Carlos Fentanes

I have been trying to understand the term Non-Fungible Token (NFT), its concept in the art world and its function with a work of art.  As a concept I can get it but when it is transformed to a valuable work of art, I really don’t get it. It seems to me that It is more important the Token that the work itself, something similar to the instruction for a mural of Sol LeWitt where the mural is just a mechanical representation of his instructions, and the instruction or the manual of procedures is the “real thing” but at the end it’s just a concept in a piece of paper until it is performed. Maybe another example is a symphony of Mozart, it is just a piece of paper until an orchestra perform it, but the real work of art is that ethereal combination of sounds that you can hear and enjoy but not that piece of paper where it is written, that is just the instructions.

In 1958 Yves Klein presents a completely empty gallery with his last creation, it was known as “The Void”, the real name was: “La spécialisation de la sensibilité à l’état matière première en sensibilité picturale stabilisée”, it was set up at the Iris Clert gallery in Paris from April 28 to May 15 1958 . Thanks to a very studied marketing campaign, it attracts near 3,000 people in the opening night, Yves Klein serves blue cocktails that ironically makes you pee blue, you were converted in living Yves Klein work of art but that is not the point with the NFT, Ives Klein was trying to show the immateriality of art, the void as the ultimate essence of experiencing art. These “immaterial” works of arts were sold in gold and the collectors received in exchange a certificate of authenticity, a coupon, a rain check that states the ownership of this immaterial works of art. We can see now that Yves Klein was a pioneer of the NFTs, but sometimes I do not know if Yves Klein was serious about this immateriality of art or all this was just a farse.

OK, let me explain myself, according to what I understand the NFT is not the work of art but a Token, or a coupon or a rain check to have access to your real Work of art, this Token is unique and cannot be duplicate and this “uniqueness” made it so valuable that people fight for it and they can pay a lot of money, the same as a baseball card of Babe Ruth. What do you get with this coupon? A web address where the artwork is kept, the key to your vault.

There is something that I still don’t know, can I share a web address on an NFT or do I need to be the legal owner in order to get access to it? If everybody can have access to my vault and my treasure what is the point of having an NFT.  But if it is just the legal owner who have access to it, Can I show my Collection in a Museum? Can I donate my collection to a museum to share it with all the world?