Last weekend, an NFT of the theatrical performance “Einstein on the Beach”, a performance premiered in Avignon in 1976 by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, was auctioned for 28 ETH.
This means that this NFT of a scene from Wilson's production, in which a bar of light slowly moves from the horizontal to the vertical, was paid around 76,800 euros.
A lot of money for a file.
The process is relevant in terms of the art market and comparing the proceeds from this NFT sale to the prices an artist like Robert Wilson fetches for example with his video portraits in traditional galleries.
The event is particularly exciting because something was sold here that until recently was considered unsaleable: a stage work.
It is true that dramatic texts and productions are sold, but up to now nobody has been able to acquire a piece privately in the same way as one acquires a painting or a sculpture.
modern theater world
The work character of stagings is collective and not factual, because pieces are joint works for public use, which means they are made “new” every evening and belong to everyone who makes and experiences them.
This is not the case with art objects such as pictures or sculptures, since they can be transformed into a singular possession and can be enjoyed individually, even without being public.
In the modern world of theater it is all about what happens between people.
But this form of work is always appropriated and exhibited in collectives and for a collective of spectators.
The invention of the NFT has changed that.
Into the group production and community experience of theatrical arts, the NFT cuts from Wilson's famous scene like gene scissors,
Making a scenic work moment tradable is an important event for the history of theater and art.
It owes its existence to two other notable events: On the one hand, the event format surrounding the auction mastered a task that had previously been considered difficult to solve.
Because the format tested in the Mitte power plant in Berlin has suddenly turned the completely non-sensory blockchain processes, such as the production and sale of an NFT, into moving experiences in the real world through a sophisticated staging.
And the second aspect of this NFT sale of a theater scene is the fact that this sale has activated a global community of collectors and traders using cryptocurrencies that they create and can determine the value of themselves.
Which is roughly as if the Volksbühne in Berlin or the Burgtheater in Vienna minted euros themselves, with which you can pay for their tickets.
Successful artists and gallery owners have always known that not only first-class presentation rooms and ennobling exhibitions of the works in renowned institutions are important for high-priced sales, but above all the creation and maintenance of a community of faith in these works.
Nowhere else is there so much eating together and in comfort as in the world of the market leader galleries.
that not only first-class presentation rooms and ennobling exhibitions of the works in renowned institutions are important for the high-price sale, but above all the creation and maintenance of a community of faith in these works.
Nowhere else is there so much eating together and in comfort as in the world of the market leader galleries.
that not only first-class presentation rooms and ennobling exhibitions of the works in renowned institutions are important for the high-price sale, but above all the creation and maintenance of a community of faith in these works.
Nowhere else is there so much eating together and in comfort as in the world of the market leader galleries.
Ether, the new oil
In the hyper-individualistic, hyper-capitalistic market world of crypto art, these value-creating club events are now happening on social media and platforms like Discord, most notably within the DAOs themselves, those decentralized autonomous organizations that not only form their own communities of interest, but also their own cryptocurrency like Bring forth bitcoin or ether.
The Internet has long since created its own currencies, currently there are over 11,000.
Bitcoin is seen as gold in this Web3 crypto-finance world and ether, the currency of the blockchain network Ethereum, as the new oil.
The 28 Ethers for Wilson's theater NFT were paid by an entrepreneur who, through his co-founder DAO Bright Moments, is currently issuing Crypto Citizen NFTs to thousands of people each in ten global cities in the US, Europe,
Latin America, Asia and Africa sold.
One inevitably thinks of the 10,000 NFT tokens of the "Bored Ape Yacht Club" that were stored on the Ethereum blockchain in 2021 and now have over a billion dollars in sales.
It was therefore eagerly awaited who would buy the “Einstein on the Beach” NFT at the end of the ten-day auction.