CHINESE & EUROPEAN CONTRIBUTION TO MODERN ART
TonyaK9
POSTED: 3:35 PM EST February 3, 2004
UPDATED: 3:42 PM EST February 3, 2004
http://www.local6.com/news/2815142/detail.html
DALIAN, China -- Hidden in a maze of factories in the heart of this
northeastern Chinese port city is the house Gunther von Hagens built -- and,
for many, a place where nightmares are created.
Inside von Hagens' sprawling, well-guarded compound, behind a leaning metal
fence pocked with holes, are more than 800 human beings - 200 of his
staffers and 645 dead bodies in steel cases from almost a dozen nations.
The anatomist, whose exhibits of preserved human corpses have riled
religious leaders in Europe and attracted the curious and the outraged
across the world, set up shop here three years ago to process bodies for his
shows.
Last month, media reports from von Hagens' native Germany asserted that at
least two of the corpses, both Chinese, had bullet holes in their skulls -
the method China uses for execution. It's a charge that von Hagens rejects
vehemently, saying all his specimens were donated by people who signed
releases.
"I absolutely prohibit and do not accept death penalty bodies," von Hagens,
a tall, thin man in a fedora, said this week during a rare tour of his
Dalian facility.
But, he added, "Many things can happen. ... I cannot exclude that
(possibility)."
Von Hagens launched his Body Worlds exhibits in 1997 and has shown them to
nearly 14 million people from Japan and Korea to Britain and Germany. Shows
are running now in Frankfurt, Germany, and Singapore.
The displays feature healthy and diseased body parts as well as skinned,
whole corpses in assorted poses - a rider atop a horse, a pregnant woman
reclining - that show off the preservation technique von Hagens developed in
1977.
Dubbed "plastination," the process replaces bodily fluids and fat with epoxy
and silicone, making the bodies durable for exhibition and study.
Though authorities in Dalian have made no public allegations against the
operation, it has drawn the attention of the Chinese media.
"Does the corpse factory have a trade secret?" asked the Beijing Morning
Post.
"Investigation into the secrets of Dalian's corpse processing plant," read
another in the Beijing Evening News.
Li Renzhen, a Dalian taxi driver, said, "I don't know what they are doing in
there. But according to Chinese tradition, we should show respect for dead
bodies."
He shook his head.
"If they are used to make money, it's unthinkable."
The German weekly Der Spiegel said in January that von Hagens ran a "shabby
business," buying cheap corpses - including executed Chinese - and marketing
them for profit. A British paper, The Daily Telegraph, said German lawyers
also were investigating whether von Hagens used executed Chinese prisoners.
The allegations echoed charges from 2001, when von Hagens was accused of
using a Russian prisoner's body. Von Hagens said that corpse was a German
who donated his body.
Von Hagens said his staff searched their cache of bodies after the Der
Spiegel article appeared and found seven with "different kinds of head
injuries." He said he planned to incinerate those to be certain execution
victims are not used.
"There is no case opened against me," said von Hagens, 59. "Nobody accuses
me ... of doing anything criminal, anything against the law."
Critics, including the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, have denounced
von Hagens' work as disrespectful to the dead. He says he simply helps
people understand their bodies.
In Frankfurt, authorities have warned parents not to allow children younger
than 14 to view the exhibit, which they said could "shock and frighten." At
a London show, a visitor took a hammer to one of the bodies - a man holding
a liver - while another threw a blanket over the corpse of a pregnant woman,
saying he could not bear to look at the fetus.
"It's a very emotional topic," acknowledged von Hagens, dubbed "Dr.
Frankenstein" in November after performing Britain's first public autopsy in
more than 170 years. Even in Dalian, one of his employees jokingly referred
to him as "Dr. Death."
In one airy room, skinned corpses wrapped in white cloth and covered in
plastic lay stretched out on tables, surrounded by "dissectors" - many of
them medical students. They hunched over the bodies, picking out fat and
tissue with tweezers. In another area, bodies hung "curing" with gas, light
or heat.
Each body requires up to 1,500 hours of work to prepare, von Hagens says. In
their final plasticized state, the corpses are rubbery to the touch with a
crystalline finish - the color of raw pork.
The room where the bodies are assembled into position is large and sunny and
filled with models in different stages of production - a snowboarder here,
an ice-skater there. In one area, a dead man poses in an homage to Rodin's
"The Thinker."
Von Hagens, too, is thinking these days - about how to quiet his critics
without giving up his life's endeavor.
"I'm sure I will survive this storm in the water glass as I have survived so
many before," von Hagens said. "I touch here a taboo, which is our body, and
nothing is so near as our body is to us."
He adds: "I know that I am innocent. This gives me a good feeling and good
sleep every day."
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Paul Abeles
"TonyaK9" <Ton...@excite.com> wrote in message
news:9YUTb.11889$uM2....@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net...
> Human Corpse Exhibit Stirs Outrage
Just an exhibition of organic material. What's so special about human
remains. Not my cup of tea though. I wouldn't go see it, I have a weak
stomach.
Although I'm sure you would get some macabre pleasure from viewing it.
TonyaK9
"Paul Abeles" <nospamp...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8b0Ub.41723$Wa.3...@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Only when you are on the exhibit
Paul Abeles
touché
Tilly
age
>
>
> Just an exhibition of organic material. What's so special about human
> remains. Not my cup of tea though. I wouldn't go see it, I have a
> weak stomach.
>
> Although I'm sure you would get some macabre pleasure from viewing it.
I know several people who have seen it and said it is fantastic, especially
if you are interested in human anatomy and physiology. From what I have read
, people who went just to see the exhibition to see what the fuss was
about, mostly found it very interesting and informative.
It's all the mind.
Tilly
Tilly
Paul Abeles
"Tilly" <Brig...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:YnmUb.34709$9k7.7...@news.xtra.co.nz...
My wife loves medical TV programs. I put a cushion in front of me with the
bloody bits. I'm sure women have stronger stomachs that most men.
Tilly
>
> My wife loves medical TV programs. I put a cushion in front of me
> with the bloody bits. I'm sure women have stronger stomachs that most
> men.
You are wrong the majority of surgeons are men. However men who have your
affliction are far worse than women-they make a fuss about it.
Tilly
Tilly
BOEDICIA
>From: "TonyaK9" Ton...@excite.com
>Date: 2/3/04 2:07 PM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <9YUTb.11889$uM2....@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net>
>Human Corpse Exhibit Stirs Outrage
Snip or in your case, circumcise.
Did you have a point in posting this obscene rubbish in a jew NG? Is this
monster a jew? If not, what was your point?