digital arts with auronda scalera + alfredo cramerotti
Auronda Scalera and Alfredo Cramerotti photographed by Cedric Ribeiro.
Auronda Scalera and Dr. Alfredo Cramerotti are a dynamic curatorial duo specializing in contemporary art and new technologies. They are currently working on Noor Riyadh 2024 media festival as lead curator and cultural consultant, they recently curated Art Dubai Digital 2024, served as curators and jury members for the Lumen Prize anniversary in partnership with Sotheby’s, and were nominators for the Maxxi-Bvlgari Prize for Digital Art. They direct Multiplicity-Art in Digital, an online platform promoting art with a focus on diversity and inclusion. They also spearhead Web to Verse, a project dedicated to fostering research on the evolution of digital art from the 1960s to the present day.
Their extensive experience in the museums and institutional art world has made them sought-after experts on contemporary art, media festivals, the metaverse, and other online formats. They have spoken at prestigious events such as the UK House of Lords’ All-Party Parliamentary Group, the House of Beautiful Business, the AI House at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Riyadh Art Program for the KSA Visual Art Commission; they advise the UK Government Art Collection, the British Council Visual Arts Acquisition Committee, the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and they teach at IESA University in Paris. As Charlotte Kent writes in ArtReview, their work explores the intersection of art and advanced technologies, fostering dialogues that have evolved over the past 60 years.
They have been featured on SkyTV and CNBC documentaries about contemporary art, and regularly appear in publications like Forbes, AD, FT, L’Officiel and The Art Newspaper.
In 2024, they wrote a statement for the future of art, emphasizing the collaborative and transformative potential of art and technology on audiences, communities, artists and curators alike.
LUCIJA ŠUTEJ: I would like to discuss your shift towards digital arts. Auronda, you have been immersed in the field since your academic days.
AURONDA SCALERA: In my 20s, I was already drawn to exhibitions about digital art. When I signed up for university, I was unaware that there was a specialization in digital—it was really by chance, given my focus on digital photography and performance with historical pioneers of digital art like Nam June Paik.
LŠ: You are also both from Italy, which, from the 1970s, had important centers of moving image and digital arts—such as Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara or art/tapes/22 in Florence, where artist Bill Viola created. These hubs were also very connected to Yugoslavian galleries and manifestations, such as the famed exhibition The New Tendencies. How strong of an influence has that tradition played on your work?
ALFREDO CRAMEROTTI: I learned about The New Tendencies movement in Copenhagen pursuing my degree in Critical Studies. My way into digital arts was very organic - I moved around a lot, from Berlin to Malmo, and in Copenhagen, I did experimental TV production with a TV station that was referring back to American TV of the 60s. We went to Belgrade and Sarajevo for film festivals and got in touch with people doing creative things with videotapes, uploading them to servers, and making mashups (laugh). We discussed the legacy of media art, which wasn't called digital art at the time. Now, we're exploring more artists from the Balkan region, as there's a strong digital and post-photography school there. Post - photography really originated in Eastern Europe!
LŠ: Which digital art galleries and artists did you both find formative?
AS: At the beginning, all the pioneers like Bill Viola, Nam June Paik, John Whitney, and Vera Molnar were inspirations. Lillian Schwartz was part of the experiments in Art and Technology in Boston. We also look back to Rebecca Allen. It's ironic that we knew about these artists, but they slipped under the radar for 40 years and only resurfaced very recently. Not many galleries were involved in the rise of these research areas - it was mostly public platforms like Ars Electronica.
AC: And Transmediale in Berlin. There were very few things going on, and it was almost pre-internet. Artists like Herbert Franke were prominent but weren't really calling themselves artists. They were teaching or working in graphic design or media production. There was no real outlet for art presentation of these works.
AS: Oh and Rhizome were really the first influential online platforms for digital art.
AC: Yes, they've been incorporated into the New Museum in New York now.
LŠ: Auronda, you also ran a gallery in Rome. How has that experience helped you shape your curatorial interests?
AS: After university, I opened a gallery, VISIVA - La citta dell' immagine with nine business partners, including Massimo Ciampa, and it became one of the biggest private art galleries in Italy. We promoted artists who are now quite famous, like Eduardo Tresoldi, who started his career at our gallery. We organized the exhibition of the pioneer digital artist Olga Tobreluts, the ‘Helen of Troy, equipped with a video camera and computer.
Olga Tobreluts, New Mythologies at Visiva.
Olga Tobreluts, Adam and Eve, 2004, mixed media on print.
I also organized some digital art exhibitions there, even though my partners were hesitant because it wasn't easy to commercialize (laugh). It was a great experiment - in one year, we all learned how to run a gallery, deal with staff, and organize huge exhibitions from scratch.
