El Nacional, one of the oldest newspapers in Venezuela, has presented a collection of NFT tokens to celebrate its 80th anniversary in an innovative and avant-garde way.
The NFT collection, titled “Fiction-art,” is made up of 13 non-fungible works of art that were created for El Nacional by renowned fine artist Pedro Sandoval. Each of these works of art will have a total of 99 digital copies, accompanied by their respective high-quality printed work.
According to the newspaper, the 13 NFT works are inspired by the first pages of the newspaper, to show the world the first news that was reviewed by this medium 80 years ago.
According to El Nacional, the crypto collection was also designed with the aim of reflecting the newspaper's commitment to freedom of expression, democracy and Venezuelan culture. Through this collection of non-fungible tokens, El Nacional can represent the entire trajectory it has had in the history of Venezuela and the world in the last 8 decades.
El Nacional's NFT artworks are unique and unrepeatable pieces that merge the artist Sandoval's abstract style with the headlines and historical images from the newspaper's first printed pages. According to the artist, combining a tangible means of communication with the digital age is a way of paying homage to Venezuela's history and projecting its future, as well as accelerating El Nacional's digital transformation.
Fiction-Art, a fusion of journalism and digital art
Through Ficción-Art, Sandoval seeks to merge journalism and digital art, creating unique and collectible works of art using the premium covers of El Nacional.
Each of the NFT works in the crypto collection is inspired by key historical moments in the country's politics, culture and society. Sandoval added graphic and symbolic elements to each newspaper cover that give new meaning and show a new aesthetic on each emblematic cover.
As he told the newspaper, “El Nacional is a window to the world,” since it has marked a before and after in the Latin American press and has evolved to adapt to the great changes that have occurred since its founding in 1943. In this regard, Sandoval emphasized the newspaper's adaptability to survive even digitally, which is why he presented to El Nacional the idea of launching a collection of NFT tokens.
Miguel Henrique Otero, editor-in-chief of El Nacional, praised Sandoval's initiative and talent, highlighting the importance of NFTs to preserve and disseminate the journalistic legacy of this media outlet and to combine technological innovation with the cultural and historical value of Venezuela.
Pioneer of NFT digital art
Sandoval is one of the first artists to adopt NFTs and blockchain to create and represent his artworks. According to what he told El Nacional, he began exploring new technologies in 2014, when few people knew about NFTs and knew what they were.
Its objective through digital art is to reeducate people and connect them with art from other dimensions, to offer a critical and creative look at the past and present. According to him, the world is moving at great speed towards digital, so NFTs are becoming an essential part of art. “The NFT will take up more space in museums and in the end it will become a type of common art like painting or sculpture,” highlighted the artist.
In addition to El Nacional, other media outlets, such as Times magazine, have also been interested in NFT tokens despite the fact that the growth of the market for these digital assets has slowed down.
Continue reading: What are the main use cases for NFTs?
