Orlan

Since the 1960s and 70s, Orlan has challenged how the body is shaped by political, religious, and social norms, often through feminist art. Her work uses her own body to explore identity, frequently through photography.{{cite web |last1=Cascone |first1=Sarah |title=Provocateur Orlan Reflects on How She Went From Being Reviled for Her Body Art to Claiming Her Place in the Art World |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/orlan-interview-1650289#:~:text=ORLAN%20began%20making%20art%20%E2%80%9Cwhen%20I%20was,just%20delivered%20an%20androgynous%20mannequin%E2%80%94as%20her%20own |website=Artnet News |date=13 September 2019}}

In 1976, she wore a dress printed with her nude image. Around the same time in Portugal, she displayed cut-out photos of her body parts, like an arm or breast.{{cite web |last1=Willsher |first1=Kim |title=ORLAN's best photograph: a striptease in the style of Botticelli |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/07/orlan-best-photograph-birth-of-venus-striptease-with-trousseau |website=The Guardian |date=7 January 2016}}

In 1977, she performed Kiss of the Artist at FIAC in the Grand Palais, Paris.{{cite web |last=Milosevic |first=Nikola |date=11 October 2023 |title=Orlan |url=https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/orlan |website=Widewalls}} She sat behind a life-sized photo of her nude torso, turned into a slot machine that gave kisses for coins. The piece caused controversy and cost her a teaching job.{{cite web |last=Marchal |first=Hugues |others=Translated by Emily Freeman |title=ORLAN |url=https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/orlan/ |website=awarewomenartists.com}}

In 1978, she founded the International Symposium of Performance in Lyon, running it until 1982. Her 1990–1993 "carnal art" series involved live surgical performances, sparking debate though they were a small part of her work.{{cite web |title=ORLAN Resurfacing: Surgery-Performance Photos and Recent Works |url=https://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/galleries/exhibitions/orlan/ |website=Florida Atlantic University |language=en}}

In 1982, she and Frédéric Develay launched Art-Accès-Revue, the first online art magazine on Minitel.{{cite web |title=The French Telematic Magazine Art Accès (1984–1987) |url=https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/11/6/112#:~:text=Abstract,of%20its%20most%20emblematic%20creations. |website=MDPI}}

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, her Self-Hybridations series digitally merged her face with those from various cultures.{{cite web |title=ORLAN Revisited: Disembodied Virtual Hybrid Beauty |url=https://philarchive.org/archive/WEIORD |website=PhilPapers}}

Later, she used biotechnology in Harlequin Coat, made from her own and others' cells.{{cite web |title=Harlequin Coat (2008) |url=https://www.fact.co.uk/artwork/harlequin-coat-2008 |website=Fact (UK magazine)}}

She taught at the École nationale supérieure d'arts de Paris-Cergy, had residencies at ISCP (2005) and the Getty Research Institute (2006).{{cite web |title=ORLAN: Monographic Survey |url=https://www.theopeninggallery.com/exhibitions/orlan-monographic-survey |website=The Opening Art Initiative |language=en}}

In 2013, she sued Lady Gaga for plagiarism linked to Born This Way, but lost both the initial case and appeal, being ordered to pay legal costs.{{cite web |title=Lady Gaga wins Born This Way plagiarism case against French artist |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-36901784 |website=BBC News |date=27 July 2016}}

That year, she won the Grand Prix de la Réputation for internet visibility, alongside Philippe Starck and Yann Arthus-Bertrand.{{cite web |title=ORLAN - L’Origine de la Guerre {{!}} Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain - FRAC Franche-Comté |url=https://www.frac-franche-comte.fr/fr/orlan-lorigine-de-la-guerre |website=www.frac-franche-comte.fr |language=fr}}

During COVID-19 lockdowns, she wrote her autobiography, Strip-Tease : tout sur ma vie, tout sur mon art, published by Gallimard.{{cite web|url=http://www.gallimard.fr/Contributeurs/Orlan|title=Orlan - Site Gallimard|website=www.gallimard.fr}}

On November 29, 2021, she was named a Knight of the Legion of Honor by Minister Roselyne Bachelot.{{cn|date=February 2025}}{{cite web |title=ORLAN Paintings, Bio, Ideas |url=https://www.theartstory.org/artist/orlan/ |website=The Art Story}}

In 1990, Orlan began The Reincarnation of Sainte-ORLAN. It involved a series of plastic surgeries through which the artist transformed herself into elements from famous paintings and sculptures of women. As a part of her "Carnal Art" manifesto, these works were filmed and broadcast in institutions throughout the world, such as the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Sandra Gehring Gallery in New York.ORLAN 'Manifesto of Carnal Art/L'Art Charnel and Refiguration/Self-Hybridation series and other works' vol.12 July 2003 n.paradoxa: international feminist art journal pp.44-48

Orlan picked these characters, "not for the canons of beauty they represent... but rather on account of the stories associated with them."

