+49 photo for Focus
01 January, 1997
Initially designed to create detailed anatomical preparations for educational and medical purposes, plastinated bodies are now also exhibited in highly controversial shows such as this one.
'Plastination' is a term coined by German anatomist Professor Gunther von Hagens for his method of preserving human bodies or parts of them. At the private institute which he founded to be free from restrictions, it takes Von Hagens and his team up to 800 hours to prepare a whole body by replacing all water and fat with silicone or other polymers. The corpses are obtained through the institute's own body donation program.
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