PARIS.- Artwrld announced the acquisition of “Hand-Hacked Bouquet 1” by the Pompidou Center as part of the Musée National d’Art Moderne’s first-ever acquisition of NFTs. The selected work is one of 15 large bouquets with audio from Jill Magid’s genesis NFT collection Out-Game Flowers, presented by Artwrld. “Hand-Hacked Bouquet 1” will join the Pompidou Center’s permanent collection along with 17 other works acquired as part of the museum’s “strategy, since its inception, to support artists as they seek to master new means of creation,” and is “…the result of joint work with the scientific and administrative teams of the Ministry for Culture.” This major initiative constitutes the first of its kind by a French public institution, and by a modern and contemporary art institution of its scale; the acquisitions build upon the foundational “new media” collection of the Pompidou Center, established in 1977 to focus on “the artistic applications of emerging technologies.”

Magid is among 13 French and international artists whose work was acquired as part of the museum’s blockchain and NFT initiative, a trailblazing cohort that includes Aaajiao, Emilie Brout et Maxime Marion, Claude Closky, Fred Forest, John Gerrard, Agnieszka Kurant, Jonas Lund, Larva Labs, Sarah Meyohas, Robness, Rafael Rozendaal, and John F. Simon Jr. As the Pompidou Center’s press release notes, “These works were produced by a variety of practices and cultures: crypto art, the plastic arts, net art and generative art. They reflect the astonishing wealth of the forms of artistic creation associated with blockchains and the variety of positions adopted by artists with regard to this phenomenon.”




The Ethereum blockchain’s recent transition from the “Proof of Work” system to the significantly less energy-intensive “Proof of Stake” system marked a turning point in the technology’s evolution and long-term sustainability. Signaling the blockchain’s critical role in present and future artistic production, the Pompidou Center has acquired NFTs that will expand upon its existing strongholds in electronic sound and video art, digital art, and conceptual art. The collection charts these works within the tradition of dematerialized art from its beginnings in the mid-20th century to today’s on-chain and off-chain NFTs.

The Pompidou Center’s acquisition of Magid’s “Hand-Hacked Bouquet 1” furthers Artwrld’s mission of collaborating with artists to commission and produce projects that engage broad audiences. Artwrld aims to connect vital collecting institutions, art nonprofits, and individual artists with blockchain technology to explore its emerging potential for creative practice and to make art works of institutional caliber accessible to the greater public. Out-Game Flowers will be made available for sale exclusively to Artwrld’s community on Valentine’s Day, Tuesday, February 14, 2023, on the Artwrld platform, with the public release to follow on February 16.

Through her multifaceted, interrogative practice, Jill Magid explores the emotional, philosophical, and legal tensions between individual agency and large institutions such as intelligence agencies, artist’s estates and the police. A Guggenheim Fellow, Magid has received solo exhibitions at the Tate Modern, Whitney Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Security and Intelligence Agency of the Netherlands. Her work is in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, Whitney Museum, Fundacion Jumex, and Walker Art Center.