From Me to We: Human Body, and Transparent Mary
Unknown, model made by craftsmen in Cologne, Germany · Model mid twentieth century, acquired 1978; exhibition renewed 2023
At the entrance to the human body exhibition on floor three stands a woman made of glass. She is life size, her arms slightly raised, and through her clear skin you can see her skeleton, her blood vessels in red and blue, and her organs, which light up one after another as a recorded voice explains what each of them does. Her name is Mary, and she has been in the centre since 1978, moving with it from the old building to the new. Generations of Taiwanese schoolchildren met the inside of the human body here for the first time, and the centre restored her in 2023 as the opening piece of its rebuilt exhibition.
Transparent figures of this kind were made by craftsmen in Germany from the nineteen thirties onward for health museums around the world, first in Dresden and later in Cologne, and each was built by hand, with organs cast in coloured plastic and threaded with tiny bulbs and wiring. Look at the quality of the anatomy: the branching of the vessels, the folds of the intestine, the position of the heart slightly to the left. Around her the centre has gathered the anatomical models it has collected over sixty years, from wax hands to a walk through digestive tract, and staff take some of them apart in demonstrations.
The exhibition that follows is called From Me to We because it treats the body not as a machine but as a community. Six zones on the skin, the heart and lungs, the womb, the immune system, the brain and the gut show how many other living things share our bodies, from the bacteria of the intestine to the microbes on our skin, and interactive stations let children measure, compare and test themselves. Doctors from Taipei hospitals give guided tours on some weekends. Mary, patient and transparent at the door, remains the star.
Did You Know? Transparent Mary has been on show since 1978 and moved with the centre from its old home in the city centre to Shilin in 2003.
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