Bodies and sculpturesThe ORLAN Manifesto

Among the hundred or so works on display are emblematic pieces that question the public and even invite them to participate. Performance, photography, video, augmented reality, robotics... ORLAN's approach is multiple and transdisciplinary. She uses her own body as a tool for denouncing social, political and religious pressures on women's bodies in particular, and takes a critical look at cultural norms and beauty expectations.

"My name is ORLAN, among others and wherever possible. Each letter is written in capital letters because I refuse to be part of the crowd."

The Great Hall can be walked through in one direction and then the other to see the artworks in space but also in time. They form a sum of all the elements of ORLAN's uncompromising artistic journey. Black and white photos, sculptures of body-free dresses or the artist's own body whose mutant and luminous components react to the presence of visitors: the body is born, takes shape, asserts itself, transforms itself and never leaves anyone indifferent. Before exploring the seven adjoining rooms, follow the sound to the back of the nave to discover ORLAN-OÏDE, the artist's robot with artificial intelligence.

From the 1960s onwards, ORLAN chose to expose her body and denounce the limitations imposed on women. Through her performances and photographs, she took to the streets, experimenting with poses that were far removed from magazine clichés, draping herself and then undressing herself with a sheet from her trousseau, in opposition to family customs.

ORLAN has performed in many places, using her body as a unit of measurement. These works, entitled MesuRAGEs, are shown in the same room alongside Le Baiser de l'Artiste, a fundamental work that caused a media scandal and shaped ORLAN's career. The work denounces two stereotypes of women: on the one hand, the saint, with an enlarged photo of the artist posing as a Madonna, and on the other, the prostitute, embodied by the artist herself positioned behind a representation of her naked bust. During the performance, for the sum of five francs, onlookers can choose to offer a candle to the Virgin Mary or to exchange a passionate kiss with Mary Magdalene.

ORLAN has also hijacked famous paintings from art history, questioning the status of women in art, seeking to represent women as artists or as subjects rather than as objects.

The public is constantly involved, as in the INTER-ACTIONS room where, among other things, it is possible to scan the works of the Peking Opera Masks to discover the artist performing acrobatics in augmented reality. This is a joke on the part of the artist who likes to express humour and self-mockery, but also a feminist undertaking: in fact, all the actors in the Chinese troupe were men; here, it is a woman who puts on a mask and gives a performance.