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#ArtTech : vous devriez investir parce que le marché va exploser @ArtJaws

Dans 3 ans, le marché de l’art en ligne atteindra 10 milliards d’euros. En Chine et aux US, plateformes d’art et grands collectionneurs sont déjà sur le pont. En France, le marché ne demande qu’à éclore et pourrait bien rapporter gros aux entreprises. Rencontre avec Anne-Cécile Worms, fondatrice de la marketplace d’art numérique ArtJaws.

Photo : Jonathan Monaghan

Plus de 3 milliards d’euros aujourd’hui, près de 10 milliards demain… Depuis trois ou quatre ans, le marché de l’art en ligne connait une progression sans précédent malgré le ralentissement global du marché de l’art classique, estime le rapport Hiscox 2017. Et il va falloir que les entreprises s’y intéressent de près, et vite, estime la « serial entrepreneuse » et experte en arts numériques pour l’Institut Français, Anne-Cécile Worms. Dans ce contexte, les artistes des nouveaux médias ont une vraie place à se faire, et c’est sur eux qu’entreprises et fonds d’investissement devraient aujourd’hui placer leurs pions.

François Ronsiaux – United Land

LIRE AUSSI

- Pourquoi sommes-nous autant fascinés par l’art numérique ?

L’ART TECH À L’ASSAUT DU MARCHÉ DE L’ART EN LIGNE

« Il y a peu, les œuvres issues du numérique faisaient des apparitions furtives dans des festivals de musique électronique, aujourd’hui, elles opèrent une percée dans des lieux d’exposition prestigieux et plus corporate comme les fondations d’EDF et de la MAIF. », explique-t-elle. Du 17 novembre 2017 au 18 mars dernier, on présentait à la Fondation EDF l’exposition « La Belle Vie Numérique ! » et toute une palanquée d’artistes issus de la génération Internet. Preuve que la hype autour de l’art numérique, appellation un peu fourre-tout qu’Anne-Cécile Worms préfère troquer par « Art Tech », commence à s’inscrire dans la durée.« Et quand les marques sont à l’origine de ce genre d’initiative, c’est que c’est plutôt bon signe ! », poursuit-elle.

Félicie d’Estienne d’Orves – Cosmographies

En ligne, de nouveaux modèles économiques fleurissent et attirent les collectionneurs. « On recense aujourd’hui des plateformes de bricks-and-clicks (Amazon Art, Paddle8, Artsy, Artnet…), des galeries généralistes en ligne comme Artsphere et enfin des modèles plus indépendants comme le nôtre », rapporte Anne-Cécile Worms.

Spécialisée en Art Tech, la marketplace ArtJaws lancée en février 2016 promeut les œuvres d’artistes contemporains travaillant avec les nouveaux médias. « Intelligence artificielle, impression 3D, DataArt, réalité virtuelle, NanoArt, BioArt… il y en a de toutes les formes et pour tous les supports », explique-t-elle. Et c’est mathématique. À mesure que les artistes numériques gagnent en visibilité avec les plateformes et Instagram, à mesure que les startups se positionnent sur le sujet, les collectionneurs sont de moins en moins réticents à acheter en ligne.

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- À découvrir : l’art numérique de Fabien Bouchard aka Parse/Error

LA FORMULE ARTJAWS : TROUVER SON BONHEUR ENTRE 5 ET 10 000 EUROS

ArtJaws, c’est bien sûr de la vente mais aussi des services à destination des collectionneurs. « Nous organisons des visites d’ateliers, des rencontres avec les artistes et des évènements dédiés, notamment avec la foire “Variation Media Art Fair” », poursuit-elle. Côté artistes, il y en a pour tous les goûts et pour tous les porte monnaies. On y retrouve certains des pionniers de l’art virtuel et numérique comme Miguel Chevalier, Grégory Chatonsky ou Juan Le Parc et tout un vivier de petits nouveaux, moins côtés « mais tous aussi prometteurs ».

