Orlan

A documentary covering the rebirth of St.Orlan from 1991 through most of the decade.

Conceived as an electronic road movie, this documentary investigates cutting edge technologies and their influence on our culture as we approach the 21st century. It takes off from the idea that mankind's effort to tap the power of Nature has been so successful that a new world is suddenly emerging, an artificial reality. Virtual Reality, digital and biotechnology, plastic surgery and mood-altering drugs promise seemingly unlimited powers to our bodies, and ourselves. This film presents the implications of having access to such power as we all scramble to inhabit our latest science fictions.

Performance artist ORLAN undergoes one in a series of surgeries that would give her “the chin of Sandro Botticelli’s Venus in The Birth of Venus, the nose of Francois Pascal Simon Gerard’s Psyche in Le premier baisser de l’amour a Psyche, the eyes of Diana in the sculpture Diane chasseresse, the lips of Gustave Moreau’s Europa in L’enlevement d’Europe and the brow of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa to draw attention to received Western notions of beauty and femininity.

The likes of Antoine de Caunes, Jean Paul Gaultier, Davina McCall, and Lolo Ferrari are your guides to the weird and wonderful in Europe and beyond. How else would you learn about pubic hairdressers, the Penis Olympics, or the latest Japanese sex toys?