Madrid ARCO exhibits first time NFT work that coexists with another critique of the speculative world around digital art based on cryptography - The International Contemporary Art Fair of Madrid (ARCO) is exhibiting a work that is sold in non-fungible token (NFT) format, based on blockchain technology.

It is the work Hash Tree, by the artist Solimán López from Burgos, who sells it for about 12,000 euros. The artist bought a bonsai online that he later digitized and converted to 3D using the technique of photogrammetry.

With this, he later created an NFT with a unique blockchain-based algorithm. Then the artist replants the tree and geolocates its position, as part of the tokenized material.

"The tree is now part of the structure of the digital and returns to its natural environment", explains the author in the file of the work on the Artsy platform. The work is included in the exhibition of the Baró gallery.

This format of cryptographic tokens is still quite novel in the art world, to the point that ARCO's own director, Maribel López, recently acknowledged that it is a format that she is still trying to fully understand.

Madrid ARCO exhibits first time NFT work

"It's a complicated issue. I still understand it as a support, but the blockchain concept and certification of that unit is going to be very important. I'm trying to understand it even as an art form, I'm still learning, " he confessed in an interview with Europa Press before the start of the fair.

NFTSARE digital assets that use the possibilities of blockchains to ensure their authorship and uniqueness. They are therefore unique and original products in digital format, characteristics that fit very well with the art market.

They are not something that has just been created, but it is experiencing a boom. For example, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, has just created a market for these NFTs and in recent times digital assets of all kinds have been sold in this format, such as the recent auction of the source code of the World Wide Web.

Madrid ARCO exhibits first time NFT work

In the art market, works have been sold for very high prices, such as the almost 70 million euros that were paid for the work The First 5000 Days by Mike Winkelman, known as Beeple.

All kinds of assets, a priori of little value, such as memes, are also being sold, which has led several voices to denounce the speculation that exists within this world.

Madrid ARCO exhibits first time NFT work: The ARCO itself collects a criticism towards part of this sector on the rise. He does this through a work called Schred (shredder), which through an algorithm destroys and reconstructs works in NFT that have just been sold. Its price is 32,000 euros.

"It's my comment about the NFT, which as an artist working with technology, affects me directly. I am angry that now our work is looked at with more interest in this, when it has to do more with speculation and cryptocurrency than with art", explained a few days ago the author of the work, the Madrid-born Daniel Canogar.

Madrid ARCO exhibits first time NFT work

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The WHO chief scientist warns that the pandemic is not slowing down: "In the last 24 hours there have been about 500,000 new cases and about 9,300 deaths"

The Delta variant of the coronavirus threatens the tourism sector for the summer, even with vaccination processes. SARS-CoV-2 infections are increasing in much of the world driven by the spread of the Indian strain, which is already the majority in several countries.

Many of them are facing bed shortages, oxygen shortages, and rising mortality, as the World Health Organization's chief scientist explained in an interview on Bloomberg Television.

"In the last 24 hours there have been about 500,000 new cases and about 9,300 deaths, indicating that the pandemic is not slowing down," said Soumya Swaminathan.

The Indian physician and researcher has pointed out that positive cases of coronavirus are increasing in five of the six regions in which the WHO divides the world, who stressed that, for example, in Africa mortality has skyrocketed between 30% and 40% in the last two weeks.

A trend that, with greater or lesser intensity, is reproduced all over the globe. According to Swaminathan, the reasons that explain it are given in the slowness of vaccination, the elimination of the obligation to wear masks, as well as maintaining the distance of interpersonal security in many parts of the world.

Although the main reason given by the chief scientist of the WHO is the delta variant. A view he shares with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus himself, who has posted a tweet warning of the danger of easing restrictions.

"I'm concerned about the emergence of a powerful covid variant like Delta. Unless we increase access to vaccines for those who need them first, and need them now, we collectively run a high risk of losing the gains we've made. Speed is very important, " said the top leader of the WHO on Twitter.

During the last week Spain has registered 13,000 new daily positives on average. He recorded over 17,000 yesterday.

According to the latest data made public by the Coordination Center for Health Alerts and Emergencies (CCAES), led by epidemiologist Fernando Simón, countries that have recorded the highest number of accumulated infections increase their positive cases below 1%, both inside and outside Europe, with the exception of Indonesia, which grows to 1.27%.

They are experiencing high increases in other countries such as South Africa, with 0.97%, United Kingdom (0.56%), Russia (0.43%) or Portugal (0.27%).