Contemporary arts centre Palazzo Strozzi is fully embracing the NFT revolution with an exhibition that experiments with the art of the present and future. Let’s Get Digital! is one of the first and most significant shows in Italy to focus on digital art.
Refik Anadol, Machine Hallucinations – Renaissance Dreams (2022) Site specific installation for the courtyard of Palazzo Strozzi, AI Data Sculpture, Video loop, LED wall, cm 900 x 600. Courtesy RAS – Refik Anadol Studio
Running from May 18 to July 31, the exhibition takes visitors on an immersive journey into non-fungible tokens in the famous Renaissance courtyard and down into the depths of the Strozzina halls. Organized by the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation and Hillary Merkus Recordati Foundations and curated by Arturo Galansino, director general of Palazzo Strozzi and Serena Tabacchi, director of MoCDA, Museum of Contemporary Digital Art, the exhibition includes digital installations and multimedia experiences crafted by artists who communicate the multifaceted study of crypto art, based on the success of NFTs, which are redefining what makes a work of art unique and valuable.
Krista Kim, Mars House, 2020, 3D files (NFT). Music: Jeff Schroeder. Courtesy Krista Kim Studio Collection AOI Vault
As visitors to Palazzo Strozzi have come to expect, the first impression of the new show can be found in pride of place in the inner courtyard. Turkish artist Refik Anadol’s site-specific installation focuses on the relationship between digital and physical architecture through a hypnotic and dynamic work in which the algorithms of artificial intelligence create illusions that challenge our notion of reality. The installation links to the works on show in the Strozzini where each room provides immersive art created by an array of creatives: Mike Winkelmann’s Beeple, which focuses on politics and pop culture in dystopian scenarios; Daniel Arsham’s reflection on the idea of sculpture through temporal loops in which materiality and immateriality blend together in continual transformation and destruction; and Krista Kim’s hallmark minimalist style that brings us into an impossible world of geometry and reflection. The show will be brought to life with live concerts from the Anyma Collective in an intersection between visual performances and music.
“Let’s Get Digital aims to bring the general public closer to the recent developments in digital art, which is now universally recognized by the contemporary art world,” explains Serena Tabacchi. “Decentralization, blockchains and NFTs have certified and circulated the work of many artists who weren’t considered as such up until a few years ago. This bottom-up movement has made artists famous who were only appreciated in social media communities until a few months ago… The art of the future meets digital as the preferred medium for creative expression. We can expect an infinite number of possibilities. The best is yet to come.”
Let’s Get Digital!
May 18 – July 31
Palazzo Strozzi
Daily 10am-8pm, Thursdays until 11pm
Tickets cost 10 euro; 5 euro under 18s; 15 euro for combined tickets with Donatello, the Renaissance and Let’s Get Digital!
