Controversial

March 21, 2002 7:30 AM

Controversial corpse exhibit, Körperwelten (Body Worlds), is set to display human corpses in London, UK in two days. UK health department concluded that the exhibit did not breach the 1984 Anatomy Act as the law did not cover the preservation of corpses by means of plastination, a technique invented by Professor Gunther von Hagens, the creator of the exhibit.
posted by frenetic (9 comments total)

I'm tempted to check out the exhibition. Fascinating, culturally as well as aesthetically. Note that many of the exhibits had seen the exhibition before they volunteered. Sounds like the kind of thing I'd be up for. Beats being buried or burned.
posted by walrus at 7:43 AM on March 21, 2002

I assume that the pregnant woman was partially faked...or did the fetus consent to be displayed?
posted by HTuttle at 8:01 AM on March 21, 2002

This is both repugnant and very interesting. . .if it were in my city, i'd have to go.

I'd never be able to work at preparing these bodies. . .
posted by Danf at 9:15 AM on March 21, 2002

I saw this exhibit three years ago here in Japan, and I believe it just passed thru the same venue again this year. It was doing mighty good business when I saw it.

It's really a fascinating medical exhibit, not appealing to sickos. to hold a real brain in your hands ( I did) is something you won't forget. The guy holding his skin is kind of schadenfreude (sp?) I guess, but overall it is a tribute to the majesty of the human body. My fav is the skinless guy sitting at a table like he's looking at a cafe menu.

Tuttle, there was more than one baby in cutaway womb view. I don't think they were faked. You can also see smokers lungs.
posted by planetkyoto at 9:19 AM on March 21, 2002

And the horse! Did it give its consent?

What I find appalling about the article is that people involved in some seemingly unrelated organ scandal (how rarely one gets to use those words in conjunction) are making loud noises about the 'insensitivity' of the exhibit and wish it shut down.

And medical schools, how can they continue their gruesome pursuits in light of the ongoing organ scandal? And the Visible Human Project! Block access to it before it defames the memory of those lamented and abused organs of yore!

I am almost always astounded by people's eagerness to be offended.
posted by umberto at 9:29 AM on March 21, 2002

I really want to see this, hope it comes to my town. I really don't see what the fuss is about.
posted by phatboy at 9:30 AM on March 21, 2002

This is endlessly fascinating to me, but then, as a kid, whenever I got near a set of encyclopedia, the first thing I'd check out it the quality of the anatomy plates.
posted by alumshubby at 9:52 AM on March 21, 2002

Plus ça change and all that. The Fragonard Museum in Paris shows similar bodies injected with coloured wax created by Honoré Fragonard between 1766 and 1771. (In French, but can be translated (sort of) by babelfish (better) or Google (funnier).

Of particular interest to those looking to be offended might be the Group of Fetuses Dancing a Jig.

Also, Metropole comments in English.
posted by Geo at 11:58 AM on March 21, 2002

Good lord, why do people get so offended over what they can see if they cut themselves open. I mean this is God's glory in full color (I'm not religious but if I was that's what I'd call this). You cannot deny that the human body is an astonishingly complex and damned near perfect machine when you see it up close. I've just been drawing real human skeletons for a few weeks up close, and you can see how efficient it is, and how it grows, and although it is a bit HR Giegerish at first, you end up just marveling at how it all works so well.
posted by Settle at 4:44 PM on March 21, 2002