Photo : Gregory Chatonsky – Perfect Skin II

« Les œuvres les plus chères sont des pièces uniques. D’autres, comme celles de Betrand Planes et Félicie D’Estienne D’Orves sont nettement plus accessibles ». En un an, AtJaws a vendu 150 000 euros d’œuvres et réalisé 5 ventes au-dessus de 20 000 euros. Avec un premier tour de table récemment réalisé avec des business angels, la plateforme se construit peu à peu avec un réseau d’investisseurs et d’acteurs de la tech, l’idée étant aussi d’y implémenter de nouvelles technologies. « Nous avons déjà testé le modèle « click and mortar » (voir l’oeuvre en ligne, puis en vrai) avec un dispositif de cartel augmenté et de QR code via lequel les utilisateurs peuvent acheter une œuvre directement sur le site. Une deuxième levée de fonds nous permettra de continuer à innover et d’expérimenter d’autres outils comme la blockchain ».

INVESTISSEMENT, DÉFISCALISATION ET PLUS-VALUE À LA REVENTE : POUR LES ENTREPRISES, C’EST TOUT BÉNEF’

 

Pour séduire les collectionneurs, les niches fiscales constituent aussi un argument de taille. Grâce à la loi française de mécénat pour les entreprises, ces dernières ont l’opportunité de bénéficier des effets de la défiscalisation sur les 5 ans qui suivent l’acquisition d’une œuvre. « Nous avons déjà vendu une installation au cabinet de conseil Inspearit. Ils ont fait le choix de l’artiste data James Cao Yuxi, parce que ses œuvres sont en lien avec leurs activités. » Sur place, l’initiative permet aussi de créer du lien entre les salariés et d’animer différemment le lieu de travail. « Nous recommandons aussi l’acquisition d’une œuvre parce qu’elle prend de la valeur avec le temps. À la revente, la plus-value est d’autant plus intéressante », selon elle, même s’il n’existe pas d’exemples concrets.

Parmi les publics ciblés par ArtJaws, les entreprises et fonds d’investissement technos mais aussi les cabinets d’avocats et plus généralement les professions libérales. À Station F, la fondatrice regrette d’ailleurs qu’aucun hommage ne soit rendu à l’Art Tech. « Une sculpture à l’entrée et pas de numérique, c’est quand même un peu contradictoire dans un lieu pareil ! »

#Insurtech - The Problem with Art Funds

The Problem with Art Funds

ARTSY EDITORIAL

BY ANNY SHAW

JAN 9TH, 2017 10:21 PM

 

Barbara Bloom, Safe, 1999. Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Image courtesy of the artist and David Lewis, New York.

The idea of art as an investment vehicle has been gaining momentum in recent years, and with it a proliferation of art funds. The first fund dates back to 1974, when the British Rail Pension Fund invested in more than 2,500 works of art over six years. The scheme prospered, reportedly delivering an aggregate return of 11.3% per year compounded from 1974 to 1999.

Since then there have been numerous attempts to launch art funds, with varying degrees of success. The London-based Fine Art Fund, which recently rebranded as the Fine Art Group, is one of the longest-standing and biggest players in the market. The group currently manages eight different funds and has more than $500 million in assets under contract.

Chief executive Philip Hoffman, who founded the Fine Art Group in 2001 having worked at Christie’s for 12 years and KPMG before that, attributes his success to the mixture of art world and financial expertise his company offers. “Most art funds lack staying power and long-term capital,” he says, noting that the majority are less than two years old. “People don’t want to invest in a firm without a track record, especially after Lehman Brothers blew up in 2008.”

In 2015, Hoffman wound down his first fund, launched in 2005-06, which made an annual net return of 5%—a “respectable figure,” he says, and “better than most unleveraged funds, many of which went bust after 2008.” But some in the art trade say the return is poor. Todd Levin, the director of the New York-based Levin Art Group, says he has “a consistent annual net return of between 8% and 40% on groups of artworks with hold times of between four and 12 years.” 

