Prints of Mick Jagger, Kate Moss, and Damien Hirst’s trash were on display while Pascal Rostain took a stance for NFT with a compelling performance to make a statement on whether they could be considered art or not.
Back in May 2022, we were invited to the Photo London fair where we showcased Pascal Rostain and Bruno Mouron’s AUTOPSY and educated the traditional crowd of the prestigious fair.
Prints of Mick Jagger, Kate Moss, and Damien Hirst’s trash were on display while Pascal Rostain took a stance for NFT with a compelling performance to make a statement on whether they could be considered art or not.
People were loving the huge prints and were checking every detail of each trash to see the celebrities’ personalities in more detail. Then, during the lunch hour, when it was quieter, Pascal had the words "This is an NFT" painted directly on the prints before he arrived to start his performance. The crowd gathered as he took up his paintbrush and started shouting “I decide whether it is art or not!”. On each print, he crossed the word NFT and replaced it with "ART", creating in the process three unique artworks born from Autopsy and transformed through this unique creative process. Phillip Garner, former head of photographs and 20th-century decorative arts and design at Christie's, was present and loved the concept and the artworks.
Pascal Rostain’s process seeked to pass the message that only he, the artist, could determine if the artwork in the form of an NFT is art or not. If he says it is art, then it is. The technology enables the artist in the creative process but never undermines the essence of the work. It is a support for the art.
People at Photo London loved the performance and started thinking seriously about NFT technology after chatting with us and discovering the different photography series we showcased on our website. We also brought a VR headset to offer a different experience to photography amateurs with a Spatial gallery filled with photographs from Stephan Gladieu’s North Korea.
Overall, we felt this was an amazing opportunity to educate people on NFT and its application to fine art photography as the traditional crowd of Photo London was yet to have a good understanding of what this technology means.
Pascal Rostain and Bruno Mouron are two photographers who started working together in the famous Paris Match magazine. There, they were some of the best paparazzi in the world, shooting some of the world’s most famous candid photographs of celebrities. Their work was published all over the world and one day, Pascal Rostain thought of an amazing idea.
Picking up the trash from celebrities’ houses and creating a portrait of their personality through their consumption. It started with Serge Gainsbourg in 1989 and continues to this day with over 50 celebrities’ trash.
