Art Comment: Marina Abramovic goes into Web3
Ever one to push boundaries and both challenge and embrace her audience, world-famous performance artist, Marina Abramovic, is entering the new realm of Web3 as a forward-thinking creative, keen on nurturing the future.
Jessica Kinglefuss introduces the artist’s latest project in her piece for Wallpaper* (link to full original article below), and in doing so highlights a poignant shift that is taking place amongst ‘In Real Life’ artists. She writes, “The Hero 25FPS, a collaboration between Marina Abramović and digital art and culture platform Circa, will reward ideas that ‘make the world a better, more beautiful place’”.
Kinglefuss explains the reasoning behind Abramovic’s move towards NFTs and Web3 is to “empower the next generation”, with a quote from the artist herself, explaining that “ ‘The future of performance art sits within the hearts and minds of this new generation who are working with these new technologies. They are experimenting with this new Web3 space and testing its potential. They are taking risks and building new worlds.’ ”
Abramovic’s move to these new worlds is a signal that even artists who have traditionally relied on a physical audience being in a space at a certain time, can see the potential for reaching online communities who will facilitate the expansion, democratic consumption of art and ‘sovereignty for the artist’ in the Web3 space.
Abramovic is one of many artists beginning to explore this alternative universe who had previously been skeptical of its merits. But as one who has felt the sting of prolonged institutional skepticism followed by eventual (inevitable) acceptance of her own medium in performance-based art, she reminds us that evolution of thought and artistic production is down to those who push forward, thinking outside the box.
So much about the traditional art world needs to push forward and the rise of NFTs is opening those doors to revolutionary thought and democratized consumption of art. Circa, with whom Abramovich collaborates on this artwork release, is an organization dedicated to breaking barriers and cultivating new and groundbreaking ideas in art while providing the tech infrastructure to do so. Abramovich will invite buyers of her NFTs to submit their revolutionary ideas to Circa and winners will be deemed ‘heroes’!
The core to the success of a move to Web3 is engaging the communities that inhabit the space. For Abramovic it is a poignant link to her own practice which relies on a live audience for its completion and catharsis, so the importance of audience participation has been nevermore important, and nevermore relevant to today’s generation who live and breathe all-things-crypto, are all much more technologically lingual than those who preceded them.
We at PatronageDAO want to further bridge the gap between traditional artworlds and the creatives of the metaverse with our mission for a groundbreaking collection owned and curated by the people. We recognize the crucial catalyst that lies in the collaboration between tech platform and artist, and in parallel to that, the community who are there to contribute and participate. Our goal is to redefine what it is to collect, and put the art, the collection and its curation in the hands of our Web3 audience — and the growing crypto communities who aren’t afraid to be radical, and who hold the future in their hands.
Join us!
Raphael, Co-Founder of PatronageDAO
