Gunther von Hagens' controversial Body Worlds exhibit unveils the anatomy and inquisitive nature of the human being
The fuss was not unexpected: Thousands upon thousands of Chicagoans lined up this past weekend to check out the hugely controversial Body Worlds 2 exhibit of plastinated human cadavers at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry before the exhibit left for Montreal for a summer-long run that begins next week.
There were so many Chicagoans in line, the MSI stayed open 24 hours a day Friday through Sunday.
As the lineups grew, an astonished American Medical Association panel at Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine denounced the exhibit.
"If you really want to learn [about human anatomy], you’re not going to learn by Body Worlds," Pritzker professor Dr. Peter Angelos intoned.
But Dr. Gunther von Hagens, the creator of Body Worlds, is having none of that.
"There used to be anatomical theatres all over Europe and America," von Hagens, 62, told Hour in an exclusive interview from his Body Worlds Institute for Plastination head office in Heidelberg. "But they have been taken away from the people. I am giving it back to the people."
Indeed, over 20 million people have seen one of von Hagens’ three Body Worlds exhibits currently touring the planet, and another 500,000 people are expected to view Body Worlds 2 at the Montreal Science Centre in the Quays of the Old Port this summer.
The exhibit will feature over 200 objects, including whole-body plastinates.
Von Hagens invented plastination in 1977. To stop decomposition, the process extracts all bodily fluids and soluble fat from anatomical specimens and replaces them with vacuum-forced silicon rubber and epoxy that are then hardened with gas, light and heat curing, giving the cadavers rigidity and permanence.
Von Hagens never gives interviews to journalists before they’ve seen the exhibit. But he made an exception for Hour.
BEAUTY IS MORE THAN SKIN DEEP
Von Hagens’ pursuit of science was marked by his attempt to escape to the West – born in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1945, he attempted to escape communism by crossing the Czechoslovakian border into Austria in January 1969. He was caught and extradited to East Germany where he was imprisoned for two years. His freedom was purchased by West Germany in 1970.
Hour How did prison help you later in life as a scientist?
Dr. Gunther von Hagens I learnt the impossible or unthinkable is possible. Before my capture I did not know about the sale of political prisoners. I also learnt you don’t play around with your one-time chances: A Czech guard gave me the chance to escape through an open window. I did not take my life into my own hands and it cost me two years in prison. The lesson? Take chances and never avoid controversy.
Hour What do you make of religious leaders who charge you with blaspheming what they consider to be the "sacred" human body?
Von Hagens I act in the long tradition of Christianity: I show [plastinated cadavers] for enlightenment and reason. Jesus on the cross proves that in Christianity the corpse is the centre of the religion and this is unique to all religions.
Hour Lutheran Bishop Ulrich Fischer wrote of your work, "When death goes on display, human beings have no chance of retaining their human dignity."
Von Hagens My work dignifies the human body because [body donors] work in self-determination as they cross the barrier to death.
Hour You offered to perform plastination on Pope John Paul II. What happened?
Von Hagens There were bishops in the news who wanted to preserve his heart. So I contacted the relevant authorities – whom I cannot name – but Pope John Paul II himself decided not to be preserved.
Hour Do you envision a day when we will have plastinated cadavers of historical figures or celebrities, and identify them?
Von Hagens Taking what we have done with the human body in the past, this will likely happen long after I am myself plastinated. This will not happen as skin-covered figures. This way the plastinated celebrities will represent everyone’s beauty. In life they stand up for themselves, in death they will represent us all. We are all Madonna.
Hour What is your definition of physical beauty?
Von Hagens In life, good-looking people earn more than average-looking people who earn more than bad-looking people. This leads to social inequity and causes problems. But physical beauty loses those negative social implications after death because beauty rests only on outer human forms.
Hour People stand and stare at your plastinated cadavers for hours. What is the root of our fascination?
Von Hagens The mind-boggling confrontation with the unknown form of your body beneath your skin. Plastinates illuminate their own reality. Our mortality is felt.
