ORLAN. SIX DECADES

The VERBUND COLLECTION shows the first exhibition of the renowned French artist ORLAN in Austria and also publishes the first German-language monograph on her work.

In the 1990s, ORLAN caused a sensation with the surgical performance interventions on her own body. On the other hand, her early work remained virtually unknown. The retrospective show ORLAN. SIX DECADES, which comprises around 50 artworks, therefore focuses on the 1960s and 1970s and also spans the years to works of the present day. It is being held in the Vertical Gallery.

60 years full of transformations

In the 1960s, ORLAN created numerous feminist photographs in which she expressed the feeling of needing to break free from social conventions. She literally stepped out of the frame and constantly developed new forms of expression in her art. In the 1970s, she broke away from her given name, keeping the syllable "OR," which means gold in French, and adding "LAN." Her self-chosen name, written exclusively in capital letters, could no longer be assigned to a specific gender. At this time, she created her groundbreaking MeasuRAGE performances and the performance "The Artist's Kiss," in which she offered a kiss for sale for 5 francs at the FIAC art fair in the Grand Palais in Paris in 1977.

In the 1980s, ORLAN engaged intensively with the Baroque era. Inspired by Lorenzo Bernini, she staged herself as Madonna in different poses and created impressive fold sculptures. In her manifesto "L'Art Charnel" (Carnal Art), the artist wrote in 1989 the theoretical foundation of her surgical performance interventions, which she performed nine times from 1990 to 1993.

From the 2000s onwards, ORLAN increasingly dealt with topics from the field of biotechnology and robotics in her artworks, using techniques such as augmented reality and video animation.