DYOR (do your own research) is a dictum of the crypto scene. The principle is that one should do one’s own investigation rather than believing all that is read. The exhibition reveals to visitors what is, for many, a new world: art in the context of blockchain and NFTs.
Curated by Nina Roehrs, DYOR focusses on artists, projects and platforms that have had a significant influence on how the crypto art scene has developed and is today. This history and an ever-changing present come together in environments, both analogue and digital, which invite visitors to get involved. The exhibition makes a wide variety of worlds, ideas and ways of thinking accessible through various sections.
— Deutsch —
DYOR (Do Your Own Research, Mach deine eigene Recherche) ist ein geflügeltes Wort in der Krypto-Szene. Es beschreibt die Maxime, sich selbst zu informieren, anstatt alles zu glauben, was man liest. Die Ausstellung lädt die Besucher:innen ein, sich diese neue Welt von Kunst im Kontext von Blockchain und NFT zu erschliessen. Kuratiert von Nina Roehrs, stellt DYOR Künstler:innen, Projekte und Plattformen, die die Entstehung und das aktuelle Erscheinungsbild der Krypto-Kunst Szene massgeblich prägen, in den Mittelpunkt. In verschiedenen Sektionen macht die Ausstellung verschiedenste Welten, Vorstellung und Denkweisen zugänglich.
News/Events
Sections
24 SEEDERS
At the centre of the exhibition sits an installation of 24 rotating panels each of which will be dedicated to one artist or platform. This section focuses on the work of artists, creators and platforms who have pioneered the Crypto Art space and who have laid the foundations for new artistic concepts and standards.
Read moreCumulonimbus Murus
Commonly known as a wall cloud, the meteorological phenomenon cumulonimbus murus indicates a strong updraft and powerful thunderstorm from which tornados can form. Cumulonimbus Murus (2022) by Martin Lukas Ostachowski is a multi-media installation highlighting the milestones that informed crypto art through this natural occurrence. The installation carefully traces the origins and defines and contextualizes the movement that acted as a catalyst for digital art.
Read moreChristian Langalis, Cryptograffiti, EverDreamSoft, Kevin Abosch, Marcus Connor and Rhea Myers
Pepe the Frog Space
This space presents Bitcoin-native Counterparty digital and physical exhibits from the Rare Pepe and Fake Rare directories, exhibited in a cypherpunk living room.
> A brief history of Rare Pepe | How a viral meme went from outcast to art museum by Martin Lukas Ostachowski
> How to view and claim your DYOR Pepe Asset
Read moreAERAONE, AI, Alth0tas, Bitcoin Basement, BucaPunk, Chrome Void, Crypsi, Darkfarms, Darky, Dim Zayan, Ditacrypto, Emblematix, Fake Annie, FWD, Gianni Arone (aka LOVEBEING), Grant Riven Yun, grnqrtr, Hitomi Matsui, Indelible Trade, JB, Johnny Johnsonson, Jose Burrito, Kero, Lord Jamie V. Shill, Luis Simo, MandarineMarie, Marcus Connor, Matt Kane, MBTC, Mike, MrHansel, N-N-I-A, Netidx (aka Gilles Pegel), Nikolina Petolas, Norman Comics, Oni Giri, Pepenardo, Prateek Dhiman, Rare Scrilla, Rarejay, ROBNESS, Rochigg, Shewolf, Snuxton Pack, Tasha Moon, Tek x Porkchop, Tomopen, VincentVanDough, Viva la Vandal, VSTRVL, Yotet and few more…
Pepe the Frog Store
Our Pepe the Frog Space is accompanied by a small store for Pepe items including posters, T-shirts, caps, mugs and stickers. Visit the show and pick up some merch.
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Unser Pepe the Frog Space wird von einem eigenen kleinen Shop für Pepe-Artikel wie Poster, T-Shirts, Caps, Tassen und Sticker begleitet. Besuchen Sie die Ausstellung und decken sich mit ein paar Pepe Artikel ein.
DYOR: Crypto Glossary
Whether you’re an OG or a newcomer, crypto-pilled – on board – or an adamant no-coiner, you’ve probably noticed that this world has a lexicon all its own.
Read moreNFTism
The artist, curator and writer promotes the concept of NFTs through the notion of NFTism (a term he trademarked) in his art, writing, in curated exhibitions, fairs and in a social token deployed on SushiSwap in December of 2021.
Read moreDigital Space
For DYOR the physical exhibition space has gained a digital extension. This is an illustration of the Kunsthalle Zürich’s third floor gallery as well as the roof of the Löwenbräukunst building. Initially only accessible through a VR (Virtual Reality) headset within the exhibition, since 8 October 2023 the digital space is also be available worldwide – via web, mobile or VR.
