Out of the ordinary: The most expensive pen on sale with NFT is a… BIC!

Do you know which pen is the most expensive pen in the world? The Bic.

Yes, the famous Bic Cristal pen that we have all had in our pencil cases at least once in our life.

Today, this pen, available in 4 colors, has been made sublime by an anonymous artist in his pieces.

4 unique works of art put up for sell on OpenSea. A simple joke or a criticism of today’s society? Time to crack the code.

4 basic pens, 4 works of art.

Ah, BIC Cristal pens, the old reliables of our pencil cases. We must have used hundreds of them during our studies.

We come to wonder if the artist, sad to see his pens laying unused in a corner, wanted to bring them back to life. Eternal life for all to see.

During confinement, art is a good way to occupy one’s time. As with any self-respecting work of art, each one responds to equally poetic names:

• Blue pen: “Why learn to speak?”
• Green pen: “Why learn to read?”
• Black pen: “Why learn to write?”
• Red pen: “Why learn?”

Suddenly, we find ourselves beginning to ponder the “why” of all this.

A symbol of free expression and memory,

It is thanks to writing and the pen that we still have traces of our past, our history.

We wonder about the why of these works. Is this a satire of our current society ? A way to denounce the current society of overconsumption and pushes for growth ?

To the awareness of the climate emergency we are currently facing ? The ecological awakening ? Is it also a deliberate choice to choose a pen with a plastic body ?

Beyond these questions about our society, the emphasis of each pen is intriguing as well as the names of each piece. The artist, surely a committed activist, seems to question our culture and our education.

From shadow to light: the works sold on OpenSea

From what we can see, the artist likes to play with light and shadow – and not only in his work. According to the link provided in the ad, these photos are from a site accessible only through Tor. This could be regarded as a symbolic way of preserving their anonymity and exercising their freedom of expression.

What is “Tor”? Tor (“The Onion Router”) is a web browser that allows you to browse the web anonymously, a choice that is not trivial. Indeed, Tor is known by its users to browse the dark net and as the haunt of traffickers. In censored countries like China, it’s a way to access other resources like YouTube or Facebook without risking being arrested.

UPDATE : the Tor website is now unreachable.

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