Too real for France

Just a quick post from Buffalo, NY. I’m about to head to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Buffalo Museum of Science and am glad to go since I never got to see it while it was in Paris. I remember one of my friend’s talking about having seen it in Paris and how interesting it was, but the chatter about the exhibit seemed short-lived. Now I know why. It was shut down after 3 weeks in Paris by a judge who argued that it was disrespectful to the dead and that the cemetery was the only proper place for a corpse. The exhibit’s French organizer assured that the bodies were sourced from a Foundation in Hong Kong and were of individuals who had donated their bodies to science and were not, as was thought, the bodies of Chinese prisoners.

The French are so open about sexuality, art and film and support the right of the French citizen to protest and riot, yet plasticized human bodies take it too far. Oy vey. I’ll report back with my feelings about the exhibit. What do you all think?

UPDATE: It was a very educational exhibit, creepy, but informative. Particularly interesting to see the layers of subcutaneous fat in an obese person. I wonder if any of the obese museum-goers will consider a lifestyle change….

>Seeing baby embryo’s in all stages of development was both incredible and disturbing.

All in all, glad I went!

  • Ced September 29, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    I am glad you liked the exhibit… I think I would not have enjoyed it, too creepy for me !

  • Leesa October 7, 2009 at 7:51 pm

    I wanted to see it… Funny… it seems that the French are open to practically everything…?
    I just found your blog link on FB and realized who you are!! Thanks for finding me!! Leesa