Death imitates life

By Jules Quartly
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Nov 07, 2004, Page 19

The goalkeeper. Plastinator Gunter von Hagens poses his subjects in life-life positions to show off the wonder of the human body, in action. PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES

They say that art imitates life, but the Body Worlds exhibition currently being staged in Kaohsiung is a rare example of death imitating life -- and possibly art.

For example, a skinless corpse dives across artificial turf to "make a save." A skier is cut in two and is posed as if it is leaping off an imaginary piste, hanging in the air. The muscles, ligaments and organs of the body are fully exposed. A chess player contemplates his next move. A woman's womb is exposed to show a plastinated fetus.

Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies (人體奧妙展) first opened in Japan nearly nine years ago and has since been shown in other Asian centers, Europe, the US, in Taipei until recently and now in the country's second city at the Kaohsiung Business Exhibition Center.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Gunther von Hagens, a German professor, who was once imprisoned by the former East German authorities for supporting democracy. He worked in a hospital as an elevator operator and assistant pharmacist as a 17-year-old, when he sneaked into a public autopsy and was inspired to become an anatomist.

Playing chess PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES

After training, he discovered a process that he called plastination, in which the body's fluids are replaced by polymers. The result is a corpse that is preserved indefinitely and can be manipulated and exposed to show the various parts of the body.

In Germany, his exhibition caused enormous controversy, mainly stirred up by church leaders who complained that he was desecrating the dead. The colorful showman -- who wears what he calls a Tulp hat, from a picture by Rembrandt van Rijn called The Anatomy Lesson and is happy to pose with his plastinated subjects -- was then criticized by the media for transforming corpses into art objects.

They questioned how his work was different from, say, Damian Hirst's cows dunked in formaldehyde. Or Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who became famous for making portraits of heads composed of a variety of objects, both natural and man-made.

It is a question that keeps cropping up and to which Von Hagens has a suite of arguments to counter. "Nature has its own beauty, and of course there is the term `natural art,' which is about how beautiful nature or the body is. But this question depends on whether I view myself as an artist or whether others see me as an artist. Many people look at this as art because it is done well, but this is a change in the perception of the word of art, so actually you know the answer to this. I am not an artist, I am a scientist.

"Before art was seen as a form of craftsmanship, but art has lost its credentials. It has been degra-ded and it has lost its reputation with the masses who cannot follow the concept of abstract art. Art has been [co-opted] by those who do it and write about it."

Von Hagens said he accepted, however, that there was an aesthetic dimension to what he did. This was the result, he said, of his first exhibition in Japan, at which the specimens were simply laid out.

His wife and business partner Dr. Angelina Whalley said, "Before we did not care for the pose, or the artistic aspect. When we opened in Japan, people felt a little sorry for the bodies, because they looked more like puppets than human beings. This is why we changed things a bit ... We realized that it was important to attract people's attention and overcome people's fear of the dead. The point is that our bodies are not like corpses. "

As a result, the subjects now have a a more "lifelike" appearance, but this does not mean they are art, Von Hagens said. "Because there are aesthetical aspects and considerations, it doesn't necessarily mean that this is art. If a woman is in a good-looking pose this does not mean that she becomes art. The specimens create emotions and usually scientific items do not create emotions, so this is perhaps why there is a confusion," Von Hagens said.

"I show everyone the analytical specimen. The brain may be cut in half, but it is still a brain. I would never turn a leg into a golf ball club, or a penis into a Volvo, a stomach into a Halloween mask, or a brain into a cabbage flower, because this would dehumanize the specimen and this is what I never do."

Von Hagens said he had a layman's approach to science, hence the popular way in which he presented his specimens. He also admitted to being a showman and a teacher, but not an artist. As for the future, he intends to open a

permanent exhibition in a major metropolitan center in two or three years' time. "Money, politics and plastination, when this is combined then a unique museum will be the outcome."

What: Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies (人體奧妙展)
When: Until March 13
Where: Kaohsiung Business Exhibition Center (高雄工商展覽中心), 274, Zhongzheng 4th Road, Yancheng District, Kaohsiung (高雄市鹽埕區中正四路274號)
Hours: Open every day from 10am to 8pm
Cost: Adults NT$250, Students NT$180, under 110cm free, with concessions for groups