My Flesh, the Text and the Languages

My Flesh, the Text and the Languages is a videoinstallation presented by Orlan as part of the the exhibition of the Fifth Manifestation of the Unstable Media. Besides this installation she also was present at the "Night of the Body" where she showed some videotapes and talked about her work.

Since May 1990 Orlan has been developing a project entitled The Reincarnation of St. Orlan. She used a computer to create a composite image based on historical paintings of Diana, Europe, Psyche, Venus and the Mona Lisa. She has been working with plastic surgeons to reconstruct her face to conform the computer image. The process is one of change of identity, a transformation of self. She has chosen features of figures she admires because the goddess Diana was an agressive adventurer and did not submit to men; the Mona Lisa because of her androgyny; Europe because she permitted herself to be carried away into an unknown future. Orlan has undergone more than six surgical interventions in France, Belgium and the United States. Each operation has been presented as a performance. Objects and images resulting from this performances include photographic tryptyches, comprising mirror images taken from video performances and successful surgical interventions, juxtaposing ironic, derisory photos of Orlan post-operation, reliquaries of her flesh, text (read during the performances) by Michel Serres and video works that are part documentation, part performance piece, entitled ...in a short while you will no longer see me ...then a short time later... u will see me again....

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Orlan toonde een installatie waarbij vier videotapes op het (chirurg-groene) plafond werden geprojecteerd, in het centrum van deze videoprojecties zag men een roterende tekst van Serres In a little while you will see me no more - a little longer and you will see me...again. De videotapes waren collages van de plastisch chirurgische operaties die Orlan de afgelopen twee jaar onderging. De tapes zijn tot autonome videotapes bewerkt. De ingrijpende videobeelden en de lezing van Orlan riepen veel emotie en heftige discussie op bij het publiek.