The Tezos Foundation and Basel’s House of Electronic Arts (HEK) are launching a 2026 collaboration focused on presenting, educating, and preserving blockchain-based art through exhibitions, workshops, and professional training.

The partnership extends a relationship that began in 2022, when HEK publicly committed to collecting and presenting digital art using blockchain technology. This year-long program centers on three exhibitions: two on HEK’s virtual.hek platform and an outdoor presentation during Art Basel 2026.

Three curators will oversee the programming, with virtual exhibitions featuring at least six artists working with digital and blockchain practices. The works will be released through objkt, while the physical presentation brings the experience into Basel’s public realm.

“The collaboration with the Tezos Foundation opens up new curatorial and technological possibilities for HEK.”
SABINE HIMMELSBACH, HEK DIRECTOR

“The collaboration with the Tezos Foundation opens up new curatorial and technological possibilities for HEK,” says Sabine Himmelsbach, the institution’s director. “By involving guest curators on the virtual.hek platform, we can highlight international perspectives and explore experimental forms of media art that transcend institutional and spatial boundaries.”

HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste) | HEK (House of Electronic Arts), 2023, Aussenansicht, Foto: | Photo: Franz Wamhof

HEK will install an on-site kiosk in its Basel venue, allowing visitors to explore the exhibitions and learn about blockchain-based art directly within the museum space. The partnership includes workshops designed to introduce audiences to blockchain, NFTs, and digital ownership through hands-on experiences.

Beyond public programming, the collaboration emphasizes professional knowledge-sharing and preservation. As part of HEK’s leadership of the Software-based Art and Ownership working group within the EU COST Action European Media and Born-Digital Art Conservation and Knowledge Network, the partnership will support an international training school on NFT preservation at ZKM | Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.

“Working with HEK contributes to the Tezos Foundation’s work in fostering sustained museum programming, innovative curatorial frameworks, and blockchain education.”
ALEKSANDRA ARTAMONOVSKAJA, TRILITECH HEAD OF ART

“Working with HEK contributes to the Tezos Foundation’s work in fostering sustained museum programming, innovative curatorial frameworks, and blockchain education,” said Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, Head of Art at Trilitech, Tezos’s London-based R&D hub. “This partnership is about supporting long-term programming and continuing to strengthen foundations for future generations of artists working with technology.”

The partnership builds on Tezos Foundation’s institutional collaborations with Musée d’Orsay, Serpentine, and LAS Foundation. Since 2011, HEK has been central to creative and critical discourse on the aesthetic, socio-political, and economic effects of media technologies, promoting aesthetic practices related to information technologies while confronting pressing questions of 21st-century culture.