A new exhibit opening in Edmonton this weekend will give visitors a unique view of the human body, unlike anything you've seen before.
Body Worlds & The Cycle of Life uses real, preserved human bodies to educate about anatomy, physiology and the effects of healthy or unhealthy lifestyle choices.
The exhibit makes its Canadian premiere in Edmonton at the TELUS World of Science on Saturday and will feature more than 200 real, human specimens, preserved through a process called plastination.
“It helps people see the real impact of decisions that we make about the way we treat our bodies and what happens over a period of time,” said George Smith with the TELUS World of Science.
“The more people understand that, much of our own health is much of our own responsibility based on the decisions that we make.”
Plastination is a process where bodily fluids and soluble fat are replaced with fluid plastics that harden. After the bodies are fixed into lifelike poses, they are hardened with gas, heat or light.
“This renders the specimen dry, odourless, you can literally grasp them and you can also put them in very beautiful and striking poses to be more relevant to our visitors,” explained Dr. Angelina Whalley with the exhibit.
The bodies on display feature all stages of human life – from conception to death and in all health conditions.
“We start with prenatal development and show and explain how it matures and also finally how it ends and by doing so we let people understand what a wonderful, intricate machine our body is but at the same time, what makes it ill,” Whalley said.
Poses range from humans skateboarding to ice skating to playing hockey.
The Edmonton Oilers even provided the exhibition with helmets, skates and sticks.
The original Body Worlds exhibit first launched in 1995 and has been travelling to more than 70 cities around the world ever since.
The exhibit first came to Edmonton in 2008 and attracted nearly 300,000.
It was that strong turnout that made TELUS' bid for the new exhibit an easy sell.
"It didn't take any trouble at all this time to get them to come back because of the way Edmontonians responded to it in 2008, not only in terms of numbers but in terms of the reaction to what they were seeing," Smith said.
Whalley says it’s important for people to see the exhibit to understand how the body can break down, which will likely lead them to make healthier choices.
“You have your body with you all your life but you never really get the chance to see what it is and Body Worlds allows just that,” she said.
“For many of our visitors it’s such a profound experience that afterwards they say, ‘I have a complete different view on myself and I never again want to take my body for granted.’”
More than 13,000 people from around the world have signed their bodies up to be donated to the exhibit once they die – including some Edmontonians.
The exhibit opens May 18 and runs until September 2.
