Vancouver Biennale invites all to #ArtProject2020

Curated by New York-based Colombian artist Jessica Angel, the expo will run from November 11^th to 15^th and feature over 40 events offering accessible educational resources for digital art. To reserve a free ticket and see the complete speaker list and schedule, visit www.artproject.io. Trilingual programming in English, Spanish, and Chinese will be available. 

The expo will accompany Vancouver Biennale’s first exhibition of tokenized art with new works by Jessica Angel, Dina Goldstein, Diana Thorneycroft, and Kristin McIver. Tokenized art is powered by blockchain technology and has redefined digital artwork ownership, allowing artists and collectors the benefit of true digital scarcity. The exhibition will be launched via the blockchain marketplace, Ephimera.com. 

Anchoring the virtual expo is a future physical installation by Jessica Angel. Cleverly titled Voxel Bridge, this public artwork will transform the area underneath Vancouver’s Cambie Street Bridge into a three-layered immersive experience to transport visitors between physical and digital worlds. Working with the vastness of the concrete bridge as first layer, Angel adds her site-specific installation as a second layer, and completes the experience with augmented reality enhancements over the real world as the third and final layer. The installation is slated for completion in Spring 2021. 

“Art is a mobilizing force with the power to bridge seemingly dissimilar worlds, and Voxel Bridge exhibits this capacity. This expo transcends the enjoyment of art into a unifying and experimenting effort, that enables blockchain technology and established art institutions to examine ways of interaction. Join us in the virtual public space, to learn, and to cultivate new forms of participation.” – Jessica Angel, Artist 

“I never want to see the Biennale stuck in the past, presenting only static sculpture in an ever-changing world. We work with what comes next, the yet unknown, and we want to go where the future is heading and where public art has, perhaps, always been going. I am excited for this expo and the next chapter of the Biennale.” – Barrie Mowatt, Founder & Artistic Director of Vancouver Biennale

SuperRare’s Participation

Time: 1:30 – 2:05 PM PST 4:30 – 5:05 PM EST 10:30 – 11:05 PM CET

Format: Panel Discussion (35 Min)

Speakers: JJ Laxton, Alex Salnikov, Jennifer Senhaji, John Crain

Moderator: Theo Goodman

Pioneers in the non-fungible ecosystem discuss the work that goes into planning and designing tokenized art marketplaces. Topics include optimizing the user experience, incorporating innovative features, embracing feedback, and moving with the times.

Time: 10:00 – 10:35 AM PST 1:00 – 1:35 PM EST 7:00 – 7:35 PM CET

Format: Panel Discussion (35 Min)

Speakers: Charles Crain, Vamsi Alluri, James Morgan, JJ Laxton, Pouria Assadipour

Moderator: Simona Pop

CTOs and product managers from a number of prominent tokenized art marketplaces will discuss their experiences in designing and building a product to maximize user experiences. From decentralized media storage and front-end design to innovative smart contracts and extensive testing, this panel shares some of the biggest challenges and most rewarding successes they have witnessed throughout a long and intensive process.

Innovators, curators, legal experts, and artists working at the leading edge of digital art will cover topics including What Is Cryptoart?, Finding Opportunity In the Digital, Women Leading th Art and Tech Movement, The Art of Immersion, Decentralising Power and Resources in the Art World, and Tools for Artists and Collectors. 

Speakers come from a mixed range of backgrounds from museums and galleries to groundbreaking technology companies, including The Whitney Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Christie’s, Foundation for Art and Blockchain, SuperRare, and Art in America. 

Barrier-free educational workshops will teach participants about using open-source and accessible innovative tools to create, monetize, and collect digital art. Workshops are integrated with various blockchain projects to drive adoption through experience. Featured presenters include Ephimera, Status, and MakerDAO, key platforms contributing to the growth of the tokenized art market. 

Vancouver’s very own Indigenous Matriachs 4 will present from the Immersive Knowledge Transfer series for XR media creators, artists, and storytellers from diverse cultural communities. 

Fun activities will offer more in-depth learning experiences. A Crypto-Art Puzzle will drop clues every day of the event, and the Digital Art Battle will challenge artists to draw live. This gamified experience will offer winners rewards in different tokens. Participates can also join the Rare AF team on a Virtual Gallery Tour through the Metaverse, where gallery owners will share the inspirations behind their virtual spaces. 

Since 2002, the Vancouver Biennale has championed accessibility to great art and has shaped the experience of urban public spaces through iconic public art installations by internationally renowned artists. Each exhibition transforms the urban landscape into an Open Air Museum, creating globally inspired cultural experiences where people live, work, play, and transit, while using art as a catalyst for community engagement, learning, and social action. The Vancouver Biennale features internationally renowned and emerging contemporary artists that represent a diversity of cultural perspectives and artistic disciplines including sculpture, new media, performance works, music, and film. #ArtProject2020 will expand the interpretation of public space into the virtual realm, while establishing meaningful connections between the physical and digital.

Voxel Bridge is a 34,000 sqft immersive installation by New York based Colombian artist Jessica Angel. The piece explores how public space can be constructed and utilized in both digital and physical realities. Using adhesive vinyl and Augmented Reality technology, Angel will transform the Cambie Street Bridge in Vancouver and draw visual parallels between blockchain technology and the structural integrity of the underpass in front of the Southeast False Creek Neighborhood Energy Utility (NEU). This installation becomes a point of contact and dialogue around different forms of knowledge. #ArtProject2020 will be the first of many activations that build on this dialogue, providing a gathering hub for innovators in the fields of sustainability, Augmented Reality, and digital art in public space. Vancouver Biennale invites all artists, creators, and experience designers whose ethos are aligned with the concepts of experimentation, community, integration, and decentralization to activate the space.

 -x- 

Contact 

Sammi Wei, Producer, #ArtProject2020 

Operations Director, Vancouver Biennale 

Phone: 604-682-1289 Ext. 103 Email: [email protected] 

November 5, 2020 

Breaking technological barriers and allowing creators unfamiliar with blockchain technology to be included in the cryptoart world easily and conveniently, Ephimera will officially launch during #ArtProject2020. Ephimera is the world’s first marketplace of tokenized art with a focus on photography and media art. Built on the Ethereum blockchain, it allows creators to publish their work as unique, non-fungible tokens and offer these for auction to collectors. Ephimera will reimagine the ways in which photography and media art are appreciated, traded, and curated in the modern era. Non-Fungible Tokens and Scarce Digital Art One trend to be explored in #ArtProject2020 is the emergence of tokenized art, a young industry that has redefined the concept of owning digital artwork. Unique, non-fungible tokens powered by blockchain technology allow for the tracking of ownership and provenance in an immutable and permanent manner, and a new community has risen to embrace this potential of scarce digital art. #ArtProject2020 will be the Vancouver Biennale’s first display of tokenized art, introducing collectors and art institutions to the rapidly growing cryptoart community by demonstration and education.