Read moreBanz & Bowinkel, Jan Robert Leegte, Kim Asendorf, Lorna Mills, Manuel Rossner, Maxim Zhestkov, Moxarra Gonzales, Nancy Baker Cahill and Rafaël Rozendaal
A Slice of the Pie
For the duration of the exhibition DYOR, a 16 square-metre LED wall will display a circular pie-like shape divided into six slices. A dedicated website (a-slice-of-the-pie.live) will livestream the pie 24/7. Via the website, artists will be able to purchase one or more slices and fill them with their own artworks, thus becoming full participants in the exhibition. To define the appearance of the whole pie, they will have to collaborate or compete or hustle – or simply leave the final composition to chance.
If you want to exhibit your art at Kunsthalle Zürich as part of exhibition DYOR visit a-slice-of-the-pie.live.
If you want to buy a pie visit the collection on objkt.com.
Read moreplayrecordmint
playrecordmint is a screen and sensor setup that allows artists to invite an audience on site to co-author animated sequences or still images within an artwork, which they can then mint as a NFT. playrecordmint partners with artists to conduct interactive experiments, bridging physically embodied interaction and the creation of digital artifacts on the blockchain.
For the DYOR exhibition, playrecordmint features three artists, each presenting their work for five weeks, offering visitors a novel playing field for co-creating NFTs. The current work presented is Body Circles by Zach Lieberman.
Read moreLeander Herzog, Sasha Stiles & Nathaniel Stern and Zach Lieberman
DYOR – POAP
Andreas Gysin created the logo for DYOR. In the exhibition the logo can be collected by visitors as a POAP (Proof of Attendance Protocol).
This POAP is a gift from Kunsthalle Zürich to our exhibition visitors, celebrating a shared memory – their visit to DYOR. A POAP is a new way of keeping a secure record of a life experience. Each time they take part in an event, POAP collectors get a unique badge supported by a cryptographic record. These badges are Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Read moreKunsthalle NFT Edition I – LCD 1
Curated by Nina Roehrs, Kunsthalle Zürich launches a dedicated NFT edition program, which aims to show the many facets of NFTs in the arts.
It kicked off on November 25, 2022 with Andreas Gysin’s work LCD 1. LCD 1 is hardware and software as entity. It runs a generative program to create animated text (ASCII/ANSI) compositions, shown on a monochrome display with a strong object character.
Read moreKunsthalle NFT Edition II – DYOR: Crypto Glossary
Drop date: 30 November, 00:30 CET – 1 December, 0:30 CET
SOLD OUT | 685 minted | Nifty Gateway
Read moreAbout
Little more than two years ago, a new art world appeared, and for many it came out of nowhere. This new world ignored museums, galleries, curators and critics (in short: the entire establishment), but arrived dripping with money and generated a lot of interest. The new art world (if it is indeed new) was based on a new technology (blockchain), had its own distribution system (Web3), unregulated aesthetic concepts (evident through NFTs), digital currencies (crypto currencies), new spaces for discussion, critique and promotion (Discord channels and Twitter) and new forms of participation. The reactions to this have been fierce, ranging from unbridled enthusiasm to categorical rejection, from exaggerated hopes to dark doomsday fantasies, from fascination with overnight wealth to criticism of energy consumption. The art world reacted indignantly with familiar accusations, “That’s not art!” or “It’s just commerce!” Years ago the bourgeoisie said the same thing about Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol.
Nevertheless, in the last few months more and more people were heard saying that maybe there was something to this movement after all. That there’s something interesting going on, and it has potential. They say that blockchain is here to stay, that it will be significant for the music industry, that NFTs might not catch on, that the technology allows novel forms of participation, that PFP (profile pictures) were cool but are already out, that the metaverse doesn’t really work yet and will be the next bubble, but that DAOs (decentralised autonomous organisations, a kind of digital global organisation technology) are the future, and so on. It is, in other words, an extremely vital, young, dynamic, contradictory, fascinating, problematic, creative, critical and critiqued field that many people want to know more about and are attracted to. The hunger is there, but many people haven’t found the information. For this reason, Kunsthalle Zürich has decided to dedicate one of the first ever institutional exhibitions of its kind to this world: DYOR.
