Italian artist Salvatore Garau managed to auction his immaterial artwork, an invisible sculpture. Yes, you read it right. If you thought Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) were new, this art piece is sure to blow your mind.
What is this immaterial and Invisible sculpture?
The artwork, called Io Sono, meaning “I am” is unusual. It is ‘nothing’. In other words, it does not exist in the physical world. According to the 67-year-old artist, the sculpture despite lacking physical form exists in its nothingness.
“The vacuum is nothing more than a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, that nothing has a weight,” said Garai to the reporters. “It has an energy that is condensed and transformed into particles, that is, into us,” he added.
The artwork was auctioned at Art-rite, an Italian auction house last month. Garau’s Invisible artwork was set to be auctioned for almost 9,000 Euros. However, it ended up bringing 1,500 Euros.
The buyer who snagged this ‘sculpture’ received an authentication certificate along with a set of instructions with details on how to ‘display’ the immaterial sculpture. As per the instructions, the ‘invisible sculpture’ should be exhibited in a five-by-five space. This ‘space’ must be free of obstructions and inside a private house.
God is invisible. So, Invisible sculptures and art are no different.
Garau compares his artwork to God, who we believe to exist but is also without a form. However, he points out that we believe God to exist in a form that we see fir. “After all, don’t we shape a God we’ve never seen?” asked the artist to the reporters.
As bizarre as it sounds, this is not the first ‘special artwork’. Back in 2016, Irish photographer Kevin Abrosh was on the contemporary art world’s hall of fame for his feat of auctioning a photograph of a potato for $1million. Also, who can forget Onement VI? The Barnett Newman painting of two rectangles was auctioned for $43.84 million!