Upstream | May 07, 2009 | 53 comments

Fury at exhibit of corpses having sex

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/06/german-artist-sex-death

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slagface
A controversial German anatomy artist is facing protests over his latest plastination exhibition after unveiling a work showing two corpses having sexual intercourse.

Gunther von Hagens, whose latest exhibition, Cycle of Life, opens in Berlin tomorrow , has defended the exhibit saying that it combines the two greatest taboos of sex and death and is a lesson in biology, but is "not meant to be sexually stimulating".

The exhibition has drawn angry protests from a cross-party group of politicians as well as church representatives. They have called for the work to be withdrawn, saying it is pornographic and an insult to the dead.

Alice Ströver, an MP for the Green party, said: "This couple is simply over the top, and it shouldn't be shown."

"Love and death are obvious topics for art, but I find it quite disgusting to use them in this way," said Fritz Felgentreu an MP for the Social Democrats.

Von Hagens developed the plastination method several years ago after discovering a method for preserving bodies by replacing their fat and water deposits with injections of silicon, which then harden.

His popular exhibitions, which have travelled the world, have included corpses playing chess, high jumping, and horse riding. Others have shown a dead pregnant woman and foetuses at various stages of development.

The man and woman consented to appear in a sexual pose, Von Hagens said.
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53 comments // Fury at exhibit of corpses having sex

  • Jonan_Ling
    • 0
      Jonan_Ling  

    • if they call that corpses engaging in SEX then im sad to say that they are not even close to even engaging each other. those censors are probably blind.

    • 1 year ago
  • think_free
    • 0
      think_free  

    • I just recently saw this exhibit in Tampa and thought it was amazing!

      This 'sculpture' in particular, I don't see how it could even be considered 'intercourse'. Love and connections, maybe, but sex?

      It's ART. Of course there will be people to try to censor because they are the ones who see something perverse and they want to suppress their thoughts by suppressing others from seeing it. I question those who sensor- you dirty bastards....

    • 3 years ago
  • dirtyemowords
  • jahkee3
    • 0
      jahkee3  

    • WITH THE CONSENT OF ANYONE WHO CHOOSES TO DONATE THEIR BODIES AFTER THEY HAVE PASSED, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE SHOULD HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS TYPE ART UNLESS OF COURSE YOU ARE AN UNCOMFORTABLE AND CONFUSED BEING IN YOUR OWN SKIN.

      THIS ART IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING I HAVE EVER SEEN!!

    • 3 years ago
  • gnossos
    • 0
      gnossos  

    • Wow. Now that's weird. Personally, if I'm dead, I don't think I'd care too much what people did with me, especially if I was an art exhibit. But I don't know...

    • 3 years ago
  • budgie85
  • cheeterio
  • ZomBelle
  • Vierotchka
  • DeliaTheArtist
    • 0
      DeliaTheArtist  

    • Good art is supposed to be a bit controversial. This makes people ponder the ultimate question- their own mortality. For that, it gets a thumbs up from me.

    • 3 years ago
  • NuclearLullaby
    • 0
      NuclearLullaby  

    • Sex after death? Hmmm...Although it freaks me out a little that these are in fact real corpses, I don't see it as overly offensive in much other way! It's actually some what neat!

    • 3 years ago
  • cheeterio
    • 0
      cheeterio  

    • if i wanted my body to be in an exhibit then it's my choice, not somebody else's. just as if somebody wanted to be cremated and spread out into the woods somewhere. a person could argue that the body (ashes) are thrown on the ground for people to tread on, animals to defecate on, etc. so when it comes down to it, it's all in how people look at it.

    • 3 years ago
  • masterzip
    • 0
      masterzip  
    • Image

    • Human anatomy has a history of offending the general population, they don't know what to make of it so they label it something that it is clearly not

    • 3 years ago
  • blaino
    • 0
      blaino  

    • the donors of their bodies agreed to be in a sexual pose. I really dont see a problem, some people over react because of the dumbest things.

