Once upon a time there was a German artist named Gunther von Hagens. He made displays of preserved human corpses stripped of skin. It sort of looked like school food.
He was controversial but some loved him for his unusual art. It’s understandable: what better anniversary gift than old, withering tightly pulled skin?
After all, you see that on faces all the time on faces of men and women in Beverly Hills.
But now some think he is going to far: he wants to open a factory in Poland to mass produce his corpse art.
This is an artist who truly has a “body of work”:
Von Hagens, whose exhibitions made out of human and animal remains have attracted millions of visitors around the world, has already bought land and industrial buildings in the western Polish town of Sieniawa Zarska, near the German border.
“His father told us what he plans to do here. Von Hagen plans to open a plastination factory of human bodies,” Andrzej Chwiedacz, senior municipal official in Sieniawa, population 1,150, said on Monday.
“Von Hagen’s father is trying to convince us and our people why it is good for our town.”
Well, why don’t the people listen to reason. It’s a simple process:
The “plastination” process is a craft of preserving human bodies by replacing the natural body fluids with solid plastic. The process both preserves tissues and gives rigidity, enabling the corpse and the organs to be displayed in exhibitions.
Chwiedacz said the pioneer of plastination, whose scalpel jobs have alternately fascinated and nauseated viewers, wanted to turn the site into a factory where corpses will undergo his special treatment, employing up to 300 people.
“Alternatively fascinated and naseated viewers…” Hey, they’ve visited our site! But we digress:
The artist, who once put on display the corpse of a pregnant woman, complete with a dissection of her womb, has been tried in several countries for breaching laws about dealing with corpses.
The scandal around von Hagen’s plans spiced up further when Polish and German press said his 89-year-old father, Gerhard Liebchen, who represents his son’s businesses in Poland, is suspected to carrying out crimes against Poles in World War Two.
“We will probe if Gerhard Liebchen cooperated in sending 60 Poles to concentration camps, which would give reasons to launch an investigation for participation in genocide,” a state institute set up to examine wartime crimes said on Monday.
Well, if his dad worked in concentration camps then investors should be pleased to invest in the factory, because his Dad has lots of past experience.
Pregnant woman with a dissection of her womb…HEY! That’s a great wedding gift!
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.