1. Continuing On
of its longevity – it is the first historically – but for the breadth of its proposals ranging from national pavilions to the exhibition of the Arsenal, and on through to collateral events. This makes it a particularly suitable context for identifying trends in art, and thus for their emergence or disappearance. In the works presented there, digital is generally not very present although it is possible to follow, edition after edition, the signs of its slow progression. Let’s consider, in 2013, the exhibition entitled The Metamorphosis of the Virtual – 100 Years of Art and Liberty [1] organized by Roberta Semeraro at the Officina delle Zattere. It is here that ORLAN presented herself flayed, in line with a type of representation of the body initiated by Leonardo da Vinci,
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who practiced observational drawing of dissected corpses and whose work was at the crossroads of science and the arts. This “flayed” mode of representation has never ceased to oscillate between science and art, ranging from the pedagogical aspect of anatomical plates in medical publishing, to the spectacular character of Gunther Von Hagens’ controversial plastinations. It may well be that ORLAN followed the advice of the artist and theorist Leon Battista Alberti: “[…] it is first necessary in spirit to get underneath the bones because,
Dominique Moulon
not bending at all, they always occupy a fixed location. The nerves and muscles must then be attached to their place; then it is necessary to show the bones and the muscles clothed with flesh...” [2]
But this is not really the case with ORLAN, since it was a machine that “computed” her body in three dimensions right down to the smallest detail, after it had been fully scanned. The artist explai-