Orlan : Strip-tease des cellules jusqu'à l'os

Provocative French artist Orlan has been challenging societal and artistic misrepresentations of the human anatomy since the 1960s, and her influence has never waned. At once shocking and transgressive, her most famous works are undoubtedly the ‘self-transformation’ series of nine surgical operations that took place between 1990 and 1993. These operations, which effectively turned an operating theatre into an art gallery, featured among other oddities the implantation of cheek skin on her forehead. Today, Orlan’s cultural significance remains thanks to her prescient and consistent passion for biotechnology.

This exhibition at the Centre des Arts d’Enghien pursues similar corporeal themes to her past works, with interactive video game portraits and virtual 3D characters detailed down to each and every body cell. It’s inspiring stuff, but certainly not for the faint-hearted.

TRANSLATION: HUW OLIVER.