Orlan: Six Decades

Six decades of “carnal art” from the French feminist provocateur

Paris-based performance artist Orlan (born 1947) is legendary for her provocative performance art, particularly her body modifications, dubbed by her L'Art charnel (carnal art). That the body is political is evident in all her works; in 1989, she transformed Gustave Courbet's famous painting L'origine du monde into L'origine de la guerre by replacing the vulva with the phallus. This work is emblematic of her lifelong dedication to deconstructing traditional iconography of the feminine.
This catalog, published in tandem with an exhibition in Vienna, traverses the six decades of Orlan's oeuvre, revisiting her early performances in particular, while also representing her most recent creations. Notably, the artist’s robot ORLAN-OÏDE (2018) is presented in the book via “ORLAN avatars,” which can be animated through an augmented reality app.