Cao Fei's 'The New Angel' Adorns Vienna State Opera Safety Curtain

For the 25th edition of the Safety Curtain project, the Vienna State Opera has unveiled a new contemporary artwork by Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei. Titled 'The New Angel,' the work features a dystopian pale white head of China Tracy, the artist's avatar and alter ego, inspired by Chun-Li from Street Fighter and Maria from Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The 176-square-meter image is printed on plastic mesh and fixed to the curtain with magnets. The project, initiated in 1998 by Museum in Progress (founded in 1990 by curator Kathrin Messner and artist-curator Josef Ortner) in collaboration with the opera house, replaces a curtain by Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger, a Nazi party member whose work was acquired by Hitler. The jury for this edition included Daniel Birnbaum, Bice Curiger, and Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Previous artists include Kara Walker, Richard Hamilton, Giulio Paolini, Tauba Auerbach, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, and Cy Twombly. Cao Fei's avatar China Tracy was first created in 2009 for RMB City, a virtual city on Second Life that closed in 2011. The curtain will be on view for approximately nine months, seen by 600,000 spectators.