Close-up of Laughter during the Operation, New York

Orlan is a French performance and body artist whose practice centers on surgical intervention as a form of lived art. Since the 1970s, she has used her own body as the primary medium, subjecting herself to cosmetic surgery procedures documented and transmitted live via satellite and internet to galleries and museums worldwide. Her work interrogates the constructed nature of identity, beauty standards, and the female body under surgical and technological control. Operating at the intersection of performance, installation, and biotechnology, Orlan treats the operating theatre as a stage and anesthesia as creative material.