Body Worlds Animals Exhibit Coming to Franklin Institute


Remember Body Worlds, the creepy but cool and utterly fascinating exhibit of “plastinated” human bodies and organs that packed the Franklin Institute from October 2005 to April 2006? Well, Body Worlds developer and plastination inventor Gunther von Hagens is coming back, this time with animals.

Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out will run from October 4th to April 12th in the new Nicholas and Athena Karabots Pavilion at the Franklin Institute.

The exhibit will a large variety of plastinated mammals and fish, including a giraffe, sheep, goat and bull, seen here. We can only hope they include the elephant, too. Not all animals in the collection are on display at all of the stops on the traveling exhibit’s tour.

Von Hagens invented plastination back in 1977. The process involves sucking all of the bodily fluids and fat out of a formerly living being and then replacing those things with resins and other manufactured substances using “vacuum-forced impregnation.”

The exhibit’s producers promise that “no animal was harmed or killed for this exhibition.”

Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out had its U.S. debut in 2013 at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Here’s what the Chicago Tribune had to say about the show:

An eye-popping spectacle from start to finish, “Animal Inside Out” is a sort of alternate-universe zoo, one that lets you get surprisingly close to the often unencased critters. As guests wander between them, reindeer, sharks and a sheep, to name three, mill about, shamelessly showing visitors what they’re really like. You know, on the inside.

The Body Worlds human exhibit attracted a fair amount of controversy, thanks to its use of human cadavers. Catholic, Baptist and Jewish leaders were none too happy. And there were also accusations of sexism, because of how the male human bodies were portrayed (strong and heroic) versus the females (passive and dainty).

But so far, the Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out exhibit has steered clear of any major complaints. PETA reportedly gave the exhibit its blessing.

Below, the trailer from the Chicago edition of Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out to give you an idea of what to expect. “It was a little freaky,” says a young girl in the video. “It was just kind of grossish. But it’s really cool to look at the insides of the animals.”

PHOTO: © ANIMAL INSIDE OUT, a Body Worlds Production, www.animalinsideout.com All rights reserved.