Crypto H(e)aven
“On 9th December 2018 the CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga CX dies. Gerald Cotten personally held the passwords to customers’ digital wallets, thereby rendering $190 million lost or missing. Speculation continues about the truth behind his sudden death in India.”
Death is a rare phenomenon in the cryptocurrency world, although exit scams are not. Here, the corporeal event of bodily death suddenly clashed with – and superseded – the seeming immateriality (on the first glance) of the crypto world. The crypto-realm seem to function on a quasi-religious premise of belief in digital money – money that only exists when enough people assert and legitimates its realness via the blockchain.
This work looks at crypto heavens and crypto havens as places where “deceased” CEOs go. Gerald Cotten’s remarkable ability to be both alive and dead in the mind of the redditors transforms him into a Schrödinger’s quantum phenomenon. Leaving a space for speculation on whether Cotten can be found in the cloud of afterlife or in a safe haven with a new identity mixed in between digital nomads, whose life in the video consists of aimlessly filling their time with self care between crypto price jumps.
Scaffolding 180 cm x 5 pieces,
four UV printed synthetic curtains 180 x 180 cm,
silver fabric, chocolate (consumable) bitcoin,
Video : single channel, 4K, 12 min
3/05 – 16/06 2019
Object, Objetc, Objecc
(group show with Liza Eurich and Katri Kempass)
@Spazju Kreattiv (MT)
The exhibition was supported by the Arts Council Malta.
Video screenings
July 2022
VRAL. Milan machinima festival
August 2021
The wrong.tv/ Canal 180
Press
July 2022 @ VRAL Milan machinima festival
Crypto He(a)ven 3. Introduction and interview by Gemma Fantacci
Crypto Heaven (excerpt)
Crypto H(e)aven 2.0
Second iteration of speculation about Gerry Cotten's destiny in which Gerry lives with a community of digital nomads somewhere in a cosy place who ask no quesitons. Gerry's hiding under a conveniently grown mustache and general indifference on the neighbours. This part was created after the federal financial crime investigation has progressed further via conventional methods and reddit questionnaires. This video is accompanied by the work that went deeper into the reddit rabbit holes of Quadriga's theories and formed a work called Beforetheydeletethis ( created in collaboration with Kat Zavada).
Video screenings
July 2022
VRAL. Milan machinima festival
August 2021
The wrong.tv/ Canal 180
Press
July 2022 @ VRAL Milan machinima festival
Crypto He(a)ven 3. Introduction and interview by Gemma Fantacci