Orlan defines cosmetic surgery as "nomadic, mutant, shifting, differing." She has stated, "my work is a struggle against the innate, the inexorable, the programmed, Nature, DNA (which is our direct rival as far as artists of representation are concerned), and God!".{{cite book|last=Jeffreys|first=Sheila|title=Beauty and misogyny: harmful cultural practices in the west|year=2005| publisher=Routledge|location=London| isbn=9780415351836|edition=Reprinted.}}

Being showcased in the Paris International Contemporary Art Fair.{{Cite journal |journal=Acne Paper |issue=9 |year=2010 |first=Oleg |last=Mitrofanov |title=Devotion – ORLAN (Paris) – Artist |page=34 |url=http://www.acnepaper.com/#!/issue/9/ }}

In 2001, Orlan orchestrated a series of filmic posters, "Le Plan du Film," with various artists and writers.{{cite web |title=Orlan ; le plan du film - Christophe Fiat - Al Dante - Grand format - Au vent des mots Lorient |url=https://www.auventdesmots.fr/livre/9782847610000-orlan-le-plan-du-film-christophe-fiat/ |website=auventdesmots.fr |language=fr}}

She collaborated in 2008 with the Symbiotica laboratory in Australia, resulting in the bio-art installation "The Harlequin's Coat."Part of ORLAN's ongoing work includes "Suture/Hybridize/Recycle," a generative and collaborative series of clothing made from Orlan's wardrobe and focusing on suture: the deconstruction of past clothing reconstructed into new clothing that highlights the sutures.{{cite web |last1=Leddy |first1=Siobhan |title=At 70, Body Modification Artist ORLAN Is Still Reinventing Herself |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-70-body-modification-artist-orlan-reinventing |website=Artsy |language=en |date=7 August 2017}}

It receives the Reputation on line Prize (Grand Prix de le-réputation) in 2013, organized by the art critic Alexia Guggemos, Plastic Arts category, which rewards the most popular personalities on the Internet alongside Phillipe Starck for design and Yann Arthus-Bertrand for photography.{{cite web|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/alexia-guggemos/ereputation-orlan_b_4208992.html|title=E-réputation: sur le Net, ORLAN explose sa cote... d'amour!|date=November 8, 2013|website=Le HuffPost}}

In 2018, Orlan created a robot in her own image, " Orlanoïde", equipped with collective and social artificial intelligence that speaks with her voice by reading texts from a text generator: presented at the Grand Palais, for the exhibition "Artists and Robots", the robot is also part of a performance entitled "Electronic and verbal striptease" and also benefits from a motion generator. It is a work in progress, currently, the developers of the Art and science gallery in Dublin are developing other capacities.{{cite web|url=https://www.vogue.fr/fashion-culture/fashion-exhibitions/diaporama/artists-and-robots-the-new-immersive-exhibition-to-see-at-the-grand-palais/50405|title="Artists and Robots," the new immersive exhibition to see at the Grand Palais|website=Vogue Paris|date=21 April 2018 }}{{cite web |last1=Pernet |first1=Diane |title="ORLAN and ORLANoïde: Artistic, électronic and verbal Strip-tease" at Artistes & Robots at the Grand Palais, curator Jerome Neutres and Laurence Bertrand Dorleac April 5 - July 9th |url=https://ashadedviewonfashion.com/2018/04/03/orlan-lorlanoide-artistes-robots-at-the-grand-palais-paris-as-of-april-5-till-july-9/ |website=A Shaded View on Fashion |date=3 April 2018}}

In 2019, she was honored with the special prize of WOMAN OF THE YEAR, awarded by the Prince of Monte Carlo.{{cite web |title=2021: ORLAN |url=https://www.chateau-montsoreau.com/wordpress/portfolio-item/2021-orlan-2/ |website=Château de Montsoreau-Musée d'Art Contemporain |language=fr-FR}}

Orlan is also appointed Professor Emeritus of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma.{{cite web|url=https://ashadedviewonfashion.com/2019/05/05/orlan-is-elected-woman-of-the-year-for-the-prix-special-of-monaco/|title=ORLAN is elected Woman of the Year for the Prix Special of Monaco|date=May 5, 2019}}

She is represented in France by the Ceysson & Bénétière Gallery. In September and October 2024, her work titled Corps-sculpture sans visage en mouvement dansant avec son ombre n°6 (1967) was included in Ceysson & Bénétière Gallery's group exhibition, Clairvoyant.{{Cite web |title=Dinner with ORLAN, a Feminist Icon |url=https://impulsemagazine.com/symposium/dinner-with-orlan-a-feminist-icon |access-date=2024-10-17 |website=IMPULSE Magazine |language=en-US}}

• Smith, K. (2007). Abject Bodies Beckett, Orlan, Stelarc and the politics of contemporary performance. Performance Research, 12(1), 66–76.
• Zerihan, R. (2012). ORLAN: A Hybrid Body of Artworks. Contemporary Theatre Review, 22(3), 426–428.
• Ayers, R. (1999). Serene and Happy and Distant: An Interview with Orlan. Body & Society, 5(2/3), 171.
• Knafo, D. (2009). Castration and Medusa: ORLAN's Art on the Cutting Edge. Studies in Gender & Sexuality, 10(3), 142–158.
• Lovelace, C. (1995). ORLAN: Offensive Acts. Performing Arts Journal, 17(1), 13–25. doi:10.2307/3245692 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3245692?seq=1 Orlan: Offensive Acts]
• Rose, B. (1993). Is it art? ORLAN and the transgressive act. Art in America, 81(2), 82. [https://web.stanford.edu/class/history34q/readings/Orlan/Orlan2.html]
• Sayej, N. (2020, March 26). ORLAN: "I walked a long way for women." The Guardian. [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jan/15/orlan-i-walked-a-long-way-for-women ORLAN: 'I walked a long way for women']

{{Reflist|40em}}

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• {{Official|http://www.orlan.eu}}
• Retrospective Exhibition from 05/25/07 to 09/16/07 at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20061125112834/http://www.mam-st-etienne.fr/inter.php?rubrique=6 Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne]
• Pompidou Centre, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101212114941/http://elles.centrepompidou.fr/blog/?p=953 exhibition: elles@centrepompidou] 2010.
• Video: [http://arttube.nl/en/video/MuHKA/ORLAN interview with ORLAN, registration of a MesuRage, and short overview of her work] at M HKA, Antwerp

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Category:1947 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century French women artists

Category:Bioartists

Category:Body art

Category:French mixed-media artists

Category:French new media artists

Category:People known for their body modification

Category:Artists from Saint-Étienne