Museu XYZ

Museu XYZ was born in 2021, during the pandemic lockdown, from a partnership between Marlus Araujo and Ana Cunha: a centuries-old institution, the museum, in a new space, the metaverse. It is the first Brazilian museum native to the metaverse, and its mission is to promote digital art and culture, as well as to map and organize a historical archive of crypto art events in Brazil. It works on three fronts: exhibitions, festivals and events; educational programming; archive and memory.

The museum is a set of interconnected virtual spaces. Galeria XYZ and Genesis Gallery host the shows; Distrito XYZ is a neighborhood of NFT galleries where each artist keeps control of their own space and gains international visibility; Amazônia e Arte Emergentes brings together a line of research and exhibition. The works circulate as NFTs, and the visit needs neither physical presence nor the museum's door: for Marlus, every show in the physical world should also exist in the metaverse, because that is how access expands.

The team brings together creative direction (Marlus Araujo), cultural management (Ana Cunha), communication and partnerships (Shima), international relations (Caroline Pires Ting), art and innovation (Ottis), art and meta-architecture (Fabio Ema) and art and 3D fashion (Narau). The development and maintenance of the metaverse are by Tekne Studio. The museum has as research partners the Laboratório Tecnologias, Diálogos e Sítios (LTDS) of the UFRJ Engineering School and the Programa de Pós-graduação em Mídias Criativas (PPGMC) of the UFRJ School of Communication, and it relates to 2050, NFTrans, ITS Rio, SESC Rio and Cryptorastas.