Hour Do you think fake reproductions of dissected cadavers would have the same impact on audiences as real plastinated cadavers?
Von Hagens Definitely not. The awareness factor is rooted in the real. It takes us to another conscious level. It brings up more adrenaline and affects our memory deeper because it is real in a modern society where we constantly work with fakes, pictures and images.
Hour How does Body Worlds teach?
Von Hagens I’ve seen 30, 35 of the 100 [anatomical] exhibitions worldwide and no other exhibition gives instructive labelling, or compares healthy and diseased organs. These are tools to help enlighten people, like when they see the [plastinated] lungs of a smoker. It can change them.
Hour Do you create plastinated cadavers differently for universities and hospitals versus your touring Body Worlds exhibits?
Von Hagens The [plastinates] I manufacture for universities and hospitals are not emotional, or are less emotional. And I repeat them. Whereas with Body Worlds I never repeat a plastinate. I [also] plastinate [them] at a higher level so that it becomes a piece of art that has the power to generate pride in our bodies. I am an anatomist when it comes to hospitals and I am an anatomist who embraces art when it comes to exhibitions.
Hour Germany is the country that has had the most problems accepting plastination and your exhibits. Why do you think Germans find your work distasteful, compared to, say, Canadians?
Von Hagens You’re a very good analyzer. It has to do with the historic guilt of the Nazi atrocities. In Germany, when it comes to the body, everything is emotional, from stem cell research to euthanasia to Body Worlds. In this way it is not wrong that Germans don’t like it – they must be careful. By being a plastinator and a German, I am [also] more inclined and challenged to set proper ethical standards in the field.
Hour In 2003, you sparked outrage by conducting an autopsy on the body of a 72-year-old man in front of a paying audience on British TV. But public dissections were popular in the 16th century, with temporary anatomical theatres constructed in London. So why are you being picked on? Do you feel like you’re being made into a kind of scapegoat for a voyeuristic society?
Von Hagens I conducted that autopsy to democratize the anatomy, to show how the dissection is done. I was proud to continue this tradition and for that reason I plastinated this man afterwards. I am a lightning rod for the people and their bodies after death. [At Body Worlds] people can see their bodies after death. It’s not so much about what happens to our soul in heaven or hell, but what happens to our body?
Body Worlds 2
At the Montreal Science Centre (333 De la Commune W.), May 10 to September 16
www.montrealsciencecentre.com
Children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult
27 comments
WOW and WOW! That is all i can concur after reading this article. WOW! I can’t wait to see it myself. Our north American society is so focused on the aesthetics of the human body that we often tarnish it’s true self by ignoring what’s inside. The Body Works exhibit i think will showcase a whole new way of looking at your body. Rather than focusing on the beauties of the outside we can see the positive aspects in the inside. It also shows how much our senses contribute to our learning experiences. The sense of sight through our eyes is a crucial characteristic of the human condition that again will be entertained with the body works display.
Well, I’m sure it will be a big hit in Montreal, people like different things. I have to say that I am very curious, and can’t wait to go and then discuss what we saw over coffee. If people are going to go, knowing what it is all about, they have no right to complain regarding what they will see.
When I was in Denver, Colorado my coaches took me to a museum. It was filled with different sections of the world, environments, animals and artifacts. The best room was the room from ancient Egypt. They had a sarcophagus from three thousand years ago. After all this. there’s a second museum in the back of this one. So we went and it was called “Body Worlds.”I didn’t know what it was, but I found out fast. As soon as we walked in we saw display cases with different things in them. Most of the first room was filled with tendons and joints and how they move.the sickening part was all of the body parts were real. Then it got worse. after a while there was actual bodies posing and doing different things. One of the bodies was completely dissected and EVERY single piece to the body was individually hung on a string by the ceiling. So.it was like seeing the inside and outside all stretched out.
I thought it was really fascinating how people could preserve body parts like that. It was really something different to see.
