Collector Vignesh Sundaresan, known as Metakovan and famous for purchasing Beeple's NFT artwork "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" for $69.3 million in 2021, has launched a new project space called Padimai Art & Tech Studio in Singapore's Tanjong Pagar Distripark. The venue opens with an Olafur Eliasson exhibition titled "Your view matter," an adaptation of a 2022 virtual reality work that records visitors' experiences on a blockchain system. Sundaresan describes Padimai as a heritage, contemporary art and research institution focused on technology as cultural infrastructure, exploring digital creation, preservation, circulation, and collective memory.
This matters because it represents a significant investment in digital art infrastructure by a high-profile NFT collector, potentially legitimizing and institutionalizing the intersection of blockchain technology and contemporary art. Located alongside the state-backed Singapore Art Museum and commercial galleries, Padimai aims to support projects that don't conform to commercial gallery timelines, focusing on preservation of digital works and collaboration between artists and technologists. The venture signals a shift from NFT speculation toward sustainable, research-driven engagement with digital art, and could influence how other collectors and institutions approach digital art preservation and exhibition.