Years ago we would have simply called them videos, and we would have thought maybe one of Björk’s many experiments. Instead this time it is Madonna who launches a series of short clips where she gives the light respectively to: a tree, butterflies, centipedes-robots. The singer is digitally recreated starting from her last transfiguration in flesh and blood, and so far we would be precisely in the territory of the Icelandic artist, but here’s more: the videos are in fact NFT conceived in collaboration with Beeple, aka Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist famous for selling one of his works a year ago for $ 69 million at a Christie auction. Beeple thus started the era of NFT, the Non Fungible Token, a conceptually intriguing attempt to bring the concept of uniqueness back into the digital world of replicas all identical to the original.
For mothers
“When Mike and I decided to partner on this project a year ago, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to share my worldview as a mother and artist with her unique point of view. It was an incredible journey to build it together from an intellectual idea to an emotional story, bringing art to life. I wanted to investigate the concept of creation, not just how a child enters the world through a woman’s vagina, but also how an artist brings forth creativity. And above all, we wanted to use this opportunity to benefit the mothers and children who most need help right now ”.
The works will be auctioned from Wednesday 11 to Friday 13 May, through the SuperRare online marketplace. The proceeds will benefit three non-profit organizations that support women and children: the Voices of Children Foundation, which cares for people affected by the war in Ukraine; the City of Joy Foundation, which helps survivors of violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; and Black Mama’s Bail Out, which helps collect bail for arrested black mothers out of prison.
Tutorial
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The mystery of creation
“This is an absolute, insane honor,” Winkelmann told The New York Times. “I don’t do many collaborations. This is probably the only one I will do for a long time.”
The series is titled Mother of Creation and Madonna describes it like this: “The opening of each video is essentially me giving birth. I’m doing what women have been doing since the beginning of time, giving birth. But on a more existential level, I’m giving birth to the art and creativity, and we would be lost without both. “
The images of Mother of Nature they are surreal and disturbing, a contrast between the softness of the female form and the raw sterility of a research laboratory.
Mother of Evolution shows how even in times of chaos, or apocalypse, rebirth can still take place while Mother of Technology it offers a darker view of humanity’s relationship with technology.
The works last one minute each, they were conceived with a 3D scan of Madonna; the singer paired each video with verses of her, her or the mystical poet Rumi, while the music is a rather harmless ambient.
The mystery of the community
Madonna’s interest in NFTs is not of today: a few months ago, in fact, she paid 180 ether (about $ 570,000) for an NFT of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of digital art, which today is the icon of the his Twitter account.
At NYT, the singer explains that her interest in Non Fungible Token stems from a desire to explore “the elements of faith and community that drive the NFT market.” Identity and community: if this were the case, Madonna would perhaps already be a step ahead of the many experiments of other artists, who often see only an easy earning opportunity in NFT, as Brian Eno recently pointed out.
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