    • 3 years ago
  • Mikeysfake1
  • libertyhemp
  • libertyhemp
  • tinamarielj
    • 0
      tinamarielj  
    • Image

    • "The exhibition has drawn angry protests from a cross-party group of politicians as well as church representatives. They have called for the work to be withdrawn, saying it is pornographic and an insult to the dead."

      Big cry babies! This was NEVER about ART!
      LEAVE GUNTHER ALONE!

      If you dont like it, DON'T LOOK AT IT!!!
      Sex IS a part of the "Cycle of Life & this combines the two greatest taboos of sex and death and is a lesson in biology, but is "not meant to be sexually stimulating".

      (insert irritated groan here)

    • 3 years ago
  • DrGlass
    • 0
      DrGlass  

    • Religion and government upset over art?! NO-WAY.

      Same stupid story as always. Prudes don't like it, fight to have it taken down. Yet in the end we always know who will win.

    • 3 years ago
  • eldamon
    • 0
      eldamon  

    • Usually I'd say it's just skin but in this case I'd be a little off topic. The overarching principle is there though. Let them have a little after life fun.

    • 3 years ago
  • reconmom
  • brianrebel
  • sweatmyhalyard
  • nursediesel
    • 0
      nursediesel  

    • This is simply amazing. A modern Leonardo deVinci.
      The Chinese exhibit caused a stir here in western PA, I just don't get it.
      Cyril Wecht(the famous coroner) said after he saw the Chinese exhibit in Pittsburgh that, had they had this available when he was in school it could have shaved a year off medical school of because to see it is so much more understandable.
      I wanna work with this guy, how exciting. I have both an art and medical backround and I can totally see it from both aspects.
      Religious people should see this as God's gift of the understanding of just what a miracle our bodies are!

    • 3 years ago
  • nursediesel
    • 0
      nursediesel  
    • nursediesel:

      I understand that was never proven. It was first thought the bodies were political prisoners, that, too, was not proven. I read everything about the search back to the artist and his sources. I never heard of definitive proof they were anything but ethical. Maybe you had other info?!

    • 3 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • Valence
  • cmdinc
  • el_chivo
    • 0
      el_chivo  

    • I’ve always wanted to see this exhibition. I think the human body is amazing and this is an wonderful way to appreciate it.

    • 3 years ago
  • ozoneocean
    • 0
      ozoneocean  

    • It doesn't look very sexual to me.
      And those that say "art is art" and "art is subjective" don't entirely understand the concepts. First off, art is something produced for that purpose by an artist in the course of their practice. Is the German doctor an artist or does her merely claim that title in order to pursue his fetish? Some events in the past would point toward the latter.
      Secondly, art is subjective AND contextual: the object is as important as those who are viewing it and the societal and cultural matrix within which it is produced and exhibited- In the case of this work the attitudes of the society is that using parts of dead human bodies for exhibits only has borderline acceptance; with this particular work he has crossed over that boarder.

    • 3 years ago
  • DrGlass
    • 0
      DrGlass  
    • ozoneocean:

      Who draws the border? what ARE boarder? Lets assume this is all some "sicko's" sexual fetish, so what? It exists, and it is going to exist no matter who it insults. Under your same logic we could assume that the "religious leaders" also have a sexual fetish for censoring.

    • 3 years ago
  • DarkVeneficusss
    • 0
      DarkVeneficusss  

    • 1 - unless that's the corpse of Dr Manhattan no way are they possible having sex

      2 - the only people that would find it pornographic & sexually stimulating are necrophiliacs

    • 3 years ago
  • islek
  • DarkVeneficusss
  • UrbanGypsy
  • burukku16
    • 0
      burukku16  

    • "They have called for the work to be withdrawn, saying it is pornographic and an insult to the dead."

      Insult to the dead? Who wouldn't want to be forever imortalised in a (not-so-kinky) sex pose? If the man and woman consented to this before they donated their bodies, I hardly think it's insulting.

