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Greta Garbo's stages of her career / Maria Callas

Ideal and Illusion, a subtle interplay between these two perceptions is readily found in the glamorous, glittering world of the cinema. Four images of Brigitte Bardot reveal her malleability as an actress. Facing each other in a square the images surround a reclining head which represents the real-life Brigitte Bardot, a vulnerable and mortal human being.

The cinematic image of Marlene Dietrich is confronted by her great rival of the period, Greta Garbo. The latter is seen in various stages of her career, as the all-conquering and unapprochable beauty, then in descending order her roles on the screen, as a lady of wealth, and finally as an old and embittered woman still pursued by journalists. The life and career of Marlene Dietrich on the other hand is portrayed in an ascending sequence of appearances, progressing from a stage actress to a modern "work of art" as the Marlene of the movies, then regressing again to stage actress, old and wicked, until at last she finds her real self and returns to the starting point of childhood.

Monroe with back-of-the-head child

Above all this looms an accessible tower, with a display of Josephine Baker, one of the first modern "entertainers". On a platform beolw hovers the "Sparrow of Paris", Edith Piaf.

Hanging at the back is another modern work of art, Madonna, her voice always recognisable but her image constantly repackaged with the help of sophisticated marketing techniques and "stage management", a truly American phenomenon at the pinnacle of success.

Below her in a sarcophagus lies Maria Callas, the powerful voice unforgotten. Jet engines symbolise the matchless power of voice rendered immortal by vrious recording devices.

Next, with all the yearning of youth Norma Jean dreams the American dream, symbolised ba a telescopic shooting rig thrusting out from a filming truck. Opposite, smiling for the camera, the star Marilyn Monroe looks aut the world with the eyes of the lost little child she will always be.

Marlene Dietrich