De Humani Corporis Fabrica

The psychedelic physicality of this mortal coil – journey into the systems that comprise the human body in this fascinating sensory experience.

Filmed in two hospitals in France, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel, the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab duo behind the 2012 documentary Leviathan, dive into our innermost workings – from conversations in operating rooms to the fluid sci-fi cave of wonder that is the human body. The journey is often disorientating, winding through this world of colours and into the vortex of the cortex. A brain, an intestine, a breast, a gland… we are submerged in our innermost matter, accompanied by the muted sounds of conversations from the occupants of the operating theatre. The doctors are under pressure, the sense of scarce resources and a heavy workload is palpable.

Paravel and Castaing-Taylor’s film is a wondrous, utterly engrossing and occasionally grotesque tour of our physicality. Through it, we become a spectrum of colours, textures and warrens, as we pass through life and towards death.