An invisible sculpture created by Italian artist Salvatore Garau recently acquired by a private collector who paid a whopping 15,000 euros for it during an auction.
If you’re one of those people who just can’t understand how someone can pay large sums of money for digital assets like video game skins, accessories or increasingly popular non-fungible assets (NFTs), then the sale of Salvatore Garau’s immaterial sculpture is really going to do a number on your brain. Titled “I am” the invisible work of art basically represents a void, a technically empty space that is actually occupied by the energy of the sculpture. Sound like something you’d be interested in? No? Well, it’s too late anyway, as someone has already snatched it up by paying 12 thousand euros (15 thousand with auction rights) earlier this month.
Wondering what the new owner of this invisible sculpture will be getting for their money? Well, if we’re talking visible, tangible things, he will receive a certificate of authenticity that proves “I Am” is the property of the buyer. That’s better than nothing, I guess.
So how does one keep an invisible sculpture? Well, the artist suggests storing the artwork in a special room, in a space free from obstruction, of about 150×150 cm (4.92×4.92 feet). Special lighting and climate control are optional, since “I Am” is immaterial…
“The successful outcome of the auction testifies to an irrefutable fact: the void is nothing but a space full of energy, and even if we empty it and nothing remains, according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle that nothingness has a weight,” Salvatore Garau said. “It therefore has energy that condenses and transforms itself into particles, in short, in us! When I decide to ‘exhibit’ an immaterial sculpture in a given space, that space will concentrate a certain quantity and density of thoughts in a precise point, creating a sculpture that from my title alone will take the most varied forms. After all, don’t we give shape to a God we have never seen?”
Garau considers his invisible sculpture to be a perfect metaphor of our time. It’s also apparently superior to the novel NFT artworks, as not only is is just as unique and impossible to reproduce, but it also has zero environmental impact.
And here we thought that this $120,000 banana duct-taped to a white wall was the craziest artwork ever…