In 1928, Virginia Woolf wrote ↗︎ Orlando: A Biography, the first novel in which the main character changes sex in the middle of the story. A century later, trans writer, and activist ↗︎ Paul B. Preciado decides to send a film letter to Virginia Woolf: Her Orlando has come out of her fiction and is living a life she could have never imagined.

Kunstnernes Hus Cinema invites you to the Norwegian premiere of ↗︎ Orlando, My Political Biography (Orlando, ma biographie politique, 2023) in collaboration with Karmaklubb*. Afterwards, you are welcome to join us for a toast. Further reading about the event at Kunstnernes Hus ↗︎ here. Facebook event ↗︎ here. *** ↗︎ TICKETS *** Extra screening: 12 December 2023. *** UPDATE: — This film is truly one of our finest film and art experiences ever. Please: Go watch, learn, laugh, and get surprised … whenever you can. And the music is crazy fantastic, too. No words ... (A new opportunity will come shortly ...) — Thank you so much, Kunstnernes Hus and Kunstnernes Hus Kino and in particular Abirami Logendran for inviting us to co-host the Norwegian premiere. This is greatly appreciated. And: Much warmth to everyone showing up this Sunday night. ***

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Paul B. Preciado, born 1970, is a writer, philosopher, curator, and one of the leading thinkers in the study of gender and body politics. Among his different assignments, he has been Curator of ↗︎ Public Programs of documenta 14 (Kassel/Athens), Curator of the Taiwan Pavilion in Venice in 2019, and Head of Research of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA). His books, Countersexual Manifesto (Columbia University Press, 2000/2018); Testo Junkie (The Feminist Press, 2008); Pornotopia (Zone Books, 2014); An Apartment in Uranus (Semiotexte and Fitzcarraldo, 2019), Can the Monster Speak (Semiotexte and Fitzcarraldo, 2021), and Dysphoria Mundi (Grasset, Graywolf and Fitzcarraldo, 2022) are a key reference to queer, trans and non-binary contemporary art and activism. He was born in Spain and lives in Paris.

Credits: All stills from the film courtesy of Paul B. Preciado. Produced by Les Films du Poisson and 24images, distributed by The Party Film Sales.

A century after the publication of Orlando: A Biography by Virginia Woolf, Paul B. Preciado, philosopher and trans activist, addresses a letter to tell her that her character has come true: the world is becoming Orlandesque. Preciado calls a cast: “Who are the contemporary Orlandos?” 25 different people, all trans and non-binary, from 8 years old to 70 who come to play Woolf’s fictional character while also narrating their own lives; and a series of mid twentieth century trans archives that evoke the real historical Orlandos in their struggle for recognition and visibility. The spectator gradually finds Orlando’s bearings as the portrait emerges of a collective being with multiple faces, voices, bodies. The film follows the same structure as the Virginia Woolf ’s novel: a travel diary through history, both intimate and political. “I first read Woolf’s book when I was a teenager in Spain, well before I knew that gender transitioning was possible. Woolf’s fictional character al- lowed me to imagine my own life, to desire and to embody change. It turns out that with the years, I have become an Orlando. My biography is made of the collective history of thousands of invisible Orlandos. It is a history of struggle within an oppressive gender and sex binary regime. Being trans is not just to transition from femininity to masculinity (or vice versa), but to engage in a process of internal “orlandisation”: a poetic journey in which a new language to name oneself and the world is invented.” — A gender transition is a transformative voyage, a movement of disidentification, a practice of freedom, rather than a mere production of identity. Thus, the film draws the portrait of a changing world and the ongoing gender and non-binary revolution.