The entrepreneur Sébastien Borget found his way of art and collecting in the same atmosphere but with far-reaching considerations: games and Web3. “My background is very much in technology, an industry I've been in for over 20 years,” he told the Observer during an interview in the office above his latest venture, ArtVerse, a Paris gallery dedicated to the intersection of contemporary art and new technology. “My first beginnings were in video games, and then I went on to turn it into a virtual world game where people can do things, like Roblox or Minecraft, called Sandbox.”
That would be one of the Web3 gaming companies that are emblematic of the NFT boom: a decentralized metaverse where users create, manage, manage and monetize NFTs and the SAND token. The company was valued at $1 billion in June 2024, when it raised $20 million in convertible debt led by Kingsway Capital and Animoca Brands, with participation from LG Tech Ventures and True Global Ventures. Today, Borget is the president of the Blockchain Game Alliance, a group of more than 90 companies promoting blockchain in games.
It was while developing the Sandbox experience that Borget began to approach art—while creating a virtual world, he didn't want to neglect culture. “We invited content creators, products and celebrities—Snoop Dogg, Gucci, TIME, DJs and others—and started collecting art from this digital art movement, connected to blockchain and NFTs, to show it in the virtual world early.”
But he didn't want to bring art to the Sandbox just to replicate the white-walled museum model. “We felt that in the real world, the possibilities should be better than reproducing the real world,” he explained. The point was to expand not only what people could do in the physical world but how art could help them shape their symbolic spaces. “We saw art as a form of expression. We brought it to the social scene of the game and many other events. In a way, it's like bringing art to the street instead of putting it in an inaccessible place, so that it can speak to people and inspire them.”
Finally, he took that logic from the world and put it into the physical world. “We wanted to do the same thing in our office, to encourage employees and everyone who comes to visit us when we have events in Paris and other cities,” he said. When the offices ran out of space, the idea grew into a gallery, which became a way to continue promoting art, discovering artists and connecting people to art and culture.
As he collected NFTs and digital art as well as other traditional contemporary pieces, Borget realized that art could add a new dimension to his business and work in technology by helping him see the world in a different way. “I became more involved, first speaking publicly about my role as a collector and more recently as someone who supports the artists in my collection.”
Borget's collection is personal, as he often tries to communicate with the artist before purchasing a work. “I like to learn more about their vision, their practice, their framework and their concept,” he said, adding that although there is something associated with beauty, it is not the be-all and end-all. “I'm trying to see how those artists will come out, and whether what they think and talk about affects me.”
Four years ago, Borget opened ArtVerse with his co-founder at The Sandbox, Arthur Madrid, to support artists working at the intersection of art and technology, who he realized, were not getting much attention or exposure. ArtVerse, based in Paris, has a very diverse program, with artists from Hong Kong, Korea, the US and around the world. Some artists whose work he has collected are now part of the gallery program, helping to introduce them to a wider audience.
Before opening ArtVerse, Borget helped found the NFT Factory, a project in front of the Center Pompidou until 2024, when it closes its original location. That position, however, is not fully consistent with his view. In his opinion, it is more focused on showcasing blockchain art and selling NFTs, rather than supporting artists through solo exhibitions and ongoing programs. He also felt that there was a conflict between the place and the audience. NFT Factory had strong visibility and steady foot traffic but was still very much tied to the NFT bubble. ArtVerse, in contrast, supports a broad and complex discussion about art, technology and artists' practices.
For Borget, the question is no longer whether the work is “digital art” in the narrow sense. “It's not about the medium. Art here can take different forms: paintings, sculptures, tapestries, video, sometimes blockchain. It's more about the depth of the concept,” he said. “The artists I collect and show are strong in their conceptual framework, so whether they use technology or how they use technology is not just using some kind of hype market.” For him, digital art is created by artists who think strongly about science and technology in order to explore new forms of cultural production relevant to our time, whether screen-based or not.
He believes that the environment is changing; collectors and audiences like him, born in the 1980s and 1990s, carry a unique cultural DNA. Video games, anime, manga and film were part of their creative environment, so it's only natural that the art they watch and collect may involve games, film, science or technology more directly than previous generations. “There is no longer resistance to the use of technology as a means of communication, because it has been integrated into our culture for 40 years,” he said. “We grew up with it.”
However, he admits that France has been slow to embrace these new art forms, mainly because of its deep heritage and weighty artistic traditions. “I feel that there is still a little resistance because there is a rich history of art in France, and many important movements to know and collect, so that this kind of art can feel free and not yet fully certain.”
Yet this is also what makes education and physical demonstrations so important in his eyes. According to Borget, digital or professional art requires an experience beyond the screen, in a dedicated space where visitors can experience it in person. ArtVerse is a commercial space, of course, but it is also a place where artists can develop ambitious presentations, educate curious visitors, appear in a proper Parisian gallery and promote their work through installations, documentation and visibility.
Asked if he is willing to open a foundation, Borget says he prefers to focus on the platform he has as building a foundation in France would be difficult. “It is not an easy structure to create properly here,” he explained. Currently, she is actively involved in supporting artists working at the intersection of art and technology by contributing to publications, speaking publicly, co-organizing events and symposiums, and joining museum support groups such as the Digital Council at LACMA.
Notably, Borget's background gives him a unique understanding of infrastructure based on digital ownership, the economy of creators and virtual worlds, as well as other value chains and sustainability models that have already been developed by many digital artists—and which can prove very useful in the wider art world today.
Although art and games are often considered separate worlds, there is something inherently artistic and creative about games, and many active artists today use the beauty and power of games in their processes. Borget is particularly interested in this exchange between video games and contemporary art. He points out that video games are created through creative work, even if a large part of that work has never been considered a museum collection. “Everything that goes into the concept of a video game includes character designs, scenery and more,” he said. “These days, a lot has been replaced by AI, but it's still a creative industry, with a lot of creative work involved.” Game art books sell well, and it's widely accepted that games shape culture.
Borget saw a bridge building between the world-building practices shared by the two platforms in recent years. “There are many artists around the world who use video game tools and techniques as a way to communicate and create works of art that are interactive, but have a lot of depth to them. They might use games to make you think about the landscape or human nature,” he explained. Many of those works are made by museums or museums, but, presenting them directly, not as regular game cartridges or mobile applications and not for commercial reasons, which means that it is still part of a different cycle.
At the institutional level, Borget acknowledged that progress has been made but still sees many limitations. “We've seen museums like the Center Pompidou showing sensitivity to it. They were among the first to collect NFTs, but it's still not enough.” He feels somewhat isolated as a supporter of digital art. Around the world, physical spaces and galleries dedicated to this corner of the art world are not available, and some online markets are closed. Although initiatives such as Zero10 at Art Basel or digital sectors in Paris have brought visibility, he is concerned that digital art is still often separated from the main aesthetic or over-activated, as is the case in Miami.
“I don't think art should be controversial or create so much tension in order to be promoted and noticed,” he concluded. “I try to give artists a voice and space without creating a loud, provocative sound all the time. What we want people to hear is progress.”
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