ORLAN
«Ceci est mon corps ... ceci est mon logiciel: Omniprésence»

«‹Omniprésence› is the name given to the 7th surgical operation-performance and occupies a key place in [the works concerning] ‹La Réincarnation de Sainte-Orlan›. The performance was broadcast live to Paris, to the Sandra Gering Gallery in New York, to the McLuhan Center in Toronto and to the Banff Multimedia Center. The body, present in the operating theater in flesh and blood, is visible simultaneously from four more spaces and allows the artist to talk with spectators attending the broadcast, hence the title. The surgeon with whom Orlan worked was a feminist, doctor Marjorie Cramer. This collaboration freed the artist of the parasitic symbolism that might be associated with the presence of the physician as an authoritative male figure. With doctor Cramer, Orlan was to insert the largest number possible of implants.Two of these, normally used for highlighting the cheekbones, were places below the eyebrows on each side of the forehead. These two protuberances allowed the artist to state her project even better ‹of using cosmetic surgery in a totally deviated manner, using technology to produce somtehing that could never be qualified as being beautiful [...]›. The photographs taken on the occasion of the intervention represent a specific series entitled ‹Ceci est mon corps ... ceci est mon logiciel› (This is my body...this is my software).»

(source: Orlan 1964–2001, exhib. cat. ARTIUM de Alava, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporaneo, Salamanca, 2002, p. 222.)