Anxious to gain notoriety and better defend their financial interests, more and more artists on the continent are turning to the NFT market backed by digital works. A segment of the art market that is currently experiencing strong growth. Decryption
$69.3 million. This is the amount at which the digital work “Everydays: the First 5,000 Days” was sold in March 2021, an assembly of drawings and animations produced daily for 5,000 days in a row by the American artist Beeple. This record sum reflects the current upheaval in the digital art market. According to a recent study by the specialized company Chainalysis, 41 billion dollars of transactions on the market of non-fungible tokens non -fungible token “ (NFT or ” non-fungible token in English) – which are digital works of art linked to blockchain technology – were made in 2021. Almost as many as the sales recorded on the “conventional” art market, which are around 50 billion dollars per year. In fact, in this long-confidential niche segment, more and more creators are now selling immaterial works of art, via NFTs, which make it possible to authenticate a creation.
For the artist, the formula firstly offers better protection of his copyrights since the NFTs being framed by programmable contracts, it can for example be specified that at each subsequent resale, the creator of the work will receive perpetual royalties. On the side of buyers too, NFTs have assets to promote since they guarantee, via the certification provided by the blockchain, the originality of a work, as opposed to a possible copy.
Multiple advantages
A series of advantages which have obviously not escaped creators from the continent, the latter being more and more numerous to break into this new market, like the Nigerians Osinachi, Niyi Okeowo, the Lebanese-Senegalese Linda Dounia, Ghanaian Ahmed Partey or Congolese Kashya. “The blockchain will clearly help artists to guarantee better security for their works”, assures Kofi Akosah, president of the Africa Blockchain University (ABU), an organization which has worked since its creation (in 2017) to promote the adoption. of this technology across Africa. “Whether it’s musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, their works are currently not protected because of weaknesses in intellectual property protection. Their works are easily duplicated. But the blockchain is designed in such a way that what you save on it can neither be modified nor copied”, recalls our Ghanaian interlocutor, based in Mauritius.
The counterfeiting of cultural works remains in fact a scourge on the continent, a recent study by Unesco estimating for example at least 50% the market share of copied musical production in Africa, depriving the artists concerned of as much income . From this point of view, the authentication of works provided by NFTs rhymes with securing income, which makes Kofi Akosah say that “it’s a real revolution since in the current art market, once the artist has sold his work, it can no longer bring him anything”.
An organized sector
Already, African artists are organizing to take advantage of the promises of the blockchain. More and more works are produced in the form of NFTs, while communities are created on social networks to promote and market them on certain platforms such as KnownOrigin, SuperRare or MakersPlace: “NFT communities like Art Support can be a family in supporting and promoting artists, and ASS has been able to buy and sell NFTs from its community and beyond. Lately, in the last three months, they have been able to make over 100 sales. Some of these works have been collected by collectors around the world and others by artists in Africa and Nigeria. explains Stanley Ebonine, Nigerian artist and member of Art Support System, a community of NFT artists bringing together more than forty creative people.
Dedicated events including exhibitions dedicated to NFT artists are beginning to appear on the continent. Last November, Art X Lagos, West Africa’s largest art fair, partnered with NFT platform SuperRare to host one of the first NFT exhibitions for African artists. At the same time, actors in the sector, such as Kofi Akosah of ABU, are initiating workshops across the continent to help artists familiarize themselves with this new tool. The Ghanaian was in Cameroon in April for a training session, an event which attracted dozens of artists. Online sales platforms such as Open Sea, Foundation, SuperRare, Mintable, Wax, and many others, today allow new artists to earn money by selling their works in the form of NFT. This all the more so“The process of transforming a work of art into NFT is as simple as downloading a file to your computer” , explains Kofi Akosah.
Associated costs
However, this type of operation involves a significant cost, in particular ecological, since a single transaction in Ethereum (the reference digital currency for this type of transaction) is equivalent to the daily electricity consumption of a South African household. . More broadly, the economic cost associated with an NFT operation depends on the platform used, continues the president of Africa Blockchain University. Some platforms charge an amount for the initial registration, while others impose a charge on each work created or traded:“On Open Sea, it might cost you $50 to $200 for an artwork, and you might never sell it. Imagine yourself, for a young African artist who is still trying to emerge, it is very difficult to mobilize such an amount” , points out Kofi Akosah, who nevertheless ensures that there are alternatives, more recent platforms offering in particular much more affordable prices to be able to gain visibility in this rapidly growing segment of digital art.
In fact, the gamble of exposing oneself in this way can pay off, as the example of the Nigerian Osinachi proves. In October 2021, seven months after the record transaction associated with the American artist Beeple, the Nigerian crypto-artist Osinachi also sold five NFTs at Christie’s for $214,000 at Christie’s. A continental record for this type of transaction and which should contribute to fueling even more the interest of African artists for the market of non-fungible tokens.
