French artist Orlan, renowned for her radical use of plastic surgery as an artistic medium, is currently serving as the guest lecturer for the Louvre’s “Artist Lessons” series, delivering three presentations through September that examine the portrayal and transformation of the human body in art. Her lectures address themes of beauty, censorship, and body politics, drawing from both art history and contemporary cultural shifts.
Orlan rose to international prominence in the 1990s with her controversial project “The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan,” during which she underwent a series of cosmetic surgeries while consciously documented on camera. By altering her facial features to resemble iconic women from art history—such as the Mona Lisa and Botticelli’s Venus—she sought to challenge conventional aesthetic norms rather than outright condemn plastic surgery. The project later incorporated more provocative modifications, including horn-like implants on her forehead, as part of her ongoing investigation into identity, beauty, and the body.
Her current lecture series reflects on how the body has been idealized, altered, and censored across artistic mediums. In a recent presentation titled “Naked and Hairless,” Orlan explored the absence of body hair in depictions of female nudes within the Louvre’s collection, emphasizing how female body hair is frequently excluded or portrayed negatively, often associated with notions of impurity or overt sexuality. She cited examples including the “Winged Victory of Samothrace,” Théodore Géricault’s “Raft of the Medusa,” and Eugène Delacroix’s “Liberty Leading the People,” noting that Delacroix’s painting was recently censored on social media due to the visibility of Liberty’s breast.
Orlan’s first lecture in May, “The Museum and Art History: Stem Cells of Our New Images,” delved into the intersections of art, science, and medical technology. The artist, who has created “bio-art” pieces by cultivating her own cells for projection and has developed a humanoid robot bearing her likeness and voice, highlighted the ongoing dialogue between historical images and new technologies such as artificial intelligence. She emphasized that contemporary artistic creations often reinterpret or build upon age-old visual traditions rather than produce entirely new images.
Throughout her talks, Orlan critiques the standardization imposed by cosmetic surgery culture while acknowledging its potential for personal empowerment. Though she no longer undergoes surgical modifications herself, she views cosmetic surgery as a means of self-reinvention—comparable to crafting a personal “business card” that can redefine individual identity. She endorses the idea of reshaping oneself beyond natural constraints, describing the biological body as a kind of “mask” to be challenged and transformed.
At 79, Orlan reflects on aging and bodily transformation as integral to the human experience. She embraces the concept of multiple bodily identities evolving over time and expresses interest in preserving her body through plastination—the technique popularized by Gunther von Hagens’s “Body Worlds” exhibits—as an interactive art installation. She also advocates in an unconventional campaign against death through a petition circulated on her website, underscoring her lifelong fascination with the body’s limits and possibilities.
Orlan’s work and lectures continue to provoke discussion about the boundaries between art, technology, science, and societal attitudes toward the human form, inviting audiences to reconsider traditional narratives surrounding beauty and embodiment.