HAHA by the Block: Burst in Linz
Burst’s TIMESTAMPS | HAHA Blocks hangs in the Francisco Carolinum’s first full showing of its blockchain collection, built on Bitcoin blocks picked by the numbers in HAHA.
Burst is among the artists in Collection Francisco Carolinum: 3 Blockchains, one Collection, which runs at the Francisco Carolinum in Linz from September 9, 2026 to February 7, 2027. Curated by Julia Staudach, it is the museum's first comprehensive presentation of the blockchain art collection it has been building since 2021, across Ethereum, Tezos and Bitcoin. Burst called it "maybe the biggest blockchain group exhibition ever in a museum so far," with his Ordinals works shown next to XCOPY, Beeple and, in his words, "like over 180 artists."
His wall label reads TIMESTAMPS | HAHA Blocks. The premise is numerical: H is the eighth letter and A the first, so HAHA becomes a number, and Burst selects Bitcoin blocks such as 18, 81 and 18181. He then draws each work from an event that occurred on the calendar date of its selected block. The works continue to react to the chain. Code translates the final four digits of each block hash into colour, adding a layer with every 81st block while displaying only the 18 most recent, and the rate of change responds to transaction fees. Burst calls the result "conceptual glitch art."
The museum gave him a solo show, HAHA: Burst's cross chain artefacts, from March 14 to August 3, 2025, and its collection holds works from his Ordinals Yearbook No. 1: two pieces acquired OTC, 21 donated by Gamma and a HAHAcard donated by Burst. On September 24 he posted that his HAHA looked great next to "the champ himself," XCOPY, and reminded followers that the exhibition runs until February.
Next is AGAINST ALL ODDS with @CoralGarvey, more than four years in the making: nine phygital 1/1s on SuperRare, one AR painting and eight AR pigment prints, dropping as reserve auctions on October 8 at 12 PM ET.
Sources
- ooekultur.at: Collection Francisco Carolinum, 3 Blockchains, one Collection
- Burst on X: opening night and wall label
- Burst on X: Ordinals works in the show
- Burst on X: HAHA next to XCOPY
- Burst on X: AGAINST ALL ODDS drop
- ooekultur.at: HAHA, Burst's cross chain artefacts
- Gamma: Ordinals Spotlight, Burst Ordinals Yearbook No. 1