How does one of the world’s most powerful luxury car manufacturers enter the speculative NFT market? The only obvious move, according to Lamborghini, is to create artwork infused with actual artefacts from outer space.
To be clear, the real-world artwork that inspired the first Lamborghini NFTs, Space Time Memory, isn’t a pile of moon rocks (though that would be cool too). It’s a meticulously crafted photo collage by artist Fabian Oefner depicting a Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae escaping Earth’s perilous bonds.
“For me, Space Time Memory is an analogy to the memories we make in life,” said Oefner. “Memories are rooted in the physical world; we make them in reality. We then store them in our brains, what could be considered the digital world. I often wonder, what is more precious to me, the actual moment or the memory of that moment?.”
Space Time Memory inspired Lamborghini’s first-ever NFTs, five massive variations of Space Time Memory — each with more than 600 million pixels — all linked to the blockchain and the Space Key, a physical artwork that comes with each purchase.
All five editions of Space Key, like the digital objects to which they are linked, are one-of-a-kind. Each one houses one of the carbon fibre pieces that Lamborghini sent to the International Space Station in 2020, which is engraved with a QR code that connects to the corresponding NFT.
At first glance, what appear to be jumbled piles of parts turn out to be intricately laid-out displays of actual Aventador Ultimae parts, all individually photographed by Oefner and his team right next to Lamborghini’s factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Each piece was then combined into a composite image, which took Oefner’s team over two months to complete alone. As a result, while Lamborghini isn’t the first prestige automobile company to enter the NFT space, it’s making sure that even its initial steps into the space feel diligent and rare. Perhaps that sense of patient authenticity will carry over to the auction of the five Lamborghini NFTs.
In collaboration with RM Sotheby’s and NFTPro, the sale begins on February 1 and concludes on February 4 via Lamborghini’s dedicated NFT website. The bidding will be open for 75 hours and 50 minutes, the time it took Apollo 11 to leave Earth’s atmosphere and enter the moon’s orbit.
