This is NOT Blockchain Beach Pescara Open Call

 The exhibition "Eclipse of Art: From Disappearance to Digital Immutability" explores the concept of the disappearance of art proposed by Jean Baudrillard in his book The Disappearance of Art, a process in which art loses its aura and uniqueness, dissolving into the market and technical reproducibility.

Méliès' Moon taking a selfie is the iconic image of this expo.

Once a visionary symbol of revolutionary art that challenged the boundaries of science and fantasy, now we find it there, in its crater, with a smartphone in hand, taking a selfie while winking at the camera. Art? Aura? Mysticism? There's not much we can do: even the moon has surrendered to the modern law of visibility at all costs.

This theme is put into dialogue with the new frontiers of digital art and blockchain technology, which seem to offer an answer to this disappearance through digital immutability and authenticity.

Preview of the artwork produced by Dart & Ilio and submitted for the open call.

"Eclipse of Humanity: From Aura to Crisis" is a digital artwork that explores the duality between the past and the present, between the analog and the digital world. The protagonist of the work is a rich child, depicted with distinctive elements such as a painter's beret or a fur coat, symbols of a privileged and detached society. Instead of using modern technology, the child holds a pair of binoculars in his hands - a tool that once allowed him to explore the unknown, to look far away.

But what he sees through the binoculars is not progress or beauty, but the harsh realities of the world: images of war, poverty, violence and desperation. These visual details emerge in the two circles of the binoculars' eyepieces, representing the inability of the wealthy society to look beyond its own wealth without being exposed to the pain and crisis of humanity.

The work reflects on Jean Baudrillard's concept that art has lost its "aura", dissolving into technical reproducibility and the market. However, in the digital representation of the eclipse of humanity, the image becomes "immutable" thanks to blockchain, giving digital art the power to preserve and denounce the dark truths that society often ignores.

Themes explored:

• Contrast between the analog vision of binoculars and the digital world of smartphones
• The eclipse of the capacity for empathy and understanding, obscured by modernity and opulence
• The immutability of digital art as a response to the disappearance of the traditional aura of art

"Eclipse of Humanity" is a visual reflection on the distorted gaze of privileged society, represented through the metaphor of a rich child observing the world with binoculars. The contrast between luxury and suffering is central, while the work captures the theme of the disappearance of art, replaced by harsh and inescapable images of humanity.

Digital becomes the tool to preserve this vision, making it immutable and destined to endure over time.

Metaverse gallery on Spatial created by Andrea Barbara Romita (aka dragonemelone) to showcase NFT artworks submitted fot the open call contest.

NOT artwork exhibited in the metaverse gallery.