L'arte carnale di Orlan. Per una poetica del corpo deviante

This essay concerns some of the most significant works of Orlan and their representations of human body. It will attempt to observe how the orlanian eccentric art became illustrated pathology. Her reinterpretation of Judeo-Christian iconography, the series of surgery-performances, the rebuilding of her face, the graphic self-hybridizations and her use of the most advanced features of biotechnology allow the performer to touch on aesthetics, psychoanalysis, antropology and science. Even if the mise en scène of the deformed, artistical orlanian body has contrasted the traditional aesthetical canons and has generated reactions of rejection and disgust, it has engaged in “politics” in the ancient sense of the word and has produced new forms of sociological intelligence.