2. Marly

Marly arrives rain-soaked in Brussels for an interview at Gallerie Duperey, clutching a telefax from the wealthy collector Josef Virek. Broke and demoralized after a Paris forgery scandal tied to her former lover Alain, she steels herself through reception and is directed to a sensory link room.

Grasping a transformed door handle, Marly is thrust into an exquisitely detailed virtual Park Güell overlooking Barcelona, where Virek appears on a mosaic bench. He explains his decade-long confinement to a vat despite public doubles managing his image, and asserts intimate knowledge of Marly’s scandal: Alain commissioned the forged Cornell and financed it with funds siphoned from her gallery.

Virek summons a period-dressed child, Paco—a sub-program—who presents a glass-fronted box. Though reminiscent of Joseph Cornell, it contains archaic circuit boards, bones, a clay sphere, lace, and a burnt-in biomonitor, signaling a living artist’s work.

Virek reveals he has acquired seven such boxes and that his wealth autonomously attracts rare art. He hires Marly to locate the unknown maker, granting salary, credit, and wide latitude, advising her to stay within a scale that preserves her intuition.

When Marly asks about failure or deadlines, Virek answers she has the rest of her life. He urges her to live in her own flesh even as he describes his costly, inhuman state. The simulation collapses, returning Marly to the stark gallery room, her assignment set.