Mt. Gox. Hack<\/span><\/i> (2022), to the accessible, namely CryptoPunk #110<\/em>, donated as part of Yuga Labs\u2019s Punks Legacy Project<\/a>\u2014pioneering NFTs are represented too. <\/span><\/p>\n

Most prominently, there\u2019s John F. Simon Jr.\u2019s <\/span>Every Icon<\/span><\/i> (1997), Emilie Brout and Maxime Marion\u2019s Nakamoto (The Proof)<\/em> (2014), and of course, Bitchcoin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sarah Meyohas, Bitchcoin #1.282<\/em> (2015 \u2013 2021). Photo: \u00a9 Sarah Meyohas, courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Notably, the Pompidou\u2019s acquisition further nods to Meyohas\u2019s 2017 project, <\/span>Cloud of Petals<\/span><\/i>, which was backed by Bitchcoins. That year, the artist released reserved Bitchcoins on the occasion of her \u201cCloud of Petals\u201d exhibition at Red Bull Arts in New York. There, the 3,291 tokens were linked to a similar number of physical rose petals, each meticulously plucked, photographed, and fed into an A.I. dataset capable of generating yet more images of petals. Holders could \u201cburn\u201d their Bitchcoin to claim its unique petal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Again, the work explored the tension in tying a cryptocurrency to an entirely subjective view of beauty, though this time, deployed digital technologies to further examine what human labor might mean in an era of automation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Cloud of Petals<\/span><\/i> is a conceptual body of work that spans film, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, performance, data science, and photography,\u201d said Meyohas. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to see this work enter the Centre Pompidou\u2019s collection alongside Bitchcoin, a project that proves blockchain-based work can encompass each of those and more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sarah Meyohas, Cloud of Petals<\/em> (2017). Photo: \u00a9 Sarah Meyohas, courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

With its two Bitchcoins, the Pompidou intends to keep one token and exchange the other for a preserved rose petal. To Lista and Bettinelli, the project stands as \u201ca seminal piece that touches on the core of what is at stake, which is the complete interlocking of symbolic, cultural, and financial values.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, while it\u2019s taken almost a decade for her trailblazing project to receive institutional recognition, Meyohas, it seems, has been content to let Bitchcoin\u2019s footprint do the talking.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the projects that don\u2019t tweet the loudest are the most thoughtful ones,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m thankful that the curators at the Pompidou have the critical judgment to differentiate.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

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