LŠ: With ever- evolving tech, how do you see the future of the commercial art world? What challenges do you anticipate for the traditional art gallery model?
AS and AC: The future of the commercial art world is increasingly intertwined with digital innovation. As technology evolves, it brings forth new mediums, platforms, and modes of interaction that redefine the creation, exhibition, and consumption of art. Digital arts, NFTs, and virtual galleries are expanding the horizons of what is considered valuable and collectible.
The Key Trends and Opportunities we can see are the deep democratization of art: digital platforms provide artists with direct access to global audiences, bypassing traditional gatekeepers like galleries and auction houses. This democratizes the art market, allowing a more diverse range of voices and styles to emerge. Then, a new revenue model: the rise of NFTs and blockchain technology offers artists novel ways to monetize their work, ensuring provenance and enabling fractional ownership, that could lead to a more sustainable and equitable market for artists. Interactive and Immersive Experiences are fundamentals: virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are transforming how art is experienced. These technologies allow for immersive exhibitions that can be accessed from anywhere, expanding the audience base and creating new forms of engagement.
However, there are even many challenges for traditional art galleries, such as adapting to digital art because galleries need to embrace digital transformation to stay relevant. This involves adopting online sales platforms, curating virtual exhibitions, and engaging with audiences through digital channels. And most importantly - preserving the physical experience: while digital art is on the rise, the tactile and social experience of visiting a gallery remains irreplaceable. Galleries must find a balance between leveraging digital tools and preserving the in-person experience that many art lovers cherish.
LŠ: Auronda, you also collect digital art yourself. What interests you specifically about collecting digital art?
AS: I mainly collect works by women artists working in tech, because there's a lack of opportunities for them. Alfredo and I run a platform called Multiplicity Art Curating that promotes women artists. I decided to collect some of their works to support and promote them, giving them the possibility to continue their practice.
LŠ: Alfredo - do you also collect art?
AC: No, I don't, and for a professional choice I made when starting curating some twenty years ago. From the start, I decided I would not collect art because I needed that mental space, that distance between the artists and pieces I was going to work with and those that I was (potentially) looking at every day at home. My walls have been proudly empty since! That said, there is a type of art that I collect: ancient, close-up portrait masterpieces from the 14th to 18th century. Often anonymous, mostly a bit androgynous. I usually find them through obscure auction houses worldwide, and I love them; plus, I don't work with them, so ethically, I'm fine.
LŠ: What are your thoughts on NFTs' possibilities and challenges for artists?
AS: Digital art, blockchain-based art such as NFTs included, is a kind of revolution. We feel lucky to live in the middle of a new moment in art, with its own philosophy and aesthetic. It's completely different compared to contemporary art. All the characteristics of contemporary art are different, and they follow two different paths that are sometimes hard to bridge.
AC: There are a few exciting elements for us as curators. Established contemporary artists with representative galleries and big collector bases are interested in exploring the digital realm. NFTs, as a format, let the artists do things that can't be done in any other format. For example, there are the dynamic NFTs where the work changes every number of hours or days. This is very interesting for established artists because they can expand their practice into something completely new.
Conversely, many native digital artists want to explore the contemporary art world. They see the digital part as an expansion of the contemporary, and they want to see how digital-generated or native practices can be presented to a public in different formats, not necessarily digital. That's where curatorial work comes in because, at the moment, there's a lack of curatorial scholarship in terms of presenting digital art.
LŠ: How do you see the NFT market expanding in the future? We had a boom, and now it seems to have quieted down a bit.
AS: I would say it's kind of stabilizing now - which is a good thing. It's a buyer's market, so the prices remain relatively low. The good thing is that all the speculators are gone (laugh) and you're left with serious artists, collectors, and galleries dealing with it.
AC: Exactly! Fortunately, all the speculation is gone compared to the beginning when one NFT was sold for millions. Now you can choose from really interesting artists compared to the beginning - there's a natural selection now.
LŠ: Auronda, you also moved to Dubai. Which art galleries and spaces were important to you as you relocated there?
AS: Seven years ago, I went there for the first time during the pandemic. I was supposed to be there for a week to advise some collectors, but I decided to stay for six months, and I discovered a big community focused on digital art. There are policies about freedom to trade, and some individuals set up big companies about blockchain, NFTs, and cryptocurrency. There's a place called Crypto Oasis, one of the biggest startup hubs in the world for blockchain, and I got involved in their practices. At the time, there weren't many digital art galleries in Dubai. One of the first was Foundry, backed by the government. Another pioneer was Art in Space, the first 360-degree gallery where you have a total multi-sensory experience.
LŠ: What projects did you realize in UAE in digital arts that stayed with you?
