Launched during the 2022 edition of Artissima, the METAmorphosis project is the second episode of Beyond Production – a conceptual platform born from the collaboration between Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and Artissima, in dialogue with the OGR Award, with the aim of stimulating and promoting reflections on the most innovative trends in contemporary art. METAmorphosis investigates the complex phenomenon of the Metaverse by highlighting its potentialities and limitations and proposing a critical, formative and educational vision for art world professionals (galleries and artists) and the public of art lovers.
METAmorphosis invited 4 artists from Artissima 2022 galleries to work on the design idea of a physical work and its digital alter-ego in the Metaverse. From these, a jury of experts selected the winner of the OGR Award – Rebeca Romero – who will present her physical and virtual work Semilla SAGRADA on May 17, 2023 at OGR Torino in the Duomo and on Spatial in the Metaverse.
The four artists and their respective galleries participating in the project were selected at Artissima 2022 through careful work by Ilaria Bonacossa, director of the National Museum of Digital Art in Milan, and are:
Marcos Lutyens – Alberta Pane, Paris, Venice
Eva & Franco Mattes – Apalazzogallery, Brescia
Rebeca Romero – Copperfield, London
R M – Martina Simeti, Milan.
Each project was submitted to the jury of the OGR Award, which awarded Rebeca Romero, the artist who interpreted in the most innovative, stimulating and critical way the starting request: to imagine how one’s research, and consequently one’s physical work, can be transformed when conditioned by the potentialities and limitations that characterize the Metaverse. The work Semilla SAGRADA will then be acquired in its physical and digital versions by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT to grow its Collection.
Semilla SAGRADA explores the intersection of animistic Amerindian cosmogonies and post-humanist futures, where the traditional boundaries between human and non-human are blurred and divinity and personhood are spread across a broad spectrum of beings. Created in collaboration with AI engines, using online archives, advanced photography, 3d modelling and digital fabrication techniques, the project revolves around the story of a future-ancient civilization, worshipers of the sacred SEED, a magical plant- being, endowed with miraculous properties.
METAmorphosis is promoted by Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, which sees its specific mission in supporting contemporary art, a universe in constant evolution that the Foundation intends to support through an innovative and ambitious curatorial project. Artissima conceived and curated the project with the collaboration of extremely credible and experienced realities in their field: Artshell software house for the art market, LCA Studio Legale and REVIBE – Metaverse Experience Factory, based in OGR Tech.
METAmorphosis encompasses the focal identity traits of both Artissima and Fondazione Arte CRT, from the scientific research of experimental planning to support and promote, to the importance of the concept of collection, an indispensable tool for photographing the evolution of the art world and crystallizing it over time.
