El Nacional, one of Venezuela’s oldest newspapers, introduces an innovative NFT collection to mark its 80th anniversary, showcasing the nation’s rich history and culture.
Yesterday, El Nacional, a renowned Venezuelan newspaper, unveiled its unique venture into the world of digital art by launching an NFT collection in celebration of its 80th anniversary. This initiative, titled “Fiction-Art,” comprises 13 non-fungible digital art pieces crafted by the acclaimed artist, Pedro Sandoval. Each digital artwork will have 99 digital copies, accompanied by a high-quality printed version.
The inspiration behind these NFTs is the newspaper’s front pages from decades ago, aiming to present the world with the significant headlines and stories that El Nacional covered 80 years ago.
El Nacional’s venture into the NFT space is not just about embracing modern technology but also reflects the newspaper’s unwavering commitment to freedom of expression, democracy, and Venezuelan culture. Through this NFT collection, El Nacional encapsulates its journey through Venezuela’s history over the past eight decades. These unique NFT artworks seamlessly blend Sandoval’s abstract style with historical headlines and images from the newspaper’s iconic front pages. For Sandoval, merging tangible journalism with the digital age serves as a tribute to Venezuela’s history and a projection of its future, while also propelling El Nacional’s digital transformation.
Fiction-Art: A Blend of Journalism and Digital Art
With Fiction-Art, Sandoval aims to merge journalism and digital art, crafting unique collectible artworks using El Nacional’s iconic front pages. Each NFT artwork captures pivotal historical moments from Venezuela’s politics, culture, and society. Sandoval has infused each newspaper cover with symbolic graphics, offering a fresh aesthetic and interpretation to each iconic front page. He expressed, “El Nacional is a window to the world,” having set a benchmark in Latin American journalism and continuously evolving to adapt to the changing times since its inception in 1943. Recognizing the newspaper’s adaptability, Sandoval introduced the idea of launching an NFT collection to El Nacional.
Miguel Henrique Otero, El Nacional’s Editor-in-Chief, praised Sandoval’s initiative and talent, emphasizing the significance of NFTs in preserving and promoting the newspaper’s journalistic legacy while intertwining technological innovation with Venezuela’s cultural and historical value.
Pioneering NFT Digital Art
Sandoval stands as one of the early adopters of NFTs and blockchain for representing his artworks. He began exploring these technologies in 2014, a time when few were familiar with NFTs. His mission with digital art is to re-educate individuals, offering a fresh, critical perspective on the past and present. He believes that as the world rapidly transitions to the digital realm, NFTs will become an integral part of art. “NFTs will soon occupy more space in museums and will eventually become as mainstream as traditional painting or sculpture,” the artist emphasized. Besides El Nacional, other media outlets like Times magazine have also shown interest in NFTs, even as the growth of the digital asset market has slowed down.