WTF IS NFT explores the cryptic phenomenon of “non-fungible tokens” and their recent emergence and massive hype on the art scene and -most Importantly- The art market.
While the idea of using blockchain technology to rarify digital or digitized artworks and thus “solve” the Benjaminian issue of artworks and their reproducibility for better or worse has been around for a few years already, the ongoing and massively volatile crypto currency movements have laid the foundation for the tokenization of art - and ultimately everything else.
WTF IS NFT wants to honestly ask WTF NFT IS.
To do this, the exhibition has invited local Viennese galleries, a museum, and both Viennese and international artists to create a space for the people actually involved where they can figure out the right questions and discuss possible answers to them.
WTF IS NFT is a total experiment.
Galleries and artists were given carte blanche to decide on their contribution. Works range from existing works in various media that are then minted into NFTs, to natively and exclusively created works that play on the very concepts of tokenization, uniqueness, reproducibility, value and hype. The aim is to try and test, to make visible the breaking points, the fault lines and risks, but also the potentials, advantages and possibilities.
And to do so on a local level, in an actual exhibition space, with and for people. During the short exhibition, WTF IS NFT also invites some of the contributors to a public and open discussion to articulate all this in dialogue with the audience. In doing so, we hope to increase transparency and collaboration, enable exchange and dialogue and contribute to a positive development of a promising yet problematic technology.
