Orlan

Caroline Cros

Orlan is one of the most challenging and thought-provoking artists working today. Born in France in 1947, she began her highly unconventional career at the age of 17 with a series of works including staged photographs of her own body, which has become the characteristic expression of her creative voice.

A fresh account of Marcel Duchamp that includes much material on his life after he stopped making art.

Marcel Duchamp

Bernard Blistène

Flammarion

Centre national de la photographie (France)

This is the first complete monograph devoted to the works and theories of Orlan, without a doubt today's most challenging and thought-provoking performance artist. She began her highly unconventional career at the age of 17 with a series of works using photographs of her own body, which has become her art "medium," her primary creative voice. Working beyond the limits of body art, in her manifesto on "Carnal Art", Orlan wrote that her performances are "a selfportrait in the classical sense, yet realized through the technology of its time. Lying between disfiguration and figuration, it is an inscription in flesh." In 1999, using the operating room as a studio, she underwent a series of filmed plastic surgery operations to modify her own body-her canvas-including the placing of cheekbone implants under the skin of her forehead. Here is a detailed, analytical text including a biography, a chronology of her exhibitions, and critical studies of the significance of her Carnal Art performances-a must-read for anyone interested in currents in contemporary art. This is the first complete monograph devoted to the works and theories of Orlan, without a doubt today's most challenging and thought-provoking performance artist. She began her highly unconventional career at the age of 17 with a series of works using photographs of her own body, which has become her art "medium," her primary creative voice. Working beyond the limits of body art, in her manifesto on "Carnal Art", Orlan wrote that her performances are "a selfportrait in the classical sense, yet realized through the technology of its time. Lying between disfiguration and figuration, it is an inscription in flesh." In 1999, using the operating room as a studio, she underwent a series of filmed plastic surgery operations to modify her own body-her canvas-including the placing of cheekbone implants under the skin of her forehead. Here is a detailed, analytical text including a biography, a chronology of her exhibitions, and critical studies of the significance of her Carnal Art performances-a must-read for anyone interested in currents in contemporary art.

Caroline Cros

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