Paper short abstract:

Body re-enhancement practices are nowadays a current practice: bionic bodies, manipulation of body parts aiming for perfection contrast with the corpus incorruptus of the popular Catholicism saints, whose capacity to defeat death and decay is transmitted to the body parts that become relics.

Paper long abstract:

In the pursuit of excellence, body enhancement and biohacking practices are nowadays a current practice. Individuals put on “body parts” (using various cosmetic- medical techniques) to create bionic bodies, perfect creatures that challenge aging and death. If we move to the religious world, and especially popular Catholicism, we can find the opposite symmetric to such bodies: the corpus incorruptus, of someone thought of as a perfect/idealized soul, that defies death, decomposition and decay. These two opposites are both composed of detached body parts: the silicone breasts or the bottom added to a living body to enhance it, according to certain perfection ideals; the body parts of a popular saint turned into relics that are spread to various destinations.

The interventions in the bionic bodies are thought to be long-term, but, in fact, they need periodic re-adjustments and they ultimately do not defeat death. On the opposite, the perfect body of a saint, when dismantled, becomes an entity that is separated to spread its holy power—the relics that protect and bring benefits to their holders. We thus face a dualism between temporality and permanence, both targeting perfection: the bionic body needs re-interventions, the relics last forever, challenging the decomposition of human tissues, and aiming immortality.

Based on the EXCEL-The Pursuit of Excellence (ICS-CPussetti) project, this paper will discuss the re-connections and disconnections between the dismembered bodies of individuals, experimental dolls and corpus incorruptus.