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A model posing at the beginning of Ulitsa Ostozhenka during the summer.
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He’s taken photos of 18,000 naked people in Mexico City, 7,000 in Barcelona and now Moscow streets are getting the Spencer Tunick treatment as can be seen in a new exhibition on as part of the Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition, “Moscow Individuals,” is on at the Garage Center of Contemporary Culture, which is the main base of the biennale. And as the title suggests, it differs from his mass-nude installations.
Tunick, who began his career in 1992 by documenting nudes in public locations in New York, has gone small-scale again for the Moscow project, selecting just 10 people for the photo session.
“Some day I’d like to do a work with a 1000 people in Moscow. I think it would be like a 1000 flowers in front of a big avenue, it’s a beautiful thing,” said Tunick in a telephone interview, adding that money could not be raised for a mass project in Moscow.
The artist took pictures of the 10 models very early in the morning set against the city’s empty streets. A woman is seen naked from behind on Smolenskaya Boulevard, the Foreign Ministry visible to the left of her naked shoulder; two women sit naked on two giant matryoshka dolls on Dmitrovskoye Shosse.
The early-morning starts were probably for the best, as Tunick admitted that he hadn’t asked the authorities for permission.
“It’s just too difficult for me to get permission for every location,” he said. “I and my participants work with the body as a nonpornographic, very free entity. We do it early in the morning [so as] not to disturb anyone.”
All the models as usual were ordinary people who sent in applications to Tunick. The photographer then handpicked the winners personally.
“No top models, no Prada, no McQueens. They are just everyday people, some students, some people in business, a journalist, but no professional models, just common people who want to take part in contemporary art, to become a part of the biennale,” he said.
One unusual feature for Tunick was that all the volunteers were in their 20s.
“In other countries there are people of all ages, from 60 to younger.”
About 400 people applied to take off their clothes on Moscow streets. What drives them to volunteer?
“These are people who feel I’m the right person to make art without clothing. They want to be a part of something I work very hard on. I think they are fans of contemporary arts in general,” he said.
Volunteers also receive a limited edition photo as a reward for their disrobing.
The main idea of his work, Tunick said, is showing the human body as a representation of life, freedom and sensuality. “There are two sides of my work: one is traditional portraiture and the other is using the body as an abstraction. When you use the body as an abstraction you can really see how organic, how beautiful it is.”
Even though he has directed thousands of people naked, Tunick has only been photographed naked once himself. “I’m too shy,” he said. “Maybe I do my work cause it’s therapy, it makes other people feel good about their bodies and maybe if I can make other people feel good that’s a good thing for me.”
The Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Arts runs Sept. 25 to Oct. 25. CCC Garage, 19A Ulitsa Obraztsova. Metro Savyolovskaya. Tel. 645-0520, 3rd.moscowbienale.ru.
