Landmark DDP looks to future with planned NFT release

Arts & Design

Published: 16 Aug. 2023, 15:47 Updated: 16 Aug. 2023, 17:45

Landmark DDP looks to future with planned NFT release

"about caffeine" by Kindrgartn [SHIN MIN-HEE]

The iconic spaceship-like landmark Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Jung District, central Seoul, is covered with 45,133 silver panels.

In the near future, Seoul Design Foundation plans to add value to that number when it issues 45,133 nonfungible tokens (NFTs) — one for each panel — and provides token owners with a variety of benefits.

It's one of the foundation's latest projects to integrate the latest digital trends into major public spaces.

The project is still in its early stages, and little has been decided, including the platform on which the NFTs will be sold.

For now, people can get a glimpse of 20 NFTs selected through a contest held by the foundation earlier this year.

"P.P (Possessory Public)" by Wang Da-yeon [SHIN MIN-HEE]

“□ To The Future” is an exhibition at the DDP’s NFT Gallery on the third floor of the Design Hall, in which each of the NFTs tells a story about Web 3.0, video art, global warming or personal media. The blank square in the name represents the “potential of what the future holds,” the foundation said.

Some referenced the DDP building in their NFTs, like Wang Da-yeon, Kim00 (pronounced "Kim-ddaeng-ddaeng") and Mo Jun-seok.

In Wang’s “P.P (Possessory Public),” the artist imagined all 45,133 panels as separate television screens with different photographs of the DDP on them. Kim00’s “Flying through Time” took a more futuristic approach and devised a dystopian space version of the DDP.

Then there is “about caffeine” by Kindrgartn, which imagines a future when coffee has gone extinct, and a picture of a coffee bean hangs on a museum wall with a large crowd staring at it. Although the work was depicted lightheartedly as pixel art, the premise would say otherwise.

“□ To The Future” continues until Sept. 10. The DDP is open every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. The exhibition is free.