AS: We organized an exhibition at art in space with eight female artists. One was Viktoria Modesta, an artist who works with digital art and talks about diversity. There was Florencia Brück, one of the pioneers of female artists working with AI and coding.
Multiplicity Art in Digital at Art in Space gallery in Dubai with exhibition Metamorphosis. Images courtesy of Auronda Scalera.
LŠ: Alfredo, I would love to hear more about your curatorial path towards curating digital arts. As we already discussed prior to the interview, it was very multidisciplinary.
AC: Yes, I studied retail design and made a living out of it for many years. In the 90s, I opened a contemporary art gallery, Artemisia Arte Contemporanea, in Italy with a partner. It was a time of experimentation, of not knowing exactly what a business model for a commercial art business would be, of starting to build a portfolio of artists and collectors literally from scratch with no experience and no leg-up. A 'project' in the real sense, where you take a shot, but you don't really know where you are going to land… We ran it for three years, doing an exhibition every three weeks - it was intense (laugh)
LŠ: A marathon of exhibitions!
AC: Yes, it's a constant change (laugh). When you are in your 20s, you have the energy for such ventures (laugh). At first, it was a gallery, and then we turned it into a project space.
LŠ: And where was the gallery?
AC: It was actually in Pisa, Italy. It was an interesting period, a small place with five interesting contemporary art spaces- some were commercial, others project spaces. Sadly, now there is none, they were all squashed. Back then, the boost also came from this space - Palazzo Blu, close to River Arno. I still remember a wonderful Tapis show there. If you are not in New York, London, Dubai or Shanghai but a regional city it is hard to keep the commercial gallery activity alive.
But I really enjoyed the curating part, and after the gallery, I moved to London and got a residency as an artist. From there, I moved to Berlin and started working as a curator, helping at SparwasserHQ, a very exciting outpost of Scandinavian contemporary art. I also earned a master's in curating in Berlin and then moved to Sweden to take a critical studies course. I started curating professionally and applied the project management skills I learned in design to art. I got my first institutional job in the UK at QUAD, which was in 2008 a new institution for art, film, and media. With amazing cinema and media labs - it really allowed for experimentation. And in 2011, I moved to North Wales to run a public museum of contemporary art - Mostyn. When I met Auronda 7 years ago, we started discussing digital art and discovered our common background (laugh).
LŠ: And how did you two meet?
AS: We have a collector friend in common who introduced us during the last hours of the Frieze Art Fair in London (laugh).
AC: (laugh) Yes, it was just before the closing with the last glass of champagne. We realized we have complementary skills as we talked, so we thought it made sense to work together. We have different patterns but an underlying common interest and vision for art, both digital and contemporary. We don't have to justify things to each other because we often feel the same way. Having complementary skills makes it logical to join forces, and it's more fun than working by yourself.
LŠ: Alfredo, having led a big contemporary art institution like Mostyn, how do you see the challenges of traditional museum models and how they can develop in the future?
AC: It's really a big challenge. I see the challenges even more clearing now that I am running a non-collecting institution for digital art in Doha with a focus on Art, Media, and Technology. It is very different from contemporary art museums in the UK where I worked for almost 20 years.
Legacy art institutions are struggling with in-house knowledge and expertise. Very few curators bridge contemporary and digital art. If you're working in a museum, you often don't touch digital art, NFTs, or blockchain because you don't know how to collect, present, or mediate the content to the public. Most contemporary art museums are just focused on the digital in the sense of presenting moving image works; they are not digital natives. Museums are very cautious. And digital artists are often not good at mediating their content and talking about their works. If you curate in the digital sphere, you might not understand how a museum works in terms of interpretation, education, outreach, acquisition, conservation, and preservation. This lack of curatorial scholarship is because there's very little interaction between the two worlds on a curatorial and institutional level.
Mladen Bizumic, One Second After The Digital Turn, 2003-2006. Courtesy of the artist, Mostyn UK and Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna.
Mostyn UK, Artes Mundi (OCTOBER 2023) ©Rob Battersby. Courtesy of Alfredo Cramerotti.
While I was directing a public institution in the UK, I also organized different events around blockchain, VR, and AR. Out of the 50 institutions invited, only a few expressed interest. Lastly, it is hard for public institutions such as museums to open a digital wallet. Also, who would be in charge of it? A trustee would need to be nominated just for that role. It is an interesting element with a lot of grey areas.
Martin Bladh, After Rembrandts: The Blinding of Samson, 1636. Courtesy of Mostyn UK.
Taloi Havini at Mostyn UK, photo credit: Zan Wimberley. Courtesy of Alfredo Cramerotti.
LŠ: Your joint work on The Infinity Art Museums is unique here as it raises questions about the future of art institutions and different activities in merging the physical and digital.
