Author: Center for Philosophy of Sciences of the University of Lisbon / Pavilion of Knowledge – Ciência Viva Date: 2011 Description: Between February and March 2011, the Pavilion of Knowledge – Ciência Viva in Lisbon held a
video exhibition about the body and its representations, "corpoIMAGEM – Representações do Corpo na Ciência e na Arte", organized by the Research Project "Image
in Science and Arte" of the Center for Philosophy of Science of the University of Lisbon. The
exhibition was organized in three sections (three videos), "corpoPAISAGEM" (Body Landscape), "corpoFRAGMENTO" (Body Fragment) and "corpoALGORITMO" (Body Algorithm), corresponding to three chronological and
conceptual moments in the history of images and of the representation of the body in Western
Science and Art.
In the first section, "corpoPAISAGEM" (Body Landscape), we displayed images of the human body produced by Science and Art using
drawing and engraving and based on direct (naked eye) vision. Most of the images presented
here are from the 19th Century, and a minority dates back to the first decades of the 20th
Century. In both cases the body is always thought, described and drawn as if it was a
landscape. The eye of the artist skims on the surface of the naked body, trying to represent it in its
entirety and in natural positions. Conversely, the eye of the scientist struggles to penetrate the
inner body and its fragments.
Collections: Museu de Medicina da FMUL, Faculdade de Belas Artes UL, Sociedade Nacional de
Belas Artes, Museu do Chiado, Museu Nacional Soares dos Reis, Anatomical Treatises of the
19th Century (Central Library FMUL).
