Refik Anadol's 'Living Architecture' NFT sells for $1.38M at Christie's

Over 65,000 people gathered in Barcelona to witness the facade of Casa Batlló animated by a video mapping by Turkish artist Refik Anadol, titled 'Living Architecture.' The work debuted on May 5, 2023, as part of the Digital Impact exhibition and the 200th anniversary of Passeig de Gràcia. Five shows ran nightly from 9:30 to 10:30 PM. Anadol stated on Instagram that he 'honored the genius of Gaudí using his incredible facade of Casa Batlló as a canvas, the dataset of his entire life as a light pigment.' The video mapping incorporated data about Antoni Gaudí, similar to Anadol's 2022 'Gaudí Cube' for the same building. Casa Batlló had hosted similar projections in 2015 for the 10th anniversary of its UNESCO listing. 'Living Architecture' was auctioned by Christie's on May 11, 2022, as a digital artwork, selling for $1.38 million. It is the first NFT to reinterpret a UNESCO World Heritage site. The NFT is dynamic, changing in real-time based on environmental data from Barcelona and ephemerides celebrated on the facade. It also uses AI-driven olfactory descriptors to create a unique fragrance representing the house's scent.