— Deutsch —
Vor kaum mehr als zwei Jahren tauchte für viele wie aus dem Nichts eine neue Kunstwelt auf. Sie ignorierte Museen, Galerien, Kurator:innen, Kritiker:innen (kurz: die gesamte etablierte Kunstwelt), rückte aber mit Millionen an und sorgte für viel Aufregung. Diese neue Kunstwelt (wenn sie denn wirklich neu ist), basierte auf einer neuen Technologie (Blockchain), verfügte über ein eigenes Vertriebssystem (Web3), über unregulierte ästhetische Vorstellungen (sichtbar gemacht durch NFTs), über digitale Währungen (Crypto Currencies), über neue Räume für Diskussion, Kritik und Promotion (Discord Channels und Twitter) sowie neue Formen der Partizipation. Die Reaktionen darauf waren heftig, von massloser Begeisterung bis kategorischer Ablehnung, von überzogenen Hoffnungen bis dunklen Weltuntergangsphantasien, von Faszination für plötzlichen Reichtum und Kritik am Energieverbrauch. Die Kunstwelt reagiert empört mit den immergleichen Vorwürfen «Das ist keine Kunst!» oder «Das ist nur Kommerz!» Dasselbe sagte das Bildungsbürgertum vor Jahren über Joseph Beuys und Andy Warhol.
In den letzten Monaten hörte man mehr und mehr Leute sagen, dass es vielleicht doch etwas damit auf sich hat, dass dieses oder jenes interessant sei und Potential habe, dass die Blockchain bleiben wird, dass sie für die Musikindustrie bedeutend sein wird, dass NFTs sich vielleicht nicht durchsetzen, dass die Technologie unbekannte Formen der Partizipation erlaube, das PFP (Profil Pictures) cool, aber schon wieder out sind, dass das Metaverse noch nicht wirklich funktioniert und die nächste Blase ist, dass aber den DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organization, eine Art von digital-globaler Organisationstechnik) die Zukunft gehört usw. Es handelt sich, mit anderen Worten, um ein extrem vitales, junges, dynamisches, widersprüchliches, faszinierendes, problematisches, kreatives, kritisches und kritisiertes Gebiet, über das viele mehr wissen wollen und von dem sich viele angezogen fühlen. Der Hunger ist da, das Wissen fehlt vielen. Aus diesem Grund hat sich die Kunsthalle Zürich entschieden, dieser Welt eine der ersten institutionellen Ausstellungen überhaupt zu widmen: DYOR.
Curator
Dr. Nina Roehrs is an expert on art in the digital age who supports players in the cultural sector in their digital programming and projects. After studying business economics in St. Gallen and St. Andrews, she worked for UBS for 14 years before founding Roehrs & Boetsch in 2016. For five years as a gallery and today as a hybrid consultancy, Roehrs & Boetsch is dedicated to examining the influence of digitalisation on art and society. This includes developing new forms of exhibiting where conventional methods fail, often involving new technologies such as AR, VR, apps, websites, AI and blockchain technology.
Interview with Nina Roehrs by Nancy Baker Cahill about curating DYOR, published on Right Click Save.
— Deutsch —
Dr. Nina Röhrs ist Expertin für Kunst im Digitalen Zeitalter und unterstützt (vor allem) Akteure im Kultursektor bei der Programmdefinition und Projekten. Nach einem Studium der Betriebswirtschaft in St. Gallen und St. Andrews arbeitete sie 14 Jahre für die Schweizer Grossbank UBS, bevor sie 2016 Roehrs & Boetsch gründete.
Fünf Jahre als Galerie und heute in hybrider Form mit Projekten und Beratungstätigkeit widmet sich Roehrs & Boetsch dem Einfluss der Digitalisierung auf Kunst und Gesellschaft. Dazu gehört auch die aktive Diskussion und Entwicklung von neuen Ausstellungsformen für Kunstwerke, wo konventionelle Methoden versagen. Wobei es oftmals um digitale Räume und den Einsatz neuer Technologien, wie VR, AR, Applikationen, Websites, KI und Blockchain, geht.
Selected Press
HOW TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH | Nina Roehrs shares what it takes to curate crypto art history with Nancy Baker-Cahill | Right Click Save, 9.1.2023
HISTORY IN YOUR HANDS | Review by Domenico Quaranta | A major exhibition about NFTs at Kunsthalle Zürich invites visitors not just to contemplate but to curate and collect | Outland, 12.1.2023
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RARE PEPE | How a viral meme went from outcast to art museum by Martin Lukas Ostachowski | Right Click Save, 14.1.2023
‘DYOR’: Making Sense of the Crypto-Artworld | Review by J.J. Charlesworth | ArtReview, 9.2.2023
Thank You
With warm thanks to Armin Blasbichler, Judy Mam, Martin Lukas Ostachowski and many more for ideas, advice and contacts.
The exhibition DYOR is realised thanks to the support of the Bundesamt für Kultur and the Fachstelle Kultur of the Canton of Zürich in the framework of the Covid Financial Support ‘Transformationsprojekte’.
Contact
For image inquiries, information on the exhibition program and interviews contact Aoife Rosenmeyer: presse [at] kunsthallezurich.ch or +41 (0)44 272 15 15.