As the art market has changed over the past 10 years, so too has Hoffman’s business model. His first funds invested heavily in Old Masters, a category he no longer deals in, choosing instead to invest in Impressionist, modern, and contemporary art.

The Fine Art Group is also launching a lending arm to help art collectors and dealers borrow against their assets. The new company, called Fine Art Financial Services, offers up to 50% of the value of works up to $20 million, including those due to be auctioned. “We are looking towards being one of the biggest guarantors at auction,” Hoffman says. The group also offers an art advisory service to its clients.

However, many art funds have failed to adapt and have folded since the highs of 2007, when there were around 50 active globally. That figure dropped to 12 by the end of 2010, according to Fine Art Wealth Management. Casualties include Fernwood Art Investments, which went up in smoke before the recession, prompting a small group of equity investors to file lawsuits, and the Art Trading Fund, the world’s first art hedge fund, which went into liquidation at the end of 2009.

Since 2010, there has been a slight uptick in new art funds being launched. Among them is the Tiroche DeLeon Collection art fund, which was established in 2012 and invests in contemporary art from developing countries. Since March 2012, the art fund has seen a total return of 15.83%. The firm is currently focusing on sales, primarily in Asia and Africa, ahead of its five-year anniversary.

Despite a renewed interest in art funds, however, there is limited evidence that any are viable, say some trade insiders. “Art is not a liquid enough asset to produce the sort of returns that investors would want,” says Melanie Gerlis, an art market journalist and the author of Art as an Investment?: A Survey of Comparative Assets (2014). “And evidence suggests that investors would rather buy more traditional assets to make money and buy art for other sorts of returns.”

Levin suggests that art funds fail where other forms of art investment succeed partly due to the overhead required to run one. “An art fund is a very expensive proposition, due to the overhead costs eating away at one’s profit margin.” he says. “Whether one is an investor or collector, you would be better served employing an experienced art advisor on a one to one basis to build a portfolio or collection of art.”

Ultimately, Levin says, reducing art to a transaction misses the point of collecting. “The important part of collecting art is the education modality, and it is this that drives the transactional modality. One must build a certain level of connoisseurship first.” he says. “Fundamentally, the only successful way to buy art as an aesthetic object and as an investment is to spend your own money and do it yourself with the guidance of an advisor.”

An Interview With Anne-Cécile Worms, Expert For Digital Art And Founder Of @Art2M

An Interview With Anne-Cécile Worms, Expert For Digital Art And Founder Of Art2M 

According to the Worldwide Collectors Survey carried out by AXA ART, 14% of the collectors focus  on artworks linked to new media. In October 2015, AXA ART invested € 500.000 Euro in ART2M (Art to Machine): a start-up specialized in mediating between investors passionate about digital art und innovative artists who produce connected objects. The company is on the cutting edge of digital fabrication through its platform makery.info. With a network of nearly 600 labs worldwide it identifies artists, makers and designers to work with. Contemporary artists are presented on the selling platform ArtJaws, selected by curators from all over the world specialized in digital art. Anne-Cécile Worms on the background of her work and the rising interest in digital art.

 

What does Art2M stand for? Which motives did you have when founding your first startup in 2009?

It has been thirteen years of engaging with digital art, before founding the startup. I have been publishing the first French printed magazine about digital art (MCD, Magazine des Cultures Digitales). I was thus able to establish close relationships with artists and producers of digital artwork. From the very beginning, it was the aim of Art2M to create a platform for yet underrepresented artists. That way, we hope to facilitate the access to digital art for an audience that is interested in it.

You are running three different websites. There are Art2M, makery.info and ArtJaws. How do you differentiate between them?

Art2M is a company specialized in the production and the distribution of exclusive digital artworks and innovative design. Our expertise is based on our international network of artists, designers and engineers, with whom we work since 2009 to create installations and events bound to the art and to the new technologies. Art2M is currently producing innovative artworks for public spaces, as well as connected objects and events for its clients.

