‘DIS/PERSION: From physical fragment to digital artefact – A new form of art perception in the age of NFTs’
“DIS/PERSION”
A performative art project by Robert Lanz
DIS/PERSION was made in 2025 for the opening of Robert Lanz’s open studio. It starts from a large-format work on paper, made with ink and pigments. During the opening, that work is destroyed in a document shredder.
The resulting strips — irregular, with no readable image logic — are distributed across 82 glass vials. Each vial carries its own number, following the pattern RL/O-25-117-x/82, and a QR code. The code links to a page showing the full image of the destroyed work, along with the corresponding NFT on OpenSea, tied to the same number as the physical vial.
The work now exists in three states at once, and they no longer match up: as 82 physical fragments that can never be reassembled into an image; as a complete digital image, viewable only online; and as 82 individual NFTs, each linked to one vial by number but technically independent of the physical object. Whoever owns a vial owns a fragment that will never again be part of the original — and access to an image they never saw in its original form.
That gap is the actual subject of the piece. The destruction doesn’t produce loss in the ordinary sense; it relocates the place where the work still exists as a whole — from a sheet of paper to a server. Whether that’s a gain or just a trade, DIS/PERSION doesn’t say. The project doesn’t argue for an answer; it builds the apparatus that makes the question askable in the first place.
UNTITLED, 2019
Oil, ink, ink, mother-of-pearl pigments, copper, aluminium, petrol, spirit on paper
Paper: “Hahnemühle” Nostalgie 190 g/m²m, 90 lbs natural white
29,7 x 21 cm(11,7 x 8,3 in)
LIST 29
Item-ID: RL/D-19-104
“DIS/PERSION”
Each of the 82 glass vials from the DIS/PERSION edition carries a unique item ID.
The structure is: RL/O-25-117-x/82
Where:
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RL stands for the artist Robert Lanz
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O indicates “Object”
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25-117 is the project and artwork code
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x/82 denotes the individual number within the total edition of 82 unique pieces
This signature links the physical fragment to its origin, its NFT representation, and the overall conceptual and archival framework of the project.
—————— RL/O-25-117-1/82, RL/O-25-117-2/82, RL/O-25-117-3/82, RL/O-25-117-4/82, RL/O-25-117-5/82, RL/O-25-117-6/82, RL/O-25-117-7/82, RL/O-25-117-8/82, RL/O-25-117-9/82, RL/O-25-117-10/82, RL/O-25-117-11/82, RL/O-25-117-12/82, RL/O-25-117-13/82, RL/O-25-117-14/82, RL/O-25-117-15/82, RL/O-25-117-16/82, RL/O-25-117-17/82, RL/O-25-117-18/82, RL/O-25-117-19/82, RL/O-25-117-20/82, RL/O-25-117-21/82, RL/O-25-117-22/82, RL/O-25-117-23/82, RL/O-25-117-24/82, RL/O-25-117-25/82, RL/O-25-117-26/82, RL/O-25-117-27/82, RL/O-25-117-28/82, RL/O-25-117-29/82, RL/O-25-117-30/82, RL/O-25-117-31/82, RL/O-25-117-32/82, RL/O-25-117-33/82, RL/O-25-117-34/82, RL/O-25-117-35/82, RL/O-25-117-36/82, RL/O-25-117-37/82, RL/O-25-117-38/82, RL/O-25-117-39/82, RL/O-25-117-40/82, RL/O-25-117-41/82, RL/O-25-117-42/82, RL/O-25-117-43/82, RL/O-25-117-44/82, RL/O-25-117-45/82, RL/O-25-117-46/82, RL/O-25-117-47/82, RL/O-25-117-48/82, RL/O-25-117-49/82, RL/O-25-117-50/82, RL/O-25-117-51/82, RL/O-25-117-52/82, RL/O-25-117-53/82, RL/O-25-117-54/82, RL/O-25-117-55/82, RL/O-25-117-56/82, RL/O-25-117-57/82, RL/O-25-117-58/82, RL/O-25-117-59/82, RL/O-25-117-60/82, RL/O-25-117-61/82, RL/O-25-117-62/82, RL/O-25-117-63/82, RL/O-25-117-64/82, RL/O-25-117-65/82, RL/O-25-117-66/82, RL/O-25-117-67/82, RL/O-25-117-68/82, RL/O-25-117-69/82, RL/O-25-117-70/82, RL/O-25-117-71/82, RL/O-25-117-72/82, RL/O-25-117-73/82, RL/O-25-117-74/82, RL/O-25-117-75/82, RL/O-25-117-76/82, RL/O-25-117-77/82, RL/O-25-117-78/82, RL/O-25-117-79/82, RL/O-25-117-80/82, RL/O-25-117-81/82, RL/O-25-117-82/82
Discover the Digital Counterpart on OpenSea(NFTs)
Each of the 82 glass vials from the DIS/PERSION project is not only a physical artifact containing fragments of a destroyed artwork – it also exists as a unique NFT on https://opensea.io/collection/dis-persion-fragmented-painting-by-robert-lanz
These NFTs serve as digital reflections of the tangible edition, linking ephemeral matter to blockchain permanence.
Scan the QR code on your vial to explore its NFT counterpart, dive into the conceptual framework, and become part of an experiment in dispersion, ownership, and memory.
Own a fragment, own the story.
