‘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
A work created by Robert Lanz for the opening of his studio in 2025: destroyed, fragmented, and distributed across 82 numbered vials – each one an original art object carrying a digital trace.
The process is simple, its consequences are not. A large-format work on high-quality paper, made to Robert Lanz’s usual standard in ink and pigment, is destroyed in a document shredder as part of the project. What results are not offcuts but fragments – loose, individual pieces with no continuous line, no longer legible as a drawing. These fragments are sealed into glass vials, each containing a different number of particles – some more, some fewer – and marked with a unique ID number.
That ID number does more than catalogue the vial. Via a QR code, each owner can access the work’s digital counterpart online: a full visual record of the original drawing, the destruction itself, and the project’s framework. The same ID links the vial to its corresponding NFT on OpenSea, tying ownership of the physical fragment to a verifiable digital record.
Each vial holds only a fragment, yet stands for the whole: an indivisible part of a work that no longer exists as a single physical object. DIS/PERSION asks what it means to own a work whose original has been destroyed – and continues to exist only as a distributed, partly digital trace.
The 82 NFTs on OpenSea are not illustrations of the work but its digital half: linked by ID to a specific vial, they verify ownership and authenticity, and extend the physical fragment into a second, parallel existence. Owning both vial and NFT means holding the same work twice – once as matter, once as record.
In DIS/PERSION, destruction is not an endpoint but a transfer: the moment a single drawing becomes eighty-two distinct, ownable fragments, each carrying its own physical and digital identity forward.
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.
