My body - Exhibition

 “That small model of the barren earth which serves as paste and cover to our bones” (Shakespeare)

 How well do we know our bodies? We sometimes say that health is the silence of our organs – do we only worry about our bodies when we fall ill? And what image of our bodies does western medicine give us? Are we just a collection of organs to be explored separately?

An intimate exhibition
This was formerly the space where the colliery’s lifting machinery was located. Of its former use there remain in the centre of the space the structures on which the machine was secured, a labyrinth of concrete full of mysterious corners. A radical choice was made in re-using the space, influenced also by the subject of the exhibition: to create small, intimate areas to house the contents of the exhibition. Each alcove is an opportunity for self-examination; each one puts you in a different position. “Windows” open on the parts of your body and those of the other visitors...

The reconstituted body
The exhibition is organised into three sections. The first offers a spectacle of images and figures which evoke medical imagery on the one hand and issues of public health on the other. In the maze of organs, various displays reveal the operation and malfunctions of the body’s eight zones: the skin, the bones, the brain, the heart, the abdomen, the lungs, the kidneys, the genitals... you cannot help thinking about your own organism. The third section focuses on the major systems governing our physiology, and presents the vision of two artists who confront us with our human fragility.