I saw this one of a kind an insightful exhibition at the Ontario Science Center in Toronto a couple of years ago. They had everything from skeleton to different forms of human bodies. Attending that exhibition have left visual memories that are going to stay for a long time. What stuck to my memory most was the comparative bodies to emphasize obesity. A slice of average human body was displayed in comparison to that of an obese person. The lesson in this particular piece was to show how fat tissues damages vital organs thus shortening ones life. I hope they bring this to Montreal.
I cannot wait to see this show. It so thoroughly sold out in Toronto that you had to buy tickets for a specific time slot. The journalist I heard speaking about it said his time slot was for 4am in the morning. It’s also extremely controversial: viewers in a U.S. city tried to cover up the figure of a still-born child and others it deemed obscene. It’s nice to see this kind of enthusiasm and hype generated by science for a change.
I saw this same exhibit in Toronto when it was there over a year ago. I have to say it was fascinating. It felt surreal to think that what I was seeing had been a breathing, thinking person at one time. It is certainly educational, though some of the poses seem to be created more for artistic purpose than education (hence part of the controversy). Keep in mind that these exhibits came from people who willingly signed over their bodies to be used after death. According to the books there explaining the process and which contain the contracts used, they also could choose whether all or parts of their bodies would be used, whether Von Hagens could have complete creative control or not, and whether they could be exhibited publicly or only for private educational purposes. This hardly seems to be a desecration under such circumstances. IMO it is good for our society to demystify the one thing we all own.
I saw this in Toronto, not bad. All of the people are “anatomically correct”, meaning they penises and vaginas (im not being crude this is scientific fact.). Whoever set up that exhibition(and perhaps all the exhibitions) had a great sense of humour. One of the first things you encounter when you walk into the show is a giant plastic penis. In fact, the penis is the biggest of the whole show , I know this, because me and my girlfriend walked around and judged all of them Viewers will be amazed that all the BODY WORLDS people are anatomically correct, and the females are particularly interesting and complex. I love the idea that tons of people walking by not commenting on the private parts but secretly in their head thinking “Oh my”. I can imagine many children wondering…”Mommy what’s that?” Talk like this is probably the best advertising this place could get! :)
I’ve actually read about this exhibit when I was in Toronto. It’s kinda cool to see that they are hosting it in Montreal too now! This is by far the coolest exhibition I’ve ever heard of. At first glance, it appears to be quite creepy, but this is what our bodies look like on the inside. This is amazing, and I will be there. See you all too!
For the many that have no idea what muscular insertions they may have and are to see it in an artistic platform, here’s a great chance. Yeh, all we are is muscle and bone that makes us up with a thin skin coating and tissue in-between, that the average arts student is not going to see. Even if people remark about how the revealed inner tissues turn them off, that is still a reaction. Today’s artists especially coming from Eastern Europe are trained in artistic views coaxed by Grey’s Anatomy views. Remember when the mutated earthlings ripped off their masks in ‘Beneath the Planet of the Apes’ to show the underling facial muscles and muscular sheaths. It is much like that and more with the added pleasure of seeing various flexions and extensions while the subject is positioned any which way.Need I make a comment about how it might get some people to appreciate what cutaneous beauty they have while the skin stays attached to its underlying subcutaneous tissue and that in turn to muscle tissue. LIke Von Hagens said the operating theater was once available as a way operations could be viewed especially by concerned family members or medical students wanted to observe procedures. For those that only see dead people, there is one thing to appreciate: the work of the medical artist who would draw the human body in stages of its dissection so that we could know more about the tissues that make us up. You may not like the method used to preserve the body but it is fascinating none the less.
Fascinating or repulsive? Art or just plain sick? If ever there was an example of art that just called for a judgment call this was it. I get that some people, maybe even you, consider Dr. Gunther von Hagens controversial Body Worlds exhibit depraved and wrong but I’m not one of them. Why? I don’t live in a bubble, this is the year 2007 and thanks to TV shows like CSI and a whole generation of slasher films the mystery of the human body has been flashed before our eyes a hundred different ways. I guess the image of using cadavers as prop art disturbs some people but personally I’m more sickened by the loss of life I see on the evening news that we do nothing to prevent. That’s all I got to say on this.
