DEEPINO 4D Max, 2020
NFT
ADDRESS: | 0x721aea42ffb8fb94161f4085ca4b2cba3e5d0b5a4d5af24a31ca8637bc340381 |
MINTED: | PALM Network |
RESOLUTION: | 1000 x 1000 px |
FORMAT: | HD |
EDITION: | Unique |
CREDITS: | Artwork by Neil Beloufa, 3D by Bastien Jaouen, music by Nathan Notkin, bronze sculpture melted by Fonderie d’art Delmas |
Physical Asset
MATERIAL: | Small bronze sculpture. |
SIZE: | 10 3/16 x 10 5/8 x 8 3/16 in. (26 x 27 x 21 cm) |
EDITION: | Unique in a 3/3 collection (each with different color) + 1 Artist Proof |
SOLD
DEEPINO 4D Max, 2020
“Deepino 4D Max” by Neil Beloufa is centered around the egida of a baroquish artefact, the Nespresso coffee machine.
A glitzy, glittery anthropomorphic character decorated with what appears to be a strand of cigarettes and fake nails morphs effortlessly into a coffee machine. The machine becomes a myth, a gargoyle that makes people richer, happier, more focused and successful. It further transforms into a legendary alchemical substance with magical properties that embodies perfection at its finest, enlightenment, and heavenly bliss. The coffee machine is thus envisaged as the Philosopher’s stone, most commonly known as the Elixir of Immortality for the 21st century.
Referring almost faintly to this work is the famous Saliera by 16th century Italian goldsmith and sculptor Benvenueto Cellini completed in 1543 for King Francis I of France. An oval vessel consisting of two figures, Tellus, the Roman goddess of the earth, and Neptune, god of the sea— made of gold, enamel, ebony, and ivory. King Francis I of France even placed a workshop of Parisian artisans at the artist’s disposal. The salt cellar would have been prized not just as luxury tableware, dispensing what were then expensive condiments, but as an intellectual conversation starter—filled with meanings waiting to be decoded by an elite, art-literate audience.
The work also offers a unique lens through the inner workings of neoliberal capitalism where the drive for surplus value has intimately shaped coffee production and consumption. Coffee that is portrayed as the subject for the work through a Nespresso machine is the spirit of capitalism in brewed form. Its past is conjoined to the rise of bourgeois entrepreneurialism, and its future is as dark as contemporary society’s own horizon
Neil Beloufa
Franco-Algerian visual artist whose practice spans film, sculpture, and installation.
Beloufa is one of the most powerful voices of the generation of artists born in the 1980s and is widely known for his powerful examination of contemporary society and on how it is represented and mediated by digital interaction, often with the aim of exposing the control mechanisms. He addresses present-day issues that range from power relationships to digital surveillance, to data collection and nationalistic ideologies, to identity and a post-colonial understanding of the world.
Beloufa first-ever NFT, ‘B, trying to reach out to its audience’ was in exclusive partnership with Verisart and SuperRare as part of 10×10:10 inaugural NFTs by 10 major contemporary artists over 10 weeks.
Beloufa was nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp (Paris, France) in 2015, the Artes Mundi (Cardiff, United Kingdom) and Nam June Paik (Essen, Germany) prizes in 2016. He was awarded the Meurice Prize for Contemporary Art 2013, Audi Talent Awards 2011 and the Agnès B. Studio Collector Award 2010.
Beloufa’s work has been the subject of monographic exhibitions in France and abroad, notably at François Ghebaly, Los Angeles (2021); Pirelli HangarBicocca (2020), Schirn Künsthalle, Frankfurt (2018); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); Pejman Foundation, Tehran (2017); K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai (2017); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2016); and Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2015). He participated in the Venice Biennale in 2013 and 2019, the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Shanghai in 2014, and the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2013.
Beloufa’s work is present in numerous prestigious collections including the collection of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Sammlung Goetz, Munich; and Julia Stoschek Collection, Dusseldorf and Berlin.