Les images modifiées du corps : nouvelles formes d’identité : Avec une note sur les cadavres de l’anatomiste Gunter Von Hagens

Abstract

This article addresses the ideological nexus between radical aesthetic and cultural practices featuring the mutilation or symbolic transformation of the body and the evolution of the techno-medical ethos in this era of increasingly powerful electronic techniques. The author argues that the latter enable the medical penetration of the interior of the body at a distance, rendering obsolete the traditional medical interaction with an embodied person. The author links these changes in medical practice to trends in the contemporary art world involving spectacular and transgressive manipulations of the body by the artist—the prime example given is that of Orlan, the doyenne of live theatricalized plastic surgery as a kind of performance art. The author’s more elaborated example is the sensationally popular and long-running touring exhibit of plastinated bodies by the anatomist Gunther von Hagens. The article highlights contradictions in the response of the French legal system (and the Catholic Church) to these fascinating and disturbing cultural developments. The author suggests that we have moved into a trans-human era.