Julien GachadoatPathways

Julien Gachadoat, a.k.a. v3ga, is at the forefront of the field of generative art. Instantly recognisable by his monochrome, line-based style, he has explored the interface between code and human creativity for many years; working with algorithms, playing with repetition and abstract forms, with a focus on plotters to produce physical artworks. Moving into the NFT space was thus a natural extension of his practice.

Some of his creations include pieces such as 'Umwelt' (2021), curated for Feral File by Casey Reas, or for ‘Haze’ (2022), part of the Tribute to Herbert W. Franke, the pioneering computer artist.

The time is right for a mid-career catalogue of Gachadoat’s groundbreaking oeuvre. With this in mind, he has teamed up with Luca Bendandi from Berlin’s Vetro Editions to devise a dynamic, paradigm-busting concept artwork titled Pathways, where an edition of 121 unique NFTs connect onto a grid-like structure to create a bigger artwork. This will be physically realized at Verse through installation art and display of unique covers (each one corresponding to a different NFT) arranged in an 11x11 modular composition.

About the cover artworks
Pathways is a concept-artwork by Julien Gachadoat and Vetro Editions. In its complete form, it is the first of its kind: the arts of algorithms coding and book-making coming together in an unparalleled, cutting-edge project. 121 unique covers compose a grid of 11 x 11 books. When placed together, they reveal the topography of a fictional map created from imaginary geometric landscapes and abstract parametric urban areas. The map contains several neighborhoods that have unique features depending on their localisation allowing viewers to have a “promenade in the world of Gachadoat’s patterns”.

About the book
The physical book copies of the collector’s edition will be a jewel: Vetro will cleverly combine the state-of-the-art possibilities offered by traditional and digital printing, and apply them to the book-binding process. The result will be an edition whose covers, combined, create an installation – to our knowledge, for the first time in bookmaking history. This book, with a 20x25cm format, hardcover, stitched, square spine, printed with special deep-black ink, the three external sides covered with black, glossy lacquer, will be a monolithic object – a sculpture in itself. Each of the unique copies will be signed by the artist.

The standard edition will have a soft cover representing the whole grid in its complete form. Both the collector’s and standard editions will feature a curated selection of the best plotter artworks of Gachadoat’s career to date, and offer a deep dive in his creative and coding processes, inspiration references, and much more.

After the NFT sale, it will be also possible to pre-order a copy of the standard edition book, without NFT, on vetroeditions.com.