CONTEMPORARY ART  

In contemporary society, the boundaries between physical reality and virtual reality are becoming increasingly blurred. The growing integration of technology into everyday life, together with the ability of digital environments to simulate sensory and perceptual experiences, generates an ambiguous territory where the distinction between the authentic and the simulated begins to dissolve. Paradoxically, amid an unprecedented level of digital hyperconnectivity, a growing sense of disconnection from the tangible world emerges. The expansion of technological interfaces can lead to a distancing from direct experience, fostering dynamics of isolation and superficiality in human relationships. Borderline arises as a reflection on the sense of belonging within this historical context. Beyond geographic borders, collective identity is constructed through cultural heritage, shared memories, and connections to specific territories. These elements function as symbolic anchors that connect us to our roots, offering stability in a world characterized by volatility and technological acceleration. In the face of the increasing virtualization of experience, the physical world acquires a stabilizing role. Materiality becomes a space of resistance: a place where presence, memory, and identity find a form of permanence. For the conceptual development of this work, the artificial intelligence model GPT-3 was asked to identify ten nations that, from a cultural perspective, demonstrate a strong sense of collective belonging. Among the selected countries are Japan, Iceland, India, Ireland, Israel, South Korea, Greece, Mexico, Brazil, and Scotland—each associated with deeply rooted cultural traditions, shared historical memories, or particularly strong community identities. The series consists of ten resin pieces that take the form of small staged environments depicting symbolic confrontations between the human being and the machine. In each scene, a flag corresponding to one of the selected countries appears, reinterpreted in a minimalist form through artificial intelligence using the system StarryAI. Through these micro-territories, Borderline proposes a reflection on the tension between cultural identity, technology, and belonging. The work reclaims the value of the physical object not only as a material form but also as a gesture that resists the progressive disappearance of the tangible world in the face of processes of digitization and dematerialization. Beyond its symbolic dimension, the piece is also conceived as a mediating device within an environment increasingly saturated by technology. Its material properties allude to theories developed by Wilhelm Reich regarding energetic fields and the concept of orgone, suggesting a physical interaction with the surrounding environment that transcends the purely visual dimension. In this sense, Borderline presents a paradoxical condition: the work cannot be reduced to its image nor fully converted into a digital object. Its meaning resides in the material experience—in the presence of the object and in the physical relationship it establishes with space and with the viewer.