Finally something apart from the usual pedestrian kiddy-fare that the Science Center usually offers up. Don’t get me wrong, I love the child-friendly eye-opening exhibits that have been mainstays there over the years being a doting dad and all, but this Body Worlds actually has me stoked to go there without my daughter for once!
I cannot imagine many people who would not be fascinated by the concept of Body Worlds. Personally I sometimes feel a disconnect at times from the whole experience of being a human being. The exhibit would seem to put things into a perspective of who we are underneath ( literally ) and giving a sense of who we all are in terms of a unifying connectivity. Glad top see that Montreal was so lucky to get the exhibit.
What an exciting experience! This would be a good forum to show the damaging effects of smoking , over-eating, lack of exercise and any other harmful choices that can result to the human body. As well it would help anyone who would like to know how the human body works from the inside by seeing it on display. This type of science exhibition is unique and would be of benefit to many.
This is GREAT news for Montreal, it’s is an opportunity for our city to host one of the biggest international shows going around. I think what makes Bodyworlds important is that it actually lives up to the hype – what you see is what you get. I saw a show called ‘Bodies’ in New York last October.. Wow. In a Theory of Art class i had a while back, we discussed the whole thing and came to the conclusion that Von Hagens is NOT an artist, but an anatomist that presented science artistically, and I have to agree. When you go into this
exhibition prepared to experience the bodies as the work of a scientist and not an artist, you leave a world of issues concerning its artistic impact behind, which allows you attach yourself to the offered medical information more easily. the Bodies show has definitely left me wanting more (god I wish that horse was coming) and I will absolutely see the show – as soon as I have 50$ to bring my girlfriend! so… maybe in a few weeks!
Spoiler alert! the anuses have hair on them!
When McGill University had an Open House a few years back I made sure to visit the anatomy and pathology departments where I could view up close many human specimens suspended in a liquid preservative. My heart sank when I saw the specimen of the young kid with a peanut lodged in his windpipe suffocating him from lack of air. Viewing these exhibits did not cost me a penny. Now with the current bodyworks exhibition I feel it is way overpriced at $25.00 for a day visit. Carefully dissecting an unborn pig for Cegep biology lab was also more educational for me than bodyworks could ever be.
Wow, this exhibit is where anatomical science and art intersect. There’s something strikingly surreal and yet aesthetically engaging about these plasticized corpses – something uniquely human and timeless about the poses and expressions that they strike. Dr. Gunther Von Hagens obviously has not only a keen scientific eye but an unassailable artistic vision because few exhibits will evoke such a strong reaction and/or appreciation of both the human form and the human condition.
This exhibit is worth every penny and I think everyone should go and see it. Our society as a whole is quite ignorant when it comes to science and our bodies and as we can see by the growing number of illnesses and diseases it is not at all to our benefit. We just witnessed on TV the fact that an adult in North America had no idea what an electron was! Some people don’t even know what DNA is! Ignorance is bliss until the end draws near because of lung cancer or some other illness. We need to wake up and get going toward a healthier more sane way of living, and I think this exhibition will help give people a bit of a better perspective on what is and what is not important! $25 versus knowledge on how YOU work. I mean how do you even know $25 dollars is indeed $25 dollars, ahhh! the wonders of our mind and body!
I didn’t expect it to be that amazing! I couldn’t believe what i was seeing it was truly great. i think everyone should go pay and see this marvelous exhibition! It makes you wonder how amazing your muscular system is and how detailed it is. After seeing it on Sunday, every movie i make was making me think of how my muscles are working now.. its truly interesting.
I first heard of Body Worlds around five years ago when I was watching discovery channel. At the time I was only 12 years old but still I was completely intrigued by this exhibit. This was something that I had never imagined would be possible to see but there it was, on the boob tube in front of me. The problem was, the exhibit was only touring is Europe and Asia! After a while I forgot about it and then it came up again last year when it was in Ottawa. Finally Von Hagen’s genius has arrived in Montreal and I definitely am going to marvel at the wonders of human anatomy!
