{"id":483,"date":"2022-08-08T16:29:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T16:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/?p=483"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:09:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:09:04","slug":"decentralised-embargo-2022-a-blockchain-based-artistic-intervention-into-energy-geopolitics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/decentralised-embargo-2022-a-blockchain-based-artistic-intervention-into-energy-geopolitics\/","title":{"rendered":"Decentralised Embargo (2022): A Blockchain-Based Artistic Intervention into Energy Geopolitics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-995f960e wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feed_2022-08-08_Decentralised-Embargo_001-819x1024.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-484\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7998141695702672;width:596px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kraftstudio.b-cdn.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feed_2022-08-08_Decentralised-Embargo_001-819x1024.webp 819w, https:\/\/kraftstudio.b-cdn.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feed_2022-08-08_Decentralised-Embargo_001-240x300.webp 240w, https:\/\/kraftstudio.b-cdn.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feed_2022-08-08_Decentralised-Embargo_001-768x960.webp 768w, https:\/\/kraftstudio.b-cdn.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Feed_2022-08-08_Decentralised-Embargo_001.webp 1038w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Decentralised Embargo<\/em>&nbsp;(2022) is a provocative installation involving an electricity contract with EnBW (a known client of Gazprom Germania), a rack-mounted open-frame server with four Nvidia 3090 GPUs, a custom water-cooling loop, and Ethereum blockchain mining software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Presented initially at alexanderlevy gallery in Berlin, the artist requested the gallery to sign a supply contract with EnBW, one of Central Europe\u2019s major energy providers. EnBW sources part of its electricity from Gazprom Germania\u2014a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, notorious for its geopolitical entanglements and its role in fueling the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The server hardware, continuously mining Ethereum during the exhibition, consumed electricity derived, at least partially, from Russian fossil fuels. These fuels, through a chain of thermodynamic conversions, eventually powered the GPU-intensive mining rig. All mined Ethereum tokens were directly transferred to the official wallet address accepting cryptocurrency donations for the Ukrainian government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through this process, the work enacts a form of infrastructural d\u00e9tournement: converting Russian-sourced energy into digital capital in support of the country its origin nation is actively warring against.\u00a0<em>Decentralised Embargo<\/em>\u00a0highlights the paradoxes of European energy dependence and raises sharp questions around political accountability, technological agency, and the circulatory logic of power &#8211; both energetic and economic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Decentralised Embargo&nbsp;(2022) is a provocative installation involving an electricity contract with EnBW (a known client of Gazprom Germania), a rack-mounted open-frame server with four Nvidia 3090 GPUs, a custom water-cooling loop, and Ethereum blockchain mining software. Presented initially at alexanderlevy gallery in Berlin, the artist requested the gallery to sign a supply contract with EnBW, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":838,"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kraft.studio\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}