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In a world where banana peels taped to walls can pass as art and NFTS of memes can sell upwards of millions, you would think nothing else can surprise you. But Italian artist Salvatore Garau took this quite literally and sold an invisible, nonexistent sculpture for over $18,000. This monumental piece is titled “lo Sono”, which means “ I Am” in Italian. It has no shape, no form, and no physical presence; in fact, there is nothing there at all. And yet, some genius paid for it, willingly at a real auction. Let us break down how you can possibly do the same.
What even is the invisible sculpture?
According to Garau, this sculpture is not made of materials but rather of thoughts. I’m not joking when I say that this is his actual statement: “ You don’t see it, but it exists; it is made of air and spirit.” This sculpture is about presence through absence— a beautiful concept that is rooted in energy, space, and yes quantum theory.
He referenced quantum theory to justify this sale. If science says nothing is ever really nothing, can it be something? Garau clearly thinks so, and apparently so did the buyer. No, there is no invisible box shipped to the buyer’s home (I checked). The buyer did receive a certificate of authenticity and display instructions: the artwork has to be exhibited in a 150×150 cm space that is free of any obstruction—a literal air bubble of importance with nonsensical instructions rooted in abstract fiction.
What is the point?
As absurd as this may sound, Garau’s invisible sculpture is not just a punchline. It is part of the current tradition of conceptual art, where the idea is the art and not the object. Others have also made strides in this venture and paid off, Artists like Yves Klein and John Cage (i thought it was Nic Cage) once made headlines with blank canvases and silent symphonies (you can do that too). Garau is tapping into a lineage that is this weird era of post-physical, NFT-infused, meta nonsense era. Think about it, we pay for digital avatars, crypto coins, cloud storage, and JPEGS of apes. So, sometimes buying “nothing” is not that strange anymore.
And what did we learn from this? That value is perception; if you can make someone believe nothing or something has worth, even air, then it does. Art is not about objects, but ideas, concepts, and fiction. So I would like to correct myself and say that Salvatore Garau did not sell thin air, he sold an idea. A thought, an invitation to reimagine space, value, and what we really define as “real”.
If this sounds like a scam in a tuxedo, well, so did Bitcoin. So we can learn from this and hopefully apply the same methods to sell ideas and beliefs, even if something is not actually there. The boldest artistic statement of this day is to leave the pedestal empty and still convince us to look.
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