Interview with Matteo Mauro: "NFT? Art is not a market, it is a spiritual practice"

Today at NFT Europe we are here with Matteo Mauro, on of the first Italian digital artist that have launched an NFT. Let’s find out about his story.

Hi Matteo, thanks for giving us this interview. Well, let’s start. Tell us about you and your art.

I’m born in Italy and grew up in England. Our studio is now an international reality that aims to bring our philosophy of art-making to both the physical and digital worlds.

In art, I personally see the potential of creating a new society based on respecting basic human creative needs and against the exploitation of inhuman jobs. Our utopia is still very much inspired by the book News from Nowhere by William Morris, a fictional world in which arts and crafts become the only way of sorting out this planet.

What made you become a digital artist?

In general, we find it hard to describe ourselves as digital artists since we see no difference between analogue and digital art. It is still made by humans with controlled tools that project form and colours onto a visible canvas. Even the virtual looks to us like nothing more than moving colours on a white cotton canvas or masses of materials in a 3D space. This is how we feel about it. But, to answer your question pragmatically, I guess it was a natural push connected to the development of the tools. Today, Leonardo would paint with Photoshop and sculpt on Z-brush because exciting people don’t leave new technologies behind.

Tell us about the first NFT signed Matteo Mauro

Our first NFT will celebrate our most awarded artwork, Baroque. Interestingly, it will be awarded to our most loyal collectors as a gift for their continued support of our art and practice. It will be distributed privately.

Where are you now? Which are the future project of Matteo Mauro on NFTs?

These days we work between Italy and England. We are waiting for the world to heal itself and the fear brought by an endless pandemic to go away. We have lots of exhibitions planned, but mainly a new project of deliverable virtual realities that will be traded and presented as an NFT.

Is Crypto Arte musealisable? How will museums react to the evolution of the NFT market?

Yes, it is. I guess the most artistic achievement of NFTs is actually to have shocked the art world and its market. These days art and shock are very connected since we are used to being overexcited with plenty of stimuli. We are all, in art, constantly looking for something new and as yet unseen. NFTs have really delivered something to talk about and to develop further. Art history will not lose the chance of archiving this huge change in its books. There’s still a lot to understand and much to learn about this new movement, and we are ready to witness it.

Museums will have a role for Crypto Art and what will it be?

They will do what they good at, hence validate the art. The role of a museum in art is not to show pieces to art lovers or tourists; rather, it is to validate and catalogue good works of art. Of course, sometimes mistakes are made, as history shows. But, definitely, they will judge NFTs and the work to create a hierarchy in the myriad of tokenised images we are facing.

In your experience, what will be the evolution of the Crypto Arte market?

Linking to the previous answer, at the moment, a good NFT is only valued according to its price and quotation. Top artists on platforms such as Superrare are the artists who sold the most and top collectors who own the most valuable pieces. This is a bit of a dangerous game, which is not what happens in art. Since in art, a top artist can also be an artist who doesn’t really sell much, but who is talented and recognised by institutions such as a museum or top gallery, which declare it, with its expert and curators, a major one.

The labels next to NFTs can be a bit misleading when related to words like art and artist. ‘Cos art is not a market; it is a spiritual practice. However, as a trade, the crypto art market will be active forever and grow; in that, we believe.

Also, can there be a relationship between the world of Crypto Art and that of physicality?

I think yes, and actually already does. I think every artist, besides making big sales in Ethereum and great looking virtual museums, would want to create physical realisations of their creations in space. ’Cos the interaction is greater since you involve five senses and not just two (sight, and sometimes sound). Also, in the future, NFTs can really be the only way to certify the authenticity of a physical piece. NFTs and physical artwork will always coexist as we all need divine objects in our lives and spaces, but we are also all going to need the protection and safety, and in a way transparency, of a block-chain system and an active art market, for both the physical and virtual worlds.