Lamborghini NFT Space Time Memory on Auction with the Start of the Lunar Year

This project celebrates human space exploration, a bridge between the physical and digital worlds.

January 27, 2022

Lamborghini

Auction details for the first NFT (non-fungible token) of Automobili Lamborghini have been announced. Lamborghini has partnered with NFT PRO and RM Sotheby's and will receive bids on five pairs of physical and digital artworks by the artist, Fabian Oefner, between Feb. 1, the first day of the new lunar year, and Feb. 4. The auction for the first of the five NFTs will take place on Nft.lamborghini.com starting at 4 p.m. CET, while each of the other auctions will start and end 15 minutes later than their preceding one. Every auction will last for 75 hours and 50 minutes, the exact time it took Apollo 11 to leave Earth and enter the moon's orbit – not the only reference to human space exploration.

The Space Key's physical artwork contains carbon fiber pieces that Lamborghini sent to the International Space Station in 2020 as part of a joint research project. The carbon fiber parts are engraved with a unique QR code representing the digital element. Also, a series of five photographs depicts a Lamborghini Ultimae lifting off toward the stars. Its parts, engine, transmission, suspension and hundreds of nuts and bolts are shooting away from the chassis like the exhaust flame of a rocket. What may look like a computer-generated image is created entirely from elements of the real world: The artist captured more than 1,500 individual parts of a real car. The photograph of Earth's curvature was made by sending a weather balloon equipped with a camera to the edge of the stratosphere. The artist then carefully assembled all the images into an artificial moment in time.

"For

me, 'Space Time Memory' is an analogy to the memories we make in life," says 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? Analog to that, I wonder with the ever-increasing amount of digital realities around us, what is more precious, reality itself or the copies and derivatives of it, that exist in the digital universe."

At the start of the project, Oefner meticulously studied the engineering plans of the Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae and created an accurate sketch of what the final photograph will look like. Based on that sketch, Lamborghini prepared all the necessary parts and components of a production-ready Ultimae. The pieces were then photographed by Oefner and his team in a makeshift photo studio right next to the production line at the Lamborghini Factory in Sant'Agata Bolognese. Upon his return to his studio in the U.S., he combined the countless images into the composition envisioned in the sketch. It took Oefner and his team more than two months to create a moment, which is shorter than the blink of an eye.

"We're thrilled to have been chosen as preferred NFT partner by such an iconic brand as Lamborghini and incredible artist Fabian Oefner," says Christian Ferri, chief executive officer, NFTPro. "We pride ourselves for being the No. 1 enterprise NFT solution in the market, serving the largest category leaders in the world, and working with Lamborghini and Fabian Oefner validates even further our position. Our company is committed to supporting Lamborghini throughout the NFT journey and journey and are humbled to be working with such a visionary team in the years to come."