Together with artists, Art2M is producing exclusive artworks, such as WaterLight Graffiti™ by Antonin Fourneau, a new a material made of thousands of LEDs which lights up when touched by water, or The Infinite Book™ by Albertine Meunier, an entirely blank book which content appears only when its pages are turned.

The online media, Makery.info is our tool to scout innovation worldwide and connect with inventors and developers working in the field of digital fabrication via so called “fablabs”. The interchange of information can therefore happen on a global scale. It gives us the chance to have a constant overview of current developments in the field of connected objects.  Besides, we are able to find new sources of inspiration for collaborations, prototyping and coproductions.

ArtJaws is a new marketplace targeting the international online art market, offering buyers direct accedd to artworks and artists who are icons of pop culture and digital arts. ArtJaws is making accessible to a wider public, artworks that are rarely seen in traditional distribution channels, featuring limited editions and world exclusives from international artists.

“Jaws” has its origins in the surf community: it stands for a very famous Hawaiian spot where the jawlike waves can reach up to 25 meters high. ArtJaws stands for the new wave of innovative art.

Which criteria is important for you when selecting works for ArtJaws?

A committee of well-esteemed curators are being invited from all over the world. I have been able to establish an outstanding team of curators because of my longstanding experience within the area of the digital art. At the moment, there are five curators working for ArtJaws. However, this number will rise up to twenty within the coming months.

ArtJaws curates collections that introduce viewers to artists who have been little or under-represented in the current art market—artists who are part of the parallel history of art and who are creating the tools and languages of the future, thanks to whom will emerge a new grammar for art that is new to collectors but ancient in its journey.

How diverse is the range of artworks offered at ArtJaws?

Just as for an exhibition, artworks are selected according to specific themes, through focused and demanding curation founded on double expertise.  Artworks are presented in historical and artistic perspective. Each piece is accompanied by a wealth of in-depth documents to engage buyers through an artist biography, interview, collectors’ comments, with the artwork in focus, in perspective and in context.  We have already launched 6 collections: Tattoo Art, Graffiti Art and Digital Art. The collector will also be able to discover the diversity of digital art. It is time to move on from the expectation that digital art can only happen on a screen. There are many more things to digital art. Post-internet art, bio-art, robotic art, or connected objects are a great example for this.

Can you explain this further?

The influence of the internet on art is important here. Objects can communicate with each other. A work by Albertine Meunier, the DADAPrint3r, which is produced by Art2M and exhibited on ArtJaws, exemplifies this very well: The internet plays an intrinsic role when it comes to Meunier´s work. Her printer can produce a text in Paris made up of words spoken in Marseille or any other place in the world through a mobile app. Based on Google voice recognition technology, all speech captured by the microphone is optimally and efficiently processed. However, occasional moments of uncertainty may yield surprising results.  A notion of phantasy is added and its aspects of unconsciousness add elements of Dada to Meunier´s art.

DadaPrint3r, Ready Made by Albertine Meunier, coproduction Art2M

How do you explain the success of ArtJaws?

The online art market experiences a growing success – the turnover in 2015 was three billion dollars. 2020 is expected to have a turnover of ten billion dollars. There are very few websites that have a similar target group like we do. The platform really is about the latest developments within the field of contemporary digital art. Because we are up-to-date with the most recent happenings in the history of art, ArtJaws is able to offer something very special. It is our most crucial distinctive feature: Most artworks that can be found on ArtJaws cannot be found on any other website. Since its inauguration, ArtJaws achieved sales of 100.000 Euros of online sales.

You don´t work in the sense of a traditional gallery. How would you describe your relationships with the artists?

Instead of negotiating contracts with galleries or agencies, we are in direct contact with the artists. 70 per cent of our revenue is paid to the artist when he´s represented by a gallery or an agent, 50 per cent when he´s not represented. We also work with artists to produce new artworks for our ArtJaws exclusive collectors.

