Coinciding with the start of Wimbledon 2021, the moment of Swedish tennis star Björn Borg’s legendary 1980 victory over John McEnroe at the UK tournament has today gone on auction as a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) art piece – the first-ever ‘Emotional NFT’.
Representing the first time a world-renowned public figure has presented emotion as an NFT, the single-edition artwork enshrines an iconic moment in sporting history. The No Time to Think NFT will feature: a 3D digital sculpture (signed by Borg and created by digital artists Ximena) interpreting Borg’s emotions as he won his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title; an exclusive interview with the tennis legend about the July 5th 1980 final; and a signed contract verifying the emotions enshrined within the piece.
Titled ‘No Time to Think’, this will be the first of seven NFT artworks in the Serenity series from the new 7Moments (www.7moments.com) NFT collection to go to auction, each of which is produced in cooperation with the public figure whose key moment is immortalised.
7Moments is produced by the Göteborg- and Kyiv-headquartered platform, Iqonia (co-founded by Patrik Arnesson, one of Sweden’s leading sports tech entrepreneurs, best known for creating Forza Football, the world’s largest live-score and fan engagement platform).
Launched at a time of increased interest in the role of NFTs as an artistic medium – following the Christie’s sale of Beeple’s Everydays in March 2021 for $69 million – and the availability for purchase of moments of internet history, such as Jack Dorsey’s first Twitter tweet, No Time to Think represents a new intersection between technology, art, popular culture, and shared experiences and collective memories.
The auction has gone live on Monday 28th, the first day of Wimbledon at www.7moments.com, with final bids to be received by 10th July (the day prior to the Wimbledon final). If there is a bid in the final 12 hours of the auction, the auction will be extended by a further 12 hours.
Björn Borg comments: “I am proud to be involved with a project which fuses technology and art, to capture and preserve collective memory and emotions. That moment in 1980 was special. Not just to me, but to everyone who was there and the millions around the world who saw it and felt a part of it. To know that the emotional core of that memory is being preserved for posterity in a form that will outlive me and all who remember that incredible day… Well, this is a unique thing.”
The NFT will contain:
- The framing of “No Time to Think” is a virtual room that contains all the individual pieces of the moment. The room connects the pieces as a unified work and frames the video file in the beginning and end. The complete room is also included as an object file to enable future-proof integration in Metaverse experiences.
- A contract signed by Björn Borg authenticating the content of the NFT and confirming single ownership of his experience in this moment.
- The exclusive interview with Björn that evoked his emotions and inspired the art pieces.
- The audiovisual piece by Ximena, manifesting Björn’s complete emotional experience.
- A historical description of the moment written by “The Tennis Oracle” Björn Hellberg, a distinguished tennis commentator and author.
The auction winner will also receive a physical, metal replica of the sculpture in the virtual room, to commemorate the NFT.
Patrik Arnesson, CEO and Co-Founder of Iqonia, comments: “Throughout history, moments have been memorialised in the physical world through paintings, sculptures and music. At Iqonia, we want to create monuments in our digital worlds. In the Metaverse, these monuments can stand immortal. Never destroyed by decay, fire, or malice. Enjoyed by rich or poor, young and old. Reached from anywhere, at any time. We are honored to launch our 7Moments gallery with the greatest moment of the great Björn Borg, as well as to be able to champion incredible young talent in the artists behind the work.”
7Moments (www.7moments.com) is the first NFT gallery from Göteborg- and Kyiv-headquartered Iqonia. Iqonia is a highly scalable and technical platform for the creation of NFT galleries. The platform is able to release a new gallery in two weeks, and can host auctions, handle smart contracts, and mint NFTs. Iqonia’s team will develop galleries internally, as well as on behalf of third-parties.
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Iqonia is founded on the belief that the Metaverse – the collective virtual shared space including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet – will become as or more significant than the real world as simulations of the real world improve. Art will only grow more important in the Metaverse as a way for people to connect to their history, heritage, and humanity.
Iqonia’s mission, therefore, is to bring moments of great cultural, historical, or other significance from the real world and create monuments in the Metaverse, by building NFT gallery ideas that are as meaningful for people in the real world as in the Metaverse.
7Moments NFT Gallery – Background
7Moments enshrines emotional moments as digital monuments, where talented artists capture the emotions behind some of humanity’s most meaningful stories – in collaboration with the people at the heart of the stories – as evocative 3D sculpture art pieces. Each piece is connected to the series with an emotional theme, and the series can be seen as a heptaptych with seven pieces that complement and reinforce each other.
The 7Moments gallery will release for auction other iconic sporting, cultural, technological, or historical moment, enshrined as a singular NFT artwork that will stand as a monument in the Metaverse (the collective virtual shared space including the sum of all virtual worlds, augmented reality, and the Internet).
Each art piece in the 7Moments gallery will incorporate the recording of an exclusive interview with the key person who experienced the memory, to capture the emotion of existing in that specific, iconic moment.
7Moments is commissioning extraordinarily talented underground artists for the creation of the artworks in the gallery, to support and elevate young digital talent in the art world.
Though Björn Borg was nicknamed the ‘Ice Man’ as a player for his unflappable demeanour, the artwork in the 7Moments gallery demonstrates that, in fact, there was incredible emotion inside the legendary Swede. In a sense, this NFT artwork is like a vault being opened after 40 years.
The Artists: Ximena – Background
The art piece contained within ‘No Time to Think’ was created by Ximena, the artistic partnership of Diana Azzuz and Rina Priduvalova. Ximena’s work reflects critically on digital reality, social responsibility, and the dystopian quality of the ever-changing environment. With roots in audiovisual pieces, Ximena express their artistry in a combination of media.
Ximena’s first collaborative work, Hyperreal, was released in December 2019, followed by an hour-long audiovisual set presented on different platforms.
The latest work is an audiovisual album, Sui Noxa, released on Standard Deviation, an offspring of the Kyrylivska Club in Kyiv. This work also has a physical extension in the form of an installation that was exhibited at Glass Tower.
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