Standing, sitting, floating through the air: over 200 human bodies are on display at the Body Worlds exhibition, currently visiting Amsterdam.
Nicole Nau is one of over 13,000 people worldwide who have arranged to leave their body to the exhibition's organisers. “I’m donating my body so that others can learn from it.”
The bodies at the exhibition staged by German anatomist Günther von Hagens have been plastinated. Plastination involves removing bodily fluids from a body using a vacuum process, after which the liquids are replaced by synthetic reaction substances such as silicone rubber. This approach completely stops the process of disintegration and mummification. (continues)
46-year old Nicole Nau was fascinated by the method after she had seen the exhibition in Frankfurt. When her parents decided to become donors, she joined them.
"I was dead for a couple of seconds once after a pulmonary embolism when I was 19. That kindled my interest in the human body."
She makes no bones about being exhibited after her death. "It educates people, and I won't be there to see it. Some of my friends say it's nasty or even ugly, but I disagree. And in the end it's up to me to decide about my body."
(dd/rk/ae)
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