Why would the acquisition of artworks via ArtJaws be appealing to collectors?

ArtJaws is giving collectors and investors the opportunity to acquire works by artists whose reputation is on the rise. ArtJaws is convinced that the artworks it presents will increase in value over the next five years because of the network of curators of outstanding knowledge and experience we´ve generated. Collectors who acquired works via ArtJaws have confirmed this – it is rare for them to find a similar access. If a collector wants to buy an oil painting with a video projection screened on its surface, our team of experts will also look for this work.  We are thus able to foster a very personal and exclusive relationship with our clients. Besides, we offer the collectors to be in direct contact with the artists and to visit their studios. Our aim is not to divide the “online world” from the “offline world”. Today, both fields are merging.

What about collectors who are interested in digital art but don´t know much about it yet?

We show artworks and we provide information about artists. As a partner of AICA (International Association of Art Critics), ArtJaws give collectors access to content designed to help them building their collection. AICA is providing editorial content to ArtJaws with contributions from the most renowned international art critics. That way, collectors that had little chance to inform themselves on digital art before, will better understand what digital art is about. It is not about whether the works are digital or not. What counts more is the fact that these works have to be looked at as art. We want the collectors to understand that we don´t care so much about the technological aspects. We care much more about the emotional strength of a work and its meaning. This is what moves the collector.

#Art #Insurtech = @AXAVentures invests 500,000€ in @Art_2_M, an art and connected objects platform for collectors and investors

 

• AXA Strategic Ventures invests in the Art2M start-up, specialized in mediating between investors passionate about digital art and innovative artists who produce connected objects.

•  The total investment of 500,000€ will allow Art2M to intensify its R&D efforts and establish itself overseas, particularly in the United States and China.

Founded and directed by Anne-Cécile Worms, Art2M produces and develops prototypes and connected objects, identified and designed thanks to its active watch over a network of almost 600 labs worldwide. The company remains on the cutting-edge of digital fabrication through its specialized media : Makery.info. It also lends its knowledge and network of experts to corporations by providing workshops, rapid prototyping and temporary on-site labs.

 

Art2M coproduces digital artworks, connected objects and innovative materials. Among its exclusive coproductions is Water Light Graffiti, a LED surface that reacts to water, which has already been patented and continues to enjoy commercial success around the world.

Finally, Art2M opens its catalogue of artworks to collectors through an online platform dedicated to the sale of contemporary, modern and digital art. In 2014, online art sales reached 3.3 billion euros, accounting for 6% of the total value of art market sales.* Furthermore, according to the Worldwide Collectors Survey carried out by AXA ART in 2014, 14% of those surveyed collect artworks linked to new media in the category of “installations & videos”. This platform will allow rapidly emerging artists who are currently underrepresented on the art market to become accessible via online sales. It will be launched during the annual exhibition-sale organized by Art2M, entitled “Variation - Media Art Fair”, to be held on October 19-25 at La Halle des Blancs-Manteaux in Paris, simultaneously with the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC). 

Anne-Cécile Worms, CEO of Art2M : “This investment will allow Art2M to develop its portfolio of exclusive coproductions (connected objects and innovative design) and to position our new “ArtJaws” selling platform, dedicated to artworks and artists' limited editions, as a major player on the online art market.”

Minh Q. Tran, General manager of AXA Strategic Ventures : “The Internet of Things is one of the five sectors in which we intend to invest. Art2M's approach perfectly meets our needs, as it provides a global watch service on connected objects, while harmoniously integrating the ecosystem of AXA ART, subsidiary of AXA, on the contemporary art market and in the field of digital art.” 

(* Source TEFAF Art Market Report 2015)

 

About AXA Strategic Ventures

Launched in February 2015, AXA Strategic Ventures is a €200 million venture capital fund dedicated to emerging strategic innovations in financial services. AXA Strategic Ventures invests in start-ups via seed funding and also provides venture capital for more established companies. The fund currently has seven offices: San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Zurich, Berlin and Hong Kong.

