Karla Bautista (aka Art of Bodybending) is a multidisciplinary artist who aims to stretch the limits of the body and mind. She is an avant-garde storyteller, singer-songwriter, contortionist, fine art model, and pole dancer. Her performance art pieces about human nature, violence against women, and the divide between rich and poor have been featured in Cosmo Ero Phoria, the first cosmic festival in the Philippines, as well as the opening and closing night of Fringe Manila 2019. One of her notable performances is “The Execution of Mata Hari”, a piece that highlighted the constructive and destructive power of words that shape how society views, and inadvertently treats women. Her main online platform is her instagram @artofbodybending, where she experiments with nude and non-nude fine art photography in a vast range of settings and styles to tell short stories in her captions. She recently had a concert, performing the songs from her soon-to-be-released EP where she sang and danced on a pole simultaneously, among other art forms she mixed with her music, such as interactive performance art. She believes in involving her audience as a crucial part of her performances, because it’s the community that makes the artist, and she wants everyone to partake in the magic of creation and connection.