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Dominique Gonzales-Foerster
OPERA (QM.15), 2016

Photo: Andrea Rossetti, 2016

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster

Collection

Single-channel video installation (color, sound), projection screens, curtains, red light
8 min 30 sec

In the holographic illusion OPERA (QM.15) Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster appears in the guise of legendary soprano Maria Callas (1923–77). Dressed in the singer’s signature red dress and dramatic makeup, the artist lip-syncs to arias from Cherubini’s Medea, Verdi’s La Traviata and Ponchielli’s La Gioconda. Situated in a dark space and encountered from a distance, the luminous figure is at first startlingly life-like – an impression reinforced by the strength of Callas’s voice.

OPERA (QM.15) is influenced by the development of photography, early cinema and the interest in the uncanny shared by many 19th-century artists and writers. It is related to a larger body of work that Gonzalez-Foerster began in 2012: an ever-expanding ‘fragmented opera’ consisting of live and recorded performances in which she appears as a range of fictional or historical figures. To Gonzalez-Foerster, each performance – including her turn as Maria Callas – is not theatre, but rather ‘a kind of séance.’

The title of QM.15 stands for French 19th century actress Sarah Bernhardt’s motto “Quand Même”, which might be translated as “even so” or “nevertheless.” It can be understood as a reference to the high price the drive to create may exert on an artist, as Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster has noted about the three characters which appear in the series QM.15: Sarah Bernhardt, Marilyn Monroe and Maria Callas, “they can’t stop, and art is their vehicle; their very lives must become works of art, no matter the cost. The supreme excitement is the artistic experience.”

*1965 in Strasbourg, France | Living and working in Paris, France and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Artist's Website

http://www.dgf5.com

Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/dominiquegonzalezfoerster/?hl=de

MARIA CALLAS (1923–1977)
Born as daughter of Greek immigrants in New York in 1923, she is perhaps the most famous opera singer of the 20th century. Callas is best known for the virtuosity of her somehow unconventional voice, as well as for her dramatic musical interpretations. During her career, she performed more than forty different roles and recorded over twenty complete operas.

Music excerpts from:

"Medea," 'E Che? lo Son Medea!', Luigi Cherubini
Maria Callas, soprano
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano directed by Leonard Bernstein (1953)
(P) EMI Classics - all rights reserved

"La Traviata," 'Dammi tu forza o cielo...', Giuseppe Verdi
Maria Callas, soprano
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano directed by Carlo Maria Guiliani (1955)
(P) Warner Classics - all rights reserved

"La Gioconda," 'Act 4: Suicido!', Amilcare Ponchielli
Maria Callas, soprano
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano directed by Antonino Votto (1960)
(P) Warner Classics
Courtesy of Warner Music France, a Warner Music Group Company

OPERA (QM.15 was premiered in the Hayward Gallery’s exhibition The Infinite Mix: Contemporary Sound and Image in 2016.

Barrie Kosky über "Opera (QM. 15)" von Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, published by Freunde der Nationalgalerie

Dominique Gonzales-FoersterOPERA (QM.15), 2016

Dominique Gonzales-Foerster
OPERA (QM.15), 2016