A man holding his own skin, a preserved pregnant woman, a body split in three! And all completely open for the complexity of our insides to be examined and understood. Probably one of the most important displays of nature today. I would call Von Hagen’f work science and art all at the same time.
I recently called the Montreal Science Center for prices and I admit it is a bit high for an exhibit but still quite affordable. Though I haven’t seen it yet I can assure anyone who is interested that Body Worlds will be worth the money.
I haven’t seen the exhibition, but I do have to say that I did want to go. After reading this article, now at least I’ll have more of a motive to go to it, and now I know more than I would’ve if I haven’t read it. Also, after looking at a bit at other’s comments (and seeing how many liked it), I just might go. I also might even learn something.
Everyone in Montreal seems to be talking about bodies these days. I have actually seen, not this exhibit, but one in new york, that is actually still down there. It was amazing, really something to see. Standing in front of one of the bodies is the weirdest thing. To actually think that what you are staring at is actually inside you, its just creepy. Our bodies are so complex. The one that i saw was called Bodies the exhibition. It is a very educational exhibit, you learn so much. They teach you about smoking and cancers. Really amazing, i suggest everyone go see it. You won`t regret it.
Admittedly, I hadn’t heard of all the buzz surrounding this exhibition until a work friend of mine began raving about it. Turns out she had gone to see it the day prior, and was so fascinated by it all that she couldn’t stop talking about it. After our conversation, I decided to look it up. It sounded very interesting, very original (to say the least) and extremely educational. I plan on seeing this as soon as possible. It seems like it’s definitely a ‘Don’t Miss’.
Just to add on to the experience of this exhibition,Canal D(french)is showing a series of documentaries on the good Dr. performing live autopsy to show us different functions of our body(the muscular systems,the blood stream etc…)Quite graphic and disturbing at some point, but dont we all feel the morbid obsession of ‘wanting to see what we d’ont want to see’. Its quite amazing and weird when he peels off the skin of a subject in less then 10 minutes and pull it off just like it was a wet suit or something like it…..Repulsive,yes but oh so intriguing and fascinating…..Anyone remember this obscure German flick called Anatomy?
I saw this exhibition in Amsterdam last December and it was definitely worth the trip. I bought 3 books about anatomy after that, remembering my love of Biology as a kid. We are so often removed from our own body and what its made of that it was a wonderous and strange experience to see it turned inside out, truncated, displayed for all to see.
Go see it!
For anyone who enjoys learning about how the human body functions and what it looks like from the inside – this is a total treat. Not only do we see internal organs, connective tissue, blood vessels, muscles, nerves, and everything you can possibly imagine that resides under our skin, but it’s all real!! It’s not quite the same experience as looking at plastic representations or computer simulations. You can just stand there and stare for a good 5-10 minutes at a body and your mind can barely grasp that this is what you look like on the inside. It’s overwhelming and truly an amazing experience. Some corpse-poses are more powerful than others, and there are some really incredible ones, but I won’t reveal them because that would spoil the surprise. Let’s just say some of them are really imaginative. And despite the fact that I spent a full 3 hours looking at everything, I still wish there was more stuff to look at.
I had that great chance to see the exhibition of Body Worlds, II in Boston Museum of Science. I was totally amazed!!!! It was one of the most interesting things I could ever learn about the Human Body and the way it was introduced was really worthy!
I cannot understand the too expensive comment since given the price of most entertainment, sports events, movies with popcorn, water parks….. will cost you that much or a whole lot more and leave you with nothing more than being entertained for a few hours. This exhibit can give you a long lasting better understanding and appreciation of the most incredible creation on earth that we each own regardless of our economic, social, political or religious belief we each got one. How much do people pay to go to a car show to see the inside of a sports car that would never be able to afford to own ? I have seen thousands of “pickled in a jar” type and tons of anatomy books, charts and all kinds of depictions of the body and None have impressed my as much as Gunther’ s work. It’ s done with such good taste and is phenomenally informative. We’ re to focused on the phony plastic Exterior of the Celebrities and forget the Real True Inner Beauty we All share.