presenting

A permanent IRL exhibition of The Memes and CC0 Art.

Occupying the primest public space in one of the world's most active melting pots, Formosa will be a world-first IRL public gallery exclusively dedicated to networked public domain art.Scroll down with us on this journey... or jump to the desired section.

• Concept and History
• The Gallery
• Funding
• 1-of-1s
• Community Initiatives
• Who We Are
• FAQ

let's find out together what happens when we unleash CC0 art to the public

Daytime, Formosa 6529 will be fully open for free visitation. Occupying a busy public passageway under the historic Tea Bridge linking the Municipal Theatre to the City Hall, intentional visitors and hundreds of passerbys alike will be impacted by the exhibits.We will host many activities to showcase the power of The Memes and CC0 art:

royalty-free merch sales by local craftspeople, artist rememe competitions, school guided tours, meme fashion shows, art and tech workshops, and many other activations the network can help us come up with.

And every night, the Hi-Fi audience of 300-400 affluent Paulistas and tourists occupy Formosa Gallery sipping drinks and (now) discussing the latest Memes exhibit while waiting for their place in the listening bar.

FAQ...

for those wanting to know more! But also please reach out to Hugo Faz on 6529.io if you have any other questions not answered here!

• Why not fund Formosa exclusively with a Meme Card?

That would be ideal, since all the money invested would be applied to TDH generating, highly liquid NFT editions! But unfortunately, relying exclusively on the Meme Card would leave us short of our required goal right now, since even if the community rallied around it and fully minted it out, the resulting ~8 Ξ wouldn't be enough for this undertaking. We would need a much higher edition count to reach the 24 Ξ minimum, but unfortunately, we have no control on edition sizes as it is. We put so much thought on this topic until arriving at the current hybrid model, still using 100% CC0 art to fund Formosa 6529, but only part of it as a Meme Card. We plan to compensate that using xTDH to attribute TDH yield to the Formosa 1-of-1s.

• Is 24 Ξ too much to ask for this? How are the funds going to be used?

The 24 Ξ minimum initial funding for Formosa 6529 is around 95k USD, which will cover:
- infrastructure and interior adaptations ( ~ 8%)
- Equipment purchase and installation ( ~ 42%)
- Overhead for the entire 1st year of operation (mostly human resources – guides, security, tech, comms, legal ~ 40% ; and taxes ~ 10%)This is a very small amount considering a brand new digital art gallery will be set up on prime real estate and staffed for a year. Such low set up and operating costs are only possible due to a few achievements:- The public-private-partnership ("ppp") deal between Casa NUA, the Hi-Fi founders and the City of São Paulo, guaranteeing lease expenditure for the gallery space will be $0 for at least 2 years. This was achieved after much negotiation and after the promise that attendance will be always free for the public, and that we will display primarily public domain art, turning Formosa 6529 essentially into a local public good;
- Operating infrastructure (electricity, internet, utilities) and staffing is partially covered for by the Formosa Hi-Fi*;
- São Paulo, despite being the cultural, economic and technological capital of the southern hemisphere, is still much cheaper compared to USA or Europe's main cultural hubs.
- Casa NUA, founded 2023 and still going strong as one of the world's very few IRL spaces dedicated to NFT art, has already braved and learned how to do a lot with minimum resources.

• How was this deal secured? And what is the relationship between Formosa Hi-Fi and Formosa 6529?

The Formosa Hi-Fi founders are seasoned entrepreneurs who first secured the Formosa complex with public authorities for implementing the Hi-Fi in exchange for renovating the historical space, while preserving its history, architecture and cultural significance. The deal struck with public authorities foresaw the implementation of a permanent, public art exhibition in the large underground marble hall – annex to the area that became the Hi-Fi – which connects Formosa street to the Municipal Theater and the Town Hall across the Tea Bridge — among São Paulo's most famous landmarks. Casa NUA took part in the late stage negotiations — among other heavy weight cultural institutions, each with their own projects for the space — with the proposal for a public domain art gallery to be implemented there.After more than a year of back and forth, our project was the winner, due to its unique value proposition as a public domain art exclusive and its low maintenance but groundbreaking digital, decentralized nature.

• Do we need to raise funds for the entire 1st year of operation at once?

Our contract guarantees our occupation of Formosa gallery for a minimum of 2 years, renewable indefinitely as long as all parties are satisfied. But as a condition to secure that deal, we have to raise enough initial capital to cover all of the set up and the whole first year of operation, proving to public authorities and private partners alike that this won't be a short-lived stunt by crazy degens.

• Ok, 2026 will be guaranteed. But this is meant to be a permanent exhibit, so how will the upcoming years of operation be funded? Will Formosa 6529 have any revenue streams?

We won't have any revenue streams immediately as the focus of the project is to give CC0 art and the 6529 network maximum public exposure. This will never be a for profit enterprise, just as Casa NUA is a non-profit itself. We expect, however, once the quality of Formosa 6529 as an art space is proven, to explore revenue possibilities throughout the year to help with long-term sustainability, such as in sub-renting the gallery for art shows and events by other crypto projects, continuous sponsorships by partners or collectors, or other opportunities the network might collectively come up with, as long as it doesn't deviate from the core mission of Formosa 6529 to be a public domain art gallery for maximum public utility.Another possible future avenue for continued funding may be in the form of Stream NFT auctions or Meme Cards throughout the year in collaboration with various 6529 Artists, as those contracts are meant to be a platform for funding public goods of various natures. In any case, we are full believers in the 6529 project and in its importance as the cultural, economic and organizational backbone of future society, and Formosa gallery is meant to be just the first of many such collectively funded, fundamental public goods for spreading the memes of decentralization, being in all our interests to make such initiatives thrive continually.

• Why not make the 6529 permanent exhibition at Casa NUA itself?

Casa NUA is as beautiful as Formosa gallery and is a mere 1 km away from it in São Paulo's historical center. But as a privately funded museum located on a penthouse at the top of a private building, and being committed to several different activities and private uses of the space to fund its operation, exhibitions and cultural activities, we have limited availability at the Casa itself for such an enterprise as Formosa 6529 will be: full time, day and night exhibiting The Memes and other 6529 projects on a public space meant for hundreds of daily visitors. If Casa NUA is already a beacon of NFT art culture, Formosa will be that tenfold due to the public nature of the space, its location, and full time dedication to 6529 and CC0 Art.

• How exactly is curation going to work?

Special curations of The Memes rotating every few weeks are going to be the core of Formosa 6529's activity. Memetic themes, art styles, seasons, and infinite other curatorial lines are on the menu. These will be done by the Casa NUA / Formosa team, paid for by this fundraiser. And did we hear Pebbles?? How gorgeous and informative will our Pebbles exhibition be!We will be constantly taking general ideas from the community, of course, but also host specific community curations created by 6529 network members and voted for inclusion in our schedule by Formosa Meme Card holders on Brain.Also, a Collector's Corner at the gallery will regularly feature Memes and other CC0 art selected directly by the Formosa Maecenas and by the contributing Artists who donated the 1-of-1s for this fundraiser.Finally, we may also partner with other CC0 art projects and communities to feature works and collections from outside the 6529 network, expanding on the possibilities and maximizing awareness for the benefits and possibilities of public domain NFT art, brands, etc.