Worlds apart

11:02am Thursday 16th October 2008

Body Worlds has shocked millions all over the world, JAMES MURPHY finds out more about one of the most groundbreaking exhibitions in the last twenty years.

Gunther Von Hagens’ staggering Body Worlds exhibition arrives in London, bringing with it a host of characters who aren’t all that easy on the eye, but really are quite fascinating.

They’re real human bodies, preserved through plastination to reveal our internal structure in thorough detail.

Dr. Von Hagens, a Polish anatomist, invented the plastination process in 1977 that enabled him to preserve biological specimens.

This eventually allowed him to plastinate and reserve complete human bodies, with an ability to pose them in order to reveal how specific parts of the anatomy operate.

In a move that straddled science and art, he invented the Body Worlds exhibition, premiering it in Japan in 1995. Next week at the O2 Bubble Dr. Von Hagens’ latest instalment, Body Worlds and The Mirror Of Time makes its world premiere, with a particular focus on the human life cycle and ageing process.

The exhibition will demonstrate the way the body changes and grows, exploring each stage of development.

A highlight is a glance at the point at which the body peaks, followed by its slow decline and death.

It promises to be an uplifting experience, one which ageing is not just an inevitable process, but a naturally beautiful one.

It’s this outlook that has continuously set apart Dr. von Hagens’ shows from other explorations of the human body and while the attractions do indeed sound gruesomely unnatural, it is hard not to look on them with a great deal of awe and affection.

With this new feature, Londoners are being invited to get involved, and get on display, at the museum. Rather than donating your body to plastination, which not everyone will find that appealing, visitors are being invited to submit photographs of individuals or families at various stages of life, to demonstrate the way the human body ages. The selected submissions will go on display in the ‘My Life In Pictures’ section, and the entrants will be invited to a special preview event.

Body Worlds & The Mirror of Time will also showcase several human and animal specimens that have not yet been on display in England, including a 16-foot tall plastinated giraffe, as well as some of the more iconic models Dr. von Hagens has created to explore the human body in the most breathtaking of ways.

l Body Worlds and The Mirror Of Time opens at the O2 Bubble on October 24, and runs until August 2009. Tickets are £12 (£14 Friday - Sunday) for adults, £8 (£9.50 Friday - Sunday) for children between 6 and 17, with concession and family discounts available, and can be booked in advance through www.theo2.co.uk or by calling the box office on 0844 856 0202.

To submit photographs for ‘My Life In Pictures’, visit www.bodyworlds.co.uk for more details.