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| Photos courtesy of Günter von Hagens, Institute for Plastination, Heidelberg, Germany, www.bodyworlds.com |
A reverent, cowed silence reigns in Montréal's Science Centre as live humans shuffle past their dead brethren. A father points out to his son the impossibly tiny ossicles of the inner ear; a woman notes the elegantly disorganized honeycomb of spongy cancellous bone. The body of a woman hangs in an x, the flayed panels of skin making her look like she has wings. Further along, dyed segments of the nervous system are breathtaking, webs of red filament suspended in a clear solution against a black background, their intricacy impossible to replicate or even quite fathom. Death is close by here, but it is denatured, literally plastified.
When I tried to go see Body Worlds in Toronto two years ago, I might well have died waiting in the queue before ever getting to the much-touted anatomical exhibit: people were lined up down the road and around the corner, and tickets were sold out several days in advance. For the first time in Montréal, German anatomist Gunther von Hagens's real-human-body exhibit is still popular, but the crowds are less daunting. Yet for the 25 million people worldwide who have visited Body Worlds, the fascination is obvious - "Qu'est-ce qu'un homme?", as Descartes pondered four hundred years ago.
L'homme, among other things, is finite and temporary; everything we do, from curing diseases to writing novels to making babies, is an effort to counter death.
Von Hagens, who is constantly coiffed in the trademark black hat of Renaissance anatomists, has been in the cadaver business for nearly thirty years, refining and promoting his patented process, to try to highlight the transitoriness of life and preserve it beyond death.
Plastination involves halting decomposition, removing fluids
and fats, injecting various resins and elastomers
and curing with light, heat or gas.
Plastination involves halting decomposition, removing fluids and fats, injecting various resins and elastomers and curing with light, heat or gas. The bodies in the Body Worlds exhibit, which are willingly donated and remain anonymous, are then arranged in the middle of ski-jumping, yoga or chess scenes. "Death," von Hagens contends, "has been banished from our consciousness," and Body Worlds inches it a bit closer. One figure, "The Drawer Man," still has skin on his leg, and hair. Brr... This will be you one day, and me, though I'm not convinced I want to have cross-sections of myself protruding to illustrate the location of my spleen.
Helpful to medical professionals, and reaching lay people as well, plastination is first an educative tool. "When people understand more about how the body works and how it can break down," Body Worlds proclaims, "they are more likely to choose healthy and sustainable lifestyles." We can see ourselves in the soccer player, the guy with the busted knee, the pregnant woman. I can see that that could be my father's heart, or those could be my lungs in the middle of that display case, darkened courtesy of Gauloises. Could be worse: good thing I'm not a coal miner.
The exhibits have generated ethical controversy, and are certainly sensational. At the Montréal show, a few people have been sick, an employee tells me, and others have fainted. A bit creepy, often surprising, somewhat repetitive and sometimes eerily beautiful, Body Worlds mixes science and art, with a touch of the metaphysical thrown in. By desecrating, or at least desanctifying, in order to edify, Body Worlds highlights how close we are to animals, and how much we resemble angels-plenty to think about for what remains of our 2.5 billion heartbeats.
Katia Grubisic is a writer, editor and translator whose work has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Grain Magazine, Books in Canada, and The Fiddlehead, among others, and in a chapbook with Delirium Press. She is on the editorial board of The New Quarterly.
Body Worlds 2 is on until September 16 at the Montréal Science Centre, (2, de la Commune West in the Old Port).
Sunday to Wednesday 9 to 21:30 hrs; Thursday to Saturday 9 to 23:00 hrs.
Not recommended for children under 10; children under 13 must be accompanied by an adult.
For tickets, visit www.centredessciencesdemontreal.com/BW2/ or call 514.496.4724. |
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