Read more about AXA Strategic Ventures at www.axastrategicventures.com. Find video interviews, biographies, FAQs and media coverage in the AXA US Newsroom on www.axa.com 

Aboout Art2M

Art2M is a young innovative enterprise (J.E.I) specialized in producing exclusive or custom digital artworks and innovative design. Digital culture is at the heart of its process, in order to offer its clients (marketing agencies, institutions, corporations and private organizations) innovative branding and ever-more connected events. For more information: www.art2m.com,  www.makery.info,  www.artjaws.com  / Art2M media contact : Ada Fizir, +33 (0) 1 58 28 92 39

 

#Art #Insurtech = AXA Strategic Ventures investit 500 000€ dans Art2M, une plateforme d’art et d’objets connectés pour les collectionneurs et investisseurs

• AXA Strategic Ventures investit dans la start-up Art2M, spécialisée dans la mise en relation entre investisseurs passionnés d’art numérique et artistes innovants produisant des objets connectés.
• Le tour de table, d’un montant de 500 000€ va permettre à Art2M d’intensifier son effort de R&D et de s’implanter à l’étranger, notamment aux Etats-Unis et en Chine.

Fondée et dirigée par Anne-Cécile Worms, la société Art2M produit et développe des prototypes et objets connectés, détectés et conçus grâce à une veille active sur un réseau de près de 600 labs dans le monde. La société est à l’avant-garde de la fabrication numérique à travers son média spécialisé : Makery.info. Elle met aussi son réseau d’experts et son savoir-faire à disposition de grands groupes auxquels elle propose des ateliers, du prototypage rapide, et des Labs éphémères en entreprise.

 Art2M coproduit des œuvres d’art numérique, des objets connectés ou encore des matériaux innovants. Parmi ses coproductions exclusives, on retrouve Water Light Graffiti, une surface de leds réactive à l’eau qui a fait l’objet d’un premier brevet et remporte déjà un grand succès commercial dans le monde entier.

Enfin, Art2M ouvre aux collectionneurs son catalogue d’œuvres d’art à travers une plateforme de vente d’art en ligne dédiée à l’art contemporain, moderne et numérique. En 2014, les ventes d’art en ligne ont atteint 3,3 milliards d’euros, soit 6% des ventes totales du marché de l’art en valeur*. Par ailleurs, selon la Grande Enquête Mondiale sur les Collectionneurs menée par AXA ART en 2014, 14% des personnes interrogées collectionnent des œuvres liées aux nouveaux medias, de type « installations & vidéos ».. Cette plateforme permettra à des artistes aujourd’hui sous-représentés sur le marché de l’art, mais dont la cote augmente rapidement, d’être accessibles à l’achat en ligne. Le lancement de cette plate-forme aura lieu à l’occasion d’une exposition-vente organisée par Art2M, dénommée « Variation - Media Art Fair », qui se tiendra du 19 au 25 octobre à la Halle des Blancs-Manteaux à Paris, en parallèle de la Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain (FIAC).

Pour Anne-Cécile Worms, PDG d’Art2M : « Cet investissement va permettre à Art2M de développer son portefeuille de coproductions exclusives (objets connectés et design innovant) et de positionner notre nouveau site nommé "ArtJaws", dédié à la vente d’œuvres d’art et éditions limitées d’artistes, comme l’un des acteurs majeurs du marché de l’art en ligne ».

 

« L’Internet des objets est l’un des cinq secteurs dans lesquels nous souhaitons investir. L’approche d’Art2M correspond parfaitement à nos besoins car elle fournit un service de veille globale en matière d’objets connectés tout en venant compléter harmonieusement l’écosystème d’AXA ART, filiale du groupe AXA, dans les domaines du marché de l’art contemporain et de l’art numérique » indique Minh Q. Tran, Directeur Général d’AXA Strategic Ventures.

(* Source Art Market Report 2015 de la TEFAF)