parisnyberlin: When art is tendencially morbid.

What does plastination consist in?

Plastination I learned, is a method of preserving perishable biological specimens by replacing the tissue water and lipid with a curable plastic polymer. The specimens preserved in this manner are permanent, clean, non-toxic and dry. Plastinates retain textures and structures of tissue and are therefore an invaluable teaching resource in anatomy. Plastinated specimens have none of the usual hazards and restrictions associated with the study of anatomical specimens eg. use of gloves, toxic fumes, contagions etc, and are more robust than the original specimen.
In this way I guess this is one of the many progresses in terms of technology adapted to science, and one can easily imagine how useful it may be as a teaching tool or learning exercise. Speaking of tool I just would like to remind you ... yes we're still talking about human bodies, Komisch.

Voyeurism? Or Anatomy lesson?

Behind this academic use, some people have seen in the plastination method an artistic niche...

Dr. Gunther von Hagens alias Dr. Death is travelling around the world and shows his "dead" babies in most of the big cities.

"The BODY WORLDS exhibitions are first-of-their-kind exhibitions through which visitors learn about anatomy, physiology, and health by viewing real human bodies, using an extraordinary process called Plastination a groundbreaking method for specimen preservation invented by Dr. von Hagens in 1977."
This exhibition is a collection of about 200 real humans, organs, healthy and diseased ones. Just look at muscles and joints relating, look at another you sitting, playing chess, swimming, riding a horse, even look at a 8 months - pregnant woman and her foetus.

This exhibition is said to have an educating role. Death: the cessation of life, deprives a body of its humanity, the corpse being nothing more than just a thing. Dr. von Hagens wants to "break taboos". Breaking taboos about human's inside? About death? Did our grand- and their forefathers wait for this anatomist to break the taboo of death, or is it just that death remains one of our main intimate fears and a reason why we have cemetaries or crematoria? Dignity, rest and peace.

Make people face death and the nudity of our inside

This Body Worlds exhibition seems to be a unique opportunity to discover the inside of each one of us. But this also an artistic way of turning a dead human being into a sort of living dead thing. Nice one though.

An exhibition of corpses, as an honor for those corpses allowed to re-live through the look of the visitors. An alternative to burrial or cremation? Would you give your corpse a treat ... 1500 hours to turn your mere dead body into a plastinated dead being... Massages, hair- and nerves- and whatsoever cut... Have a nice death.

What annoys me a bit in this thing is not the scientific background, use or interest of such an anatomy study whatever you may call it, nor the methods used. This is rather the commercial aspects relying under it. People dying, deciding to give their corpse to Dr Von Hagens, who is then going to earn millions of dollors, thanks to your donation,thanks to DVDs, Books ,Toys and so on, it's ok ... But why is he working on all those corpses, in China? He claims that it is because China is the worlds' factory place, and that there are plenty of skilled graduated students, looking for a job after they are done with Med school. The problem is maybe not him but the others like him who started copying his method and finding the business both interesting and ... lucrative. China: a growing economy and a new industry...How to use human and animal remains...Unclaimed Chinese bodies? Medical school graduates, working for much more little money than somewhere else in Europe or US? At first an artistic niche. Now a corpses' trade niche.

"Know yourself. Know your body. Inside out." Such a good commercial ... Love it.