CALLART3: The Virtual Window

The exhibition is the third instalment of the "Callart" series, presenting selected works from the collection of the Wrocław Contemporary Museum and the Lower Silesian Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts. Over the centuries, art has wandered through various media: from walls, boards, canvases, sheets of paper, through ready-mades, city and nature space, screens and digital space-time, to now begin a completely new chapter of amazing creations using artificial intelligence. In addition to the dynamic development of AI, the inspiration for the exhibition was provided by Anne Friedberg's publication Virtual Window. From Alberti to Microsoft . In her in-depth analysis of the image, Friedberg notes that the term "virtual" has now been narrowed only to digital works, even though the concept itself was born in the pre-digital era. Between the 17th and 18th centuries, in opticians' treatises, the word "virtual" was used to describe images seen through a lens or on the surface of a mirror. The term comes from the Latin word " virtus " ('power, strength'). Therefore, "virtual" means having the power to act without the participation of matter or associated with such power - in a real and functional sense, not a formal one.