French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's "OPERA (QM.15)" (2016) / Courtesy of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster / ADAGP, Paris – SACK, Seoul, 2024 Billionaire Francois Pinault's eclectic art collection makes grand return to Korea By Park Han-sol Upon descending into the dark, cavernous basement of SongEun Art Space in Seoul, one is immediately enveloped by the haunting echoes of arias. But whose voice is filling the air? The answer awaits those bold enough to venture deeper into the shadows, with the bodiless voice as their sole guide.
What eventually greets them is a ghostly apparition — an ethereal hologram bathed in blood-red light. This is Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster’s “OPERA (QM.15),” a spectral projection where the French artist embodies the role of Maria Callas (1923-77), one of the most iconic divas of the 20th century.
The holographic body, draped in a red dress that recalls Callas’ final performances during her vocal decline, belongs to the artist. Yet, the voice soaring through the space, belting out arias from “La Traviata,” is that of a younger Callas, captured at the height of her vocal prowess. As a result, this single image weaves together multiple temporalities — the opera singer at both the peak and decline of her career; the 21st-century body of an artist reenacting the performance of a 20th-century diva; and the emotional connection visitors today form with an intangible audio recording from the past after it has been given a new physical pr.