      Also, if the exhibition is called 'Cycle of Life' it seems perfectly natural to include some people getting jiggy - how else would the cycle be complete?

    • 3 years ago
  • jamieson
    • 0
      jamieson  

    • Has anyone else noticed that the statues shape forms a heart? and the metal base is in the shape of a heart?

      I think i understand it, like your skin represents who you are to the rest of the world, but in love, you and your partner show your inner selves?

      I think their pornographic argument is invalid, their crotches arent even touching! If she was on her knees with her head in his crotch i might understand.

    • 3 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • kjs83
  • abbym0308
    • 0
      abbym0308  

    • I am continually surprised by people's aversion to seeing sex as part of science. Do they still think that babies are delivered by storks?
      Anyways, if you want to see a REAL autopsy of how this guy turns bodies into plastic, watch this video. Not suitable for the faint of heart (real corpse splayed open on table, for example).

    • 3 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • numinant
    • 0
      numinant  

    • Some people don't like being reminded that they're mortal sacks of flesh. Scientific and artistic truth is somehow an affront to their sense of human dignity, which makes you wonder what their dignity is actually founded on.

    • 3 years ago
  • ZomBelle
  • HEADmc
    • 0
      HEADmc  

    • Love fosters Sex bringing life, finally resulting in death. Does this sculpture represent the a love that exists beyond life?

    • 3 years ago
  • nkeg87
    • 0
      nkeg87  

    • What is with all the anatomy exhibits in the headlines lately? First France bans a chinese exhibit for possibly using executed prisoners and now Germany and sex.

    • 3 years ago
  • EmperorThan
    • 0
      EmperorThan  

    • For a second I thought that said "furry" not "fury" which just made things so much dirtier and weirder in my mind.

      Sorry I can't read this article with a straight face anymore after that.

    • 3 years ago
  • mandroid
    • 0
      mandroid  

    • THANTATEROS anyone? human pasta put it well. art is subjective and the reaction is what the individual makes of it. If it repulses you then leave it for time to tell, what is art?

    • 3 years ago
  • humanpasta
    • 0
      humanpasta  

    • Don't like it? Don't look at it. Art is art, and just because someone finds it offensive doesn't mean that it shouldn't be displayed for those that would get enjoyment out of it.

    • 3 years ago
  • Ares
    • 0
      Ares  
    • humanpasta:

      I suppose, but what if I made a mosaic of a slave being lynched by a horde of klansmen, and put in on a wall in New York City? Would that go over very well, do you think?

    • 3 years ago
  • humanpasta
    • 0
      humanpasta  
    • humanpasta:

      This isnt on a wall of a public building, its in an art museum, where people have the choice of seeing it or not. When you censor art, you move very close to censoring everything else. art is always offensive to someone.

    • 3 years ago
  • iamgaylord
    • 0
      iamgaylord  
    • humanpasta:

      Don't like it? Don't look at it. Art is art, and just because someone finds it offensive doesn't mean that it shouldn't be displayed for those that would get enjoyment out of it.
      by Humanpasta-

      WORD-
      If more people would feel that way then the world would be a better place.
      ---
      Why do people go right to hanging or whipping slaves to prove their point.... Dam!!!
      People already make art with hanging slaves and Klan members.
      ------
      I have seen other art like this. I think it's gross. But hey people can like what they like, with out me.

    • 3 years ago
  • Panzer_Tanzler
    • 0
      Panzer_Tanzler  

    • In the words of Dr. Tanzler.... hot......
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHmskwqCCQ

      But seriously, I think everyone over the age of 12 in this world realizes that sex is just something that humans do. I really don't see why groups go nutzo kazooie over this when they know any kid can walk into his local 7-11 style store and see super hotties on sale under a Snickers.

    • 3 years ago
  • Lecti
    • 0
      Lecti  

    • Hello slagface,

      Congratulations: Your submission is now a featured story on the current.com homepage.

      Tell all your friends,

      Lecti
      Online Community Team

    • 3 years ago
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