AC: It is a start - up project, where the idea is to bring the contemporary and digital arts together to explore the metaverse. As an institutional museum, we want to match collections and collectors with digital artists. There are some museums in the metaverse at the moment, but they are all focused on the digital rather than really trying to communicate with the contemporary art world.
AS: Also, a lot of these metaverse projects are currently collectors presenting their works online, but for us, the interesting element is to commission the work to the artists. Further, the invited artists can also realise the digital environment where the work will be shown - playing with digital architecture. We are currently still in the fundraising stage, and it is a huge project. From the start, we had a clear curatorial vision - to create a new type of a museum - where the artworks and architecture are the domain of the artists.
LŠ: What are your plans for expansion of the project?
AC: We want to create a new type of museum as a pilot to serve as a model for other institutions. Existing museums could adopt the same principle, creating digital platforms to showcase their collections and commissioning artists to create new work.
LŠ: And do you plan to merge your work on Multiplicity—Art in Digital and Infinity Art Museum?
AS: Multiplicity was our first project, and it was an excuse to explore the possibilities of digital arts. We started off with an interview format, and we interviewed about 150 artists, but we only published about 50 interviews as we kept running out of time (laugh).
AC: Yes, we also did not manage to progress on the website yet (laugh). But what was really interesting for us was to promote all these incredible and pioneering female new artists.
AS: In the past, female artists were always underrepresented. And we were very clear that we do not want to follow the same path - even in the digital sphere.
LŠ: What have you learned in the process?
AS: For sure, the most interesting is the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) concept. This is a terminology that is typical for NFT and blockchain, and it is about the idea that all the decisions are taken from the same level, from all the people that participate in some project. There is no layer of pyramid way to make a decision - it is focused on equality. It is a fascinating project because you can translate this philosophy to the blockchain and everything in your life and the world.
AC: I would also add agility. Just in the institutional world, we have a very long timeline for exhibitions we work on - it can be two years. And when we work with digital artists, these things are different - the whole conceiving time and production is much shorter. And it's not shorter because it takes less to produce. Their mindset works differently. And I think it's an interesting lesson for institutions and the art world to adopt.
Curators at Ioginality talk. Photo courtesy by Ioginality.
LŠ: DecentralArt Pavilion for the Venice Art Biennale founded by Florencia Brück and Javier Krasuk involved you in some projects- what possibilities does this segment have for the future of the biennial format?
AS and AC: Projects like Decentral Art Pavilion offer a glimpse into the future of the Art Biennales, where decentralized technologies can enhance accessibility, innovation, and engagement, while there are challenges to address, the potential for a more inclusive, transparent, and dynamic biennial format is immense. By thoughtfully integrating these technologies, the Biennales can continue to evolve and remain a leading force in the global art scene.
LŠ: I would also like to stop by your work on Art Dubai Digital - a monumental exhibition that presented new technologies and exciting artists. What questions have remained with you from the experience?
AS and AC: Curating Art Dubai Digital has left us pondering several critical questions about the future of digital art. How can we ensure accessibility and inclusivity for diverse artists and audiences? What new skills do curators need to navigate this evolving landscape? Preservation and authenticity are also pressing concerns—how do we ensure the longevity and reliability of digital artworks? Furthermore, the interactive nature of digital art reshapes audience engagement, raising ethical questions about AI and technology use in art creation. Finally, how do NFTs and digital markets impact traditional art values and market dynamics? How can we maintain the uniqueness and value of digital art amid easy reproduction? The influence of technology on artistic creativity and the need for artist-technologist collaboration are crucial. We must also consider the role of digital platforms in art curation and the environmental sustainability of digital practices. These reflections guide our exploration of how technology can enrich art while addressing ethical, educational, and market implications.
LŠ: Can we learn more about the Web to Verse project and your plans for expansion?
AS: It's an ever-evolving exhibition that traces the history of digital art from the 1950s until now. We did the first activation at Manchester Metropolitan University at Soda Gallery. The curators are myself, Alfredo, and Valentino Catricala. The first activation featured 10 artists exploring themes of politics, activism, and social engagement. We're discussing bringing the exhibition to other places—probably to Basel, Dubai, and Asia as well.
AC: It's a bit like the concept of decentralization. Rather than having one massive exhibition tracking the history of digital art with 100 artists, we do 10 exhibitions with 10 artists worldwide. This way, we have different inputs and perspectives on the relevant steps in digital art history.
LŠ: Finally, what are your upcoming projects?
AS: We have iterations of Web to Verse coming up in Europe and Asia between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2026. We're also involved in a big project in Saudi Arabia and for the next Venice Art Biennale, but we can't disclose details yet.