BODY WORLDS & The Mirror of Time - The O2 London

BODY WORLDS & The Mirror of Time is the third and latest installment of the groundbreaking anatomical exhibitions by Dr. Gunther von Hagens, and features the human life cycle and aging. The exhibit shows the complexity, resilience, and vulnerability of the human body through anatomical studies of the body in distress, disease, and optimal health.

Tickets:

Adults: £12 (Friday – Sunday £14)
Children ages 6-17: £8.00 (Friday – Sunday: £9.50)
Concessions: £9.00 (Friday – Sunday: £10.50)
Family (2 adult, 2 children): £29 (Friday – Sunday: £34)

Tickets are timed and dated and admission is 10am-7pm daily. Due to high ticket demand, advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended.

To book tickets and for more information, visit www.visitlondon.com/bodyworlds or call 0844 844 0003.

Tickets also can be purchased from Superbreak or The O2 box office.

The O2 is an outstanding venue. The exhibition space, called The Bubble, first had the Tutankhamum exhibition and Body Worlds is only the second exhibition at this venue.

Address:

The O2, Peninsula Square, London SE10 0DX

Getting To The O2:

Nearest Tube Station: North Greenwich
Getting There info.

Use Journey Planner to plan your route by public transport.

About BODY WORLDS:

Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS are the only public anatomical exhibitions that stem from an established body donation program and use donated bodies. BODY WORLDS exhibitions have opened to critical acclaim in 47 cities worldwide and more than 26 million visitors across Asia, Europe, and North America have experienced the exhibition since its debut in Japan in 1996.

BODY WORLDS & The Mirror of Time, the new exhibition from physician and pioneering anatomist Dr. Gunther von Hagens, had its world premiere at The O2 bubble on Friday 24 October 2008. It features a special presentation on the human life cycle and more than 200 plastinates – specimens preserved through Plastination, the remarkable scientific process invented and perfected by Dr. von Hagens. The exhibition will run until 23 August 2009.

In partnership with the producers of the sensational Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, AEG and Arts and Exhibitions International (AEI), BODY WORLDS & The Mirror of Time is the latest instalment of groundbreaking anatomical exhibitions by the trailblazing scientist, Dr. Gunther von Hagens, and features a special presentation on the human life cycle and ageing by exhibition designer, Dr. Angelina Whalley.

The exhibition shows the complexity, resilience and vulnerability of the human body through anatomical studies of the body in distress, disease and optimal health. The brand new exhibition includes many human and animal specimens unseen in the UK, including a full-sized giraffe.

Dr. von Hagens commented, "I invented plastination when I was 32 - half a life ago - so I could teach people about the human body and show them its full potential. Now that I am in my 60s, it seemed a natural progression to use my science to present, in BODY WORLDS, the secrets of vitality, longevity and well-being."

Visitors are taken on a journey of self discovery, showing the body living through time - at its most radiant, as it changes, grows, matures, peaks and finally wanes. It looks at conception and "aging" during pre-natal development and a homage to the creativity of young people which shows the developing teen brain from infancy and childhood to adolescence.

Other highlights that will captivate and educate visitors of all ages include:

• The Fast Forward Face Transformer - two 'age progression' displays, developed by Perception Lab at St. Andrews University, Scotland, which allow visitors to view firsthand the effects of smoking and obesity on aging, as well as the effects of natural aging. With the help of a web camera, the visitor's face is captured in real time and the photograph can then show one of three variations; natural aging over the course of a lifetime; aging over a lifetime due to smoking, and aging when marked by obesity. The results are dramatic.
• Centennial Village - findings on geographic clusters around the world inhabited by the oldest living people - from Okinawa, Japan and Ovodda in Sardinia to the Hunza region of Pakistan.
• My Life in Pictures - a chronicle of real people in the UK photographed throughout their lives - reiterating the exhibition's premise of the body as a 'mirror of time'.
• The Artists' Gaze - a striking display about sight and vision that presents computer simulations of the vision of Impressionist painters Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, who suffered from cataract and retinal eye diseases.

I was surprised how emotional I found BODY WORLDS but I guess we can all relate to life and death.

The exhibition rooms are very dark and there is no background music and this makes you concentrate on the exhibits. All the exhibits are real bodies but you soon become 'desensitized' and just start looking at the body parts as 'art' and not people.

The labels looked like poems with their short lines and this actually made them less accessible to me.

For interaction, the British Red Cross are on hand to explain about first aid and life saving skills, plus there is a blood pressure monitor to try. The results chart was too small for most visitors to read and my result wasn't even on the chart (which, I think, means I'm super-healthy).

The exhibits are stunning, especially the full bodies balancing in 'active' poses such as sportsmen and dancers.

The exhibition ends with a full-size giraffe and then the chance to collect your Life Certificate where you can choose to pledge the ways you plan to live a long and healthy life.

I was moved a lot more than I thought I would be, and I also felt quite queasy for the rest of the day when I reflected on what I'd seen. But the exhibition is supposed to affect you so I don't think this is totally negative. I would recommend seeing BODY WORLDS as it is such an unusual concept.