The 59th Venice Biennale will present for the first time the crypto art exhibition "The Chimera Era"

Nandu reporter learned that the "Chimera Era" global crypto art exhibition jointly initiated by GCA DAO, a global crypto art decentralized organization, the Venice Biennale Committee and the Cameroon National Pavilion, will be launched at the same time as the Bernard Palace and the Venice Biennale on the central island of Venice on April 20, 2022. On April 2, Beijing time, the press conference of the 59th Venice Biennale Cameroon National Pavilion Global Crypto Art Exhibition "The Time of the Chimeras" was held online and broadcast live.

Sandro Orlandi Stagl, Italian veteran curator, humanist scholar and architect

The exhibition's curator, the humanist scholar and architect Sandro Orlandi Stagl, introduced that one of the themes of the Venice Biennale, "The Milk of Dreams," is about "the relationship between the individual and technology," which provides a brilliant starting point to address the current NFT phenomenon, with the intention of giving one of the most important aspects of artistic creation: imagination.

Imagination has always been the foundation of mythology, and the "Chimera Era" brings back mythical animal symbols of fantasy, adventurous fantasy, unattainable dreams, and dystopian visions. The "Chimera Era" has also become the era of choice of crypto artists, artists use the artistic expression of the Web3 world encryption technology to kill the ignorant, racially segregated, isolated "monsters", cross obstacles, and carry these ideals forward continuously, representing the world of tomorrow.

Ji Xiaofeng, representative of the Art Committee of the Venice Biennale Crypto Art Exhibition, Chinese liaison of GCA DAO, founding partner of Gallery 3, and founder of the China-Italy Contemporary Art Biennale

Ji Xiaofeng, representative of the Art Committee of the Venice Biennale Crypto Art Exhibition and chinese liaison of GCA DAO, founding partner of Gallery 3 and founder of the China-Italy Contemporary Art Biennale, said that the exhibition can present the earliest consensus from the three types of Internet.

For example, the small partners of blockchain communities such as Awsb in the Bay Area discuss what is a high-quality crypto art project every day? New York-centric collectors, who have experienced the same artists and faces of the work at head auction houses for more than 20 years, are asking what are the exciting new creations? The Venice-Berlin-Zurich-Madrid-London community of artists and curators, after learning that the Venice Biennale had boldly used an innovative female curator, Cecilia Alemani, also discussed what was the most worthwhile work to be presented at the Venice Biennale in the past three years.

Several early crypto art collectors in three different communities crossed the same conclusion: It was in this most historic, widely influential, but most inclusive and diverse mainstream art event that made crypto art come to life.

In November 2021, the fifteen-person art committee was quickly formed, 23 artists were selected, and with the support of the Cameroonian manager who participated in the Venice Biennale for the first time, an application was submitted to the Venice Biennale Committee and was quickly approved.

Yuan Yuan, representative of the art committee of the Venice Biennale Crypto Art Exhibition

Yuan Yuan, representative of the Art Committee of the Venice Biennale Crypto Art Exhibition, said at the press conference that each member of the Art Committee independently evaluated the works of all candidate artists by referring to factors such as artistry and encryption originality, and finally selected 23 artists according to the comprehensive ranking. In terms of media, the 23 artists selected this time involve photography, film, animation, sculpture, installation, etc., integrating a variety of comprehensive artistic media.

In different cultures, the "Chimera" has its counterpart, such as in Greek culture, a mixture of lion and sheep. Therefore, Yuan Yuan believes that the theme of this exhibition, "Chimera Era", also represents the practice of crypto art that integrates various heterogeneities. What is shaping and changing our world? Over the past 20 years, Web 2.0 has completely reshaped the world, and Web 3.0 will reshape the world in the future. Artists have never lagged behind their times, but Web 3.0 brings great challenges, requiring artists to work hard to overcome cognitive and technical barriers, truly understand the concept of change of Web 3.0, master new languages, new materials, and think about new possibilities in the crisis and dilemma of reality, in order to create works that truly affect concepts and change the real world.

Kevin Abosch's 1111

Among the participating artists in this exhibition are many names who have performed well in the crypto art market, such as Kevin Abosch, Marina Nunet, Eduwrdo Kac, etc., as well as veteran artists who have begun to practice digital and multimedia art in the 1970s and 1980s with the development of computer technology, as well as emerging artists who have emerged with the development of crypto art, as well as outstanding artists who have had outstanding creative accumulation in contemporary art and have begun to explore crypto art.

Artist Wang Xing

As an participating artist in this exhibition, Wang Xing said that he was honored to be selected for the Venice Biennale. "This is an exhibition that I had in mind since I was an undergraduate. I hope that through this exhibition, I can make some of my own voices. ”

Xing Wang, Digital Babel Library: Small Doors, 2021

Wang Xing began to participate in blockchain in 2016 and believes that the web3 concept is a very constructive social practice direction. Correspondingly, it will become the next generation of the internet, and crypto art will be the native art form of the new era. As a participant in an art education background, Wang Xing has also been thinking about how to make crypto art more interesting, more understood, and more worthy of attention. The ultimate answer is to explore a crypto native art, that is, to use blockchain technology as an artistic language, rather than just borrowing the NFT confirmation attribute, and at the same time taking the opportunity of art to refine the humanistic connotation of blockchain technology, so that more people can understand what is happening in the world of web3.

Spanish artist Marina Nú ez

Maria Nú ez, an artist from Spain, is very excited to be able to participate in this exhibition, and has also produced a series of video works for this exhibition. Some of the trembling and shaking of the skin presented in Marina Nú ez's works seem to be out of place for women, and these presentations of the body are also metaphors for female identity, about symbiosis, about metamorphosis, about the crisis on earth.

Marina Nú ez, frames of “Skinless (2)”, 2022

It is reported that during the exhibition, a variety of lectures, forums, workshops and other activities will be held for nearly one million art practitioners, art lovers and people in the field of crypto collection visiting from all over the world, and applications will also be opened to hold a phased extended exhibition during this period.

It is on the run until 27 November.