Malaysia gets its first automotive NFT, thanks to VW & Filamen

KUALA LUMPUR: What a start of the new year by Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia and Filamen (media art collective). Together they have launched the country’s first automotive NFT called Accelerated Futurescapes which is a collection of exclusive Arteon NFT.

The art work includes four one-of-a-kind crypto art, all inspired by VW’s flagship model, the Arteon R-Line 4MOTION. The artwork is available for purchase on South East Asia’s leading NFT platform, the Pentas by Binance Smart Chain. The NFTs are also showcased on Filmen’s virtual gallery and No-to-scale, a co-curated design research platform.

Wondering what's NFT? Well, NFTs or non-fungible tokens are unique digital assets that allow for digital ownership. Each piece is unique with no two units looking the same. It thus attracts art collectors and Arteon enthusiasts in this case.

VPCM Managing Director, Erik Winter on being a part of the NFT space said, “Volkswagen have always been at the forefront of digitisation initiatives in Malaysia, and pushing digital boundaries is something we constantly strive to do.”

He further added, “What more, to empower young local artists and be a part of their journey to explore and widen their creative range has been truly inspiring. Of course, the collaboration had to star the Arteon, which offers the perfect combination of avant-garde design with dynamic handling. With this collaboration, we are once again setting new standards, and we thank Filamen in realising this dream with us.”

Filamen co-founder Abdul Shakir Abu Samah shared Erik’s opinion on the collaboration. “It has been a thrilling journey for us at Filamen, and we thank Volkswagen for this opportunity. We saw the project as a digital exploration of the relationship between the car and aesthetic imagery and the artworks are distinct visions of the Arteon, exemplifying a car beyond just a vehicle. What we wanted to do, at the heart of it all, was to express human emotions inspired by the Arteon.”

The NFTs were created by two up-and-coming Filamen artists - Syed Mohamad and Jason Choo. Together they created four amazing visions of the future. However, all the artwork is inspired by Arteon's design & platform.

While Syed’s work revolves around themes of motion and energy, and mirrors natural phenomena, that of Jason’s is focused on fictional imagery and he used themes such as ‘flight 'and ‘life’ to represent the car’s intangible dimensions.

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