Exhibition "Body Worlds" - art or mockery? (16 photos)

"Worlds of the Body" – This is a traveling exhibition where human remains (whole corpses or only individual organs) are put on public display, which have undergone a special treatment that ensures their long-term preservation. The creator of this already famous exhibition is the German anatomist Günther von Hagens, the developer of the plastination process – the same method that allows you to save dead bodies for a very long time.

1. In the process of plastination, water and fat contained in the body are replaced with a special plastic (latex, polyester and various special rubbers can be used). The body processed in this way is called "plastinate".

2. The plate does not rot, does not emit a putrid smell, you can touch it. During plastination, even the cellular structure and relief of dead body tissues are preserved.

3. Günther von Hagens himself says that he discovered the plastination method by accident. In 1977, he worked as an assistant at the Anatomical Institute of the University of Heidelberg, and while supervising the production of anatomical preparations, he got the idea not to fill them with polymer, but to pump the polymer inside.

4. Günther von Hagens received the first patent for his invention in 1979. Since then, he has further improved his method, and today plastination allows you to get the most durable anatomical preparations.

5. As a scientific method, plastination was so successful that it allowed Günther von Hagens to found his own plastination institute in 1993. At first, this institute was engaged only in the production of unique teaching aids for medical universities. But equipment was soon developed that could be used to plastinate not only small samples, but the entire body (it takes 1,500 man-hours to make such a plastination).

6. And the first exhibition of corpses treated in this way took place in Tokyo in 1995. The exhibition aroused great interest, it was visited by more than three million spectators, and, of course, a mixed reaction from the public.

7. Of course, if only artificial materials were used for such an exhibition, then one could talk about its ideological side and the skill of sculptors. But here, a real human body is used as a museum exhibit, and it is not used for any purely scientific purposes, but simply put on public display. This, after all, is very similar to some kind of high-tech mockery of corpses.

8. Over the next two years, Günther von Hagens organized his infamous Body Worlds exhibition, which displayed the bodies of people and animals turned into plates. The bodies of people with skin removed were set in living poses, many of the bodies were cut into several strips so that the internal structure was visible.

9. For the production of exhibits of the exhibitions "Body Worlds" Günther von Hagens has hired 340 specialists who work in five laboratories located in four different countries. The most difficult piece to make was the giraffe on display at Body Worlds 3. It took three years to make it – this is ten times more than it takes to make an exhibit from a human corpse.

10. The position of artistic director of the exhibitions «Worlds of the Body» occupied by Angelina Whalley – wife of Günther von Hagens. Günther von Hagens states that his goal is to create a "Museum of Man" with a permanent exhibition dedicated to human anatomy.

11. It is alleged that for the plastinates representing the entire human body at exhibitions, only the bodies of voluntary donors were used, who bequeathed their bodies for this purpose. Only people over 18 years of age who have expressed their consent in writing have the right to participate in the donor program.

12. Gunther von Hagens also claims that for his exhibits hedid not use either the bodies of the dead from hospitals in Kyrgyzstan, or the bodies of executed Chinese prisoners. Von Hagens even sued the German magazine Der Spiegel, which spread the information that Dr. requested from China the bodies of those executed for his exhibition. Von Hagens stated that he knew nothing about the origin of the bodies, and that he returned seven corpses to China.

13. In October 2003, a Kyrgyz parliamentary commission was investigating accusations against Hagens that he illegally, and even without notifying the relatives of the deceased, removed several hundred bodies from prisons and hospitals in Kyrgyzstan. But Hagens replied that he received only nine bodies, and that these bodies were not used as exhibits at the exhibition.

14. Today, quite a few people are willing to donate their bodies to the Günther von Hagens exhibition. In Germany alone, there are already more than nine thousand.

15. Dr. Hagens himself also bequeathed his body to the museum. After death, his corpse should be cut into the thinnest plates and sent to various medical institutes.

16. As the doctor himself says (pictured), after his death he will continue to teach anatomy at several universities at once, which he could not do during his lifetime.