The Guardian view of Damien Hirst’s NFTs: asking a burning question | Editorial
Qquestions about the nature and value of art are not new: a century has passed since Marcel Duchamp turned a urinal upside down, signed it R Mutt and presented it as Fountain to the Society of Independent Artists, in response to the promise that it would accept it. any artwork as long as the artist paid the application fee.
New times need new questions, and one was flamboyantly asked last week by artist Damien Hirst, when he began burning hundreds of his own spot paintings after offering buyers the choice of buying them as original works of art or as £2,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Destroying the originals where buyers chose NFTs has some logic; The question is whether this amounts to more than selling a deed and cutting the house.
Hirst’s showmanship might seem to have little in common with another recent transaction: the $100 million sale of UK-based Secret Cinema to an American digital ticketing firm. However, there are similarities. Secret Cinema is an immersive experience that repackages cult films and TV shows as a live experience, recreating worlds from Dirty Dancing to Bridgerton for fans prepared to pay up to £139 a ticket for a glorified fancy dress party with themed cocktails. Just as Hirst’s NFTs are an unproven commodity, TodayTix Group paid top dollar for a business that has been in business for 15 years but has yet to turn a profit. Both play the futures market, with no guarantee that it will pay off. The more interesting question, however, is whether posterity will consider either to have any lasting cultural value beyond the ability to brag about owning a theoretical Hirst, or to post an Instagram selfie.
At the very least, Secret Cinema hires actors and even screenwriters to create custom scenes for revelers to discover while mingling with their favorite characters. The same cannot be said for immersive art exhibitions, such as the Van Gogh experience. The London incarnation promises a 360-degree light and sound spectacular featuring some of his most famous works, with an animated simulation of his brushstrokes. In Dubai, visitors were invited to pose under a sign reading “Here, Best Selfie Ever”. What is missing are original paintings.
There is a difference between these exercises in marketing and repackaging, and artist-led immersive works such as Punchdrunk’s The Burnt City, a theatrical reimagining of the siege of Troy, which implies an old-fashioned contract between artist and viewer – one creates work for the other to experience.
But one should not assume that various types of contracts will not be effective, in a time where so much is changing, technologically, economically and culturally. In 1917, another moment of convulsive change, Duchamp’s fountain was dismissed as a joke. It was a joke, but it was also the future. Today there are many fountains, although the original urinal was lost long ago. It’s a precedent we’d be foolish to ignore.
