Technology and art liberate man in "Gallery 17"

"Forehead Vulva Channeling Research" is the creative space of the Italian artist S()fia Braga, in which she has crossed digital practices and something very ordinary, such as the feelings and current state of individuals. Now, even through its exhibition, visitors encounter technology. At the center is man and he aims to liberate him. "It's a speculative transhuman research into the potential of the body and the channel of the body that can give a healthier mind," Braga said.

Far from the traditional form of making art, technology is put to work in the exhibition of the Italian artist Sofia Braga. As if art were developed in the future where ordinary means no longer exist, it provokes man and his thinking with the aim of achieving emotional well-being in those who see it. For all this, digital tools have been put into operation, making this new form of art present in "Gallery 17".

"Forehead Vulva Channeling Research" is the title of the exhibition that has returned the gallery in which it is located to a space dominated by technological tools. When the pink of the gallery walls is the first collision with the visitors, the second comes with the white mats, the tablets placed near them and a video recording with also technological means of listening. Apart from them, there is also a third collision which is not visible to the eye, but exerts an effect after walking through the gallery, in the various vehicles on display.

The very quiet music which, in contrast to what is being exhibited, gives the feeling of nature, creates the almost hypnotic effect, as a catalyst to enable one to delve into what the exhibition is about.

Approaching and testing technological tools confronts the visitor with himself. It seems as if the most interesting effects of social networks were gathered in one room. Seeing oneself puts the human being in another dimension, beyond the ordinary. Through it, the visitors are also moved in front of the original goal that the artist had during their creation: to bring the body to a free state, and in this way to transform it, rediscovering new potentials that people are not yet aware of.

The minimalist exhibition of the transdisciplinary artist from Italy is just one in which she breaks down her ideas and talent into new media-based artworks.

"Forehead Vulva Channeling Research" is Braga's creative space in which she has crossed digital practices and something very ordinary, such as the feelings and current state of individuals. Now, even through its exhibition, visitors encounter technology.

"It is a transhuman speculative research into the potential of the body and the channel of the body that can provide a healthier mind. In this case the organ is the vulva of the forehead and the idea is to use new technology. The main focus is on the performance of the body, which should not be double, but should be fluid. In this case I found two tools as a new experience for our body", said Braga.

Apart from what can be seen, the exhibition also extends to other aspects. It can be experienced by practicing the possibilities it provides through technological means. This is how the Italian artist simultaneously extends her art and the research of human feeling through technological effects.

"I can say that I like to transform this into a laboratory mixture, because this is a kind of research but also a kind of relaxation. So when you visit the exhibition you can lie on the mats and you can find on the tablets an argumentative reality and you can see the 'Forehead Vulva' on your forehead and you have to focus, relax and try to feel another perspective of your body ", said Braga, who lives and works in Vienna, where she develops her "artistic research at the intersection of digital and post-digital practices, experimenting with new technologies to conceive speculative fables dealing with topics such as interveilance, transhumanism and inhuman power". In her biography she writes that her identity "constantly changes and goes hand in hand with the narratives she creates: during the last three years she has been an artist, a cyberstalker, a transhumanist entrepreneur, an author of artificial intelligence and has mutated several times into a monstrous creature. ".

For the exhibition and her art, Barga has said that the development of studies to understand the potential of the human body to achieve emotional well-being requires practicality. So this exhibition is practical.

"It's one of the tools I've created for 'Forehead Vulva' and of course it's very important to practice with body exercises," she said.

For S()fia Bragan this is the first time in Kosovo. This realization came as a result of the "Art Electronica" festival, which was founded in Linz in 1979 and works at the intersection of art, technology and society.

“As a visitor it's probably an unexpected interaction that you can find here, because the first thing is that you can reach out and connect with art and technology. It allows you to access different parts of your body, and I think that's the beauty and aspect of it, to be able to relax and allow yourself to enter another dimension that the technology opens up in your face," said Laura Welzenbach from the festival. Art Electronica".

She has shown that the arrival in Kosovo of the festival dedicated to the study and promotion of media arts and digital culture is a good opportunity for a country with many artists, as she said, to develop from this aspect as well. This possibility has been opened by "Galeria 17", which has also created the series of those bearing the name "Techne".

"It's very exciting. Kosovo is a new country at different levels and with a young population, and technology can be one of the tools they will use to tell their stories. This is a great inspiration that we want to address here", said Welzenbach about their landing in Pristina through this exhibition. "It is an interesting medium to work with art, technology and society. A year ago we were asked if you wanted to cooperate with us in Kosovo and 'Ars Electronic' knows the great potential of being present in Kosovo and it was clear that we wanted to cooperate", she said.

The contact with such artistic works seems to have had a positive impact on the visitors who made them curious to try these technological effects. Surprise and explanation were what caught them immediately after trying them. The artist Laureta Hajrullahu, who is also the artist of the digital work "Flat Options" exhibited at the nomadic biennial "Manifesta 14" last summer, and in March of this year at the exhibition "Ato ".

"Yes, I find it interesting, because most of them are filters that we also use in social networks. But we use them to change or adapt to how we want to look in society. What the artist has done is taken these little things that we use every day and turned them into something that can change someone emotionally. It has transformed them into tools that make an emotional difference", said Hajrullahu.

"Forehead Vulva Channeling Research" is only one of the four exhibitions in "Gallery 17" within the "Techne" series. It will be open until June 22.