SHIT HAPPENS!

Description

SHIT HAPPENS! — CRTSHT / Marco Spitzbarth (iBulla), 2021–2026
128 algorithmically generated images, 128 physical originals, 128 wallets. Five years after CRTSHT was minted on Ethereum and produced as "Genuine Prints," the works are exhibited together for the first time before being redistributed through a raffle.
In 2021, when almost every JPEG on the internet seemed to be tokenized, 128 small "CryptoShits" appeared. The digital images were minted on Ethereum and simultaneously translated into the physical world as 20 × 20 cm "Genuine Prints" made of aluminum. Each piece received its own wallet, an NFT, and a correspondingly complex digital identity. Then, for five years, almost nothing happened. The prints remained packed. The blockchain continued to run.
In 2026, all 128 physical works come together for the first time. What in 2021 seemed like a movement in the opposite direction — from real object to metaverse, from ownership to token, from image to hash — can now be read in reverse. The NFT is less a promise for the future than the provenance of a past utopia: a digital trace of a moment when blockchain, decentralization, and digital ownership briefly seemed to change everything.
CRTSHT reconnects this trace with its physical object. On the back of each work, four visible seed words are printed. They lead to a digital oracle and unlock a personal fortune cookie oracle. The complete key remains sealed and is part of the work. Image, wallet, NFT, seed words, mooncake, packaging, and blockchain history together form a small archaeological artifact from 2021: somewhere between good luck charm, archive, access key, and unnecessarily complicated cryptography.
The central question is how physical and digital worlds influence and overlap each other, leaving traces in each other. You don't need to be familiar with cryptography. You don't even need to like it. It is already history anyway.
At the beginning of the exhibition, all 128 works are hung together on a wall. Afterwards, they are distributed in three draws — not based on rarity, taste, market value, or algorithm. Participants draw a number and thus their CRTSHT. Each selected original is taken from the wall, packed, and leaves the exhibition along with its digital past. With each draw, the wall becomes emptier.
SHIT HAPPENS! September 25 – October 31, 2026 · ENDSAFTER · Hardturmstrasse 307 · Zurich, Drawings: September 25 · October 17 · October 31, 2026 · cryptoshit.info Note: This text was translated by software for machine translation and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.

Highlights

• 128 algorithmically generated images and physical originals
• First joint exhibition after five years
• Raffle of the works after the exhibition

General Information

The exhibition "SHIT HAPPENS!" displays 128 algorithmically generated images and their physical originals at the Kunstraum Hartdurm in Zurich. After five years, the works are presented together for the first time before being redistributed through a raffle.

Location

Hardturmstrasse 307, 8005 Zürich, Switzerland

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