Flesh rendered ‘immortal’ – Body Worlds hits Cape Town

Abstract

Since the first controversial public showing in Manheim’s Museum for Technology and Labour 15 years ago, more than 13 000 people have signed up to donate their bodies for plastination, inspired by Body Worlds – dubbed the most successful touring exhibition ever (35 million viewers).
The taboo-breaking exhibition, in Africa for the first time at Cape Town’s Waterfront until February, gives the lay public an intimate and anatomically perfect view of the human body previously reserved only for the medical fraternity – whose educational demands birthed the technology.