Introduction

Bajmol is a collection of NFTs made up of 10,000 pieces whose face is only revealed after the minting process is completed.

The characteristic that distinguishes these NFTs, compared to those created directly in a digital form, is the fact that each visible element that, including the background, constitutes the single image, is handcrafted by the Italian sculptor artist Lele De Bonis. Each face is made up of real objects made from wood, iron and recycled elements.

It is therefore not a question of digital art but a sort of hybrid in which the artist, thanks to a team that believed in the project, wonders how real art can be represented into the world of NFTs.

The BAJMOL are nothing more than three categories of characters who are linked to the world of art (artists, art galleries in the most general sense and, finally, critics).

Until now though, NFTs have eliminated the chain of intermediation (merchants, critics, auction houses and galleries) between producer (artist) and buyer (collector). The debate is huge, open and full of unknowns. There are those who believe that NFTs are a pure and simple speculative operation, there are those who believe that it is a kind of revenge that digital artists have taken against an art critic that has never seriously considered them, and finally, there are those who try, despite enormous doubts related to both technological and artistic novelty, to create a philological path that has led the world of art to relate in part to this new reality.

The latter is the interpretation that Lele De Bonis tries to give to this new world. The Bajmol do not give answers but, with a nod to the past, they simply raise doubts. Doubts that find some confirmation in the evolution of art throughout the last century. A period that has profoundly and unequivocally marked the vision of the physical and partly philosophical world.

The Bajmol are the first NFTs to question themselves and the possibility that they have no sense of existence.

Before presenting the collection, it is therefore important to start with a few historical notes that can help, at least partially, to provide some possible additional interpretations to add to this interesting debate.

The History

Whenever we try to relate to something real we cannot do without two fundamental concepts: where and when.

Until the end of the 19th century, the concept of reality was unique, absolute, immutable. Space and time described reality as objective, without taking into account the human observer.

This conception, called Newtonian, was totally replaced by the publication, in 1905, of Albert Einstein’s Theory of Special Relativity. With Einstein the whole relativistic nature of space and time comes out. There are no longer absolute truths, but fragments relating to the reference system used to observe things.

The great artistic revolutions that characterized the whole of the twentieth century probably started with this scientific revolution. We do not know how much the artists were inspired by this change of course but, what is certain, is that all the art of the last century has always walked side by side with every scientific discovery. Two artistic currents that perhaps best interpreted this new vision of the world were certainly Cubism (the simultaneous representation of a subject from different points of view) and Surrealism (where the conception of time is totally relativistic and mental). Picasso and Dali are certainly the best examples in explaining the concept of relativity.

All the new artistic avant-gardes of the previous century were united by a single evolutionary vision that was to ensure that art went hand in hand with the progress of mankind in the field of technical science.

What gave an enormous acceleration towards new discoveries in the scientific field, in all its directions, was, starting from the 1930s, the invention of computers (now computers), which by ousting human computing, have revolutionized, in terms of speed and difficulty, the entire scientific sector. Without computers, we would never have been able to go to the moon.

The big change to the old artistic concepts, however, started from the 1950s. For instance in Italy in those years, the figure of Lucio Fontana certainly emerged, whose work on the concept of “space” has achieved worldwide visibility and importance.

Fontana’s work gave a definitive blow to the Renaissance perspective and his “cut” canvases were nothing more than a declaration of a change of course that art had to make in relation to the challenges of the contemporary world. According to Fontana, art is made up of matter and space. By breaking the surface of the painting, space enters the work, crosses it, becomes an integral part of it. Painting and sculpture therefore belong to the past and the amazing new scientific discoveries force art to evolve towards totally new concepts and ways of living.

Starting from the 1950s, once these new concepts were cleared, many small artistic movements were born, many of which will have a short life, but all with the same goal:  continue with the process of destruction of painting and sculpture as its still understood by society and open up more and more towards a new art, more in dialogue with the contemporary world.

As already mentioned before, the birth and incredible development of computers and the subsequent birth of computers have led to a further revolution in the new millennium, perhaps even more anthropologically devastating from an evolutionary point of view and understanding of the human race. With the birth of virtual and augmented reality, the concept of space has been revolutionized again and at least as at today it does not even seem to be considered as physical. It is in this context that digital art was born. It is in this context that NFTs are born. At this stage, we do not know if this new form of art will survive or if it is a simple hybrid destined to inevitably become something else. But the fact is that the world of cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and NFT can no longer be considered marginal.

Furthermore, looking at the past, we can say that the evolution of part of the world of art is proceeding in a coherent manner with the progress of contemporaneity.

What's a BAJMOL

Let’s start with the name. Bajmol is nothing more than the combination of the first three initials of the surnames of two Italian artists who, since the 1950s, have made a significant contribution to the evolution of Italian art in the second half of the twentieth century. The first is Enrico Baj, founder of Nuclearism, an artistic movement that saw the new forms of man in the atomic universe. The second is Mario Molinari, perhaps less known artist from a philosophical point of view but who gave a strong push towards the inclusion of art in non-designated places. His huge geometric sculptures have been placed in the most unthinkable places. The images, objects and geometries that arise from the BAJMOLs are, as well as inspired by the style of these two artists, a tribute to their work.

Why the two of them? Because paradoxically their works, as well as artistic philosophy, are so in contrast with the world of NFTs that they almost create a perfect union, a funny oxymoron.

For example, Baj considered the material work of art as unique and unrepeatable. NFTs are, on the other hand, original digital works and their reproductions can be physical and material.

Molinari created geometries that interacted with the space in which they were inserted. In the NFT, his geometries dialogue in a space that does not exist.

These deliberate contrasts symbolize the philological chaos that is being created over the meaning and purpose of NFTs.

The Bajmol NFTs personify all types of professionals related to the world of analogical art, so to speak.

Those with purple hair represent artists, in the most varied forms. Those with a double triangle hat (as if it were the roof of a house) are the gallery owners, museum directors, and collectors.

Finally, those with the black hat are the critics, the intellectuals, the world of enthusiasts. Both the three worlds are in a sort of limbo in which it is not possible to understand well what is happening. There are those who applaud, those who don’t know what to do, those who attack fiercely. The Bajmol are a debate, it is us who try to give a direction, they are people who experiment, they are the thousand doubts that the contemporary world tries to explain.

Please wait while flipbook is loading. For more related info, FAQs and issues please refer to documentation.