Spencer Tunick tells of his adventures in bed

New York artist Spencer Tunick has made his massive outdoor nude installations in many nations. However, these jobs are always by invitation. He does not feel he has “the right as a foreigner to say: ‘I want to work here or there. In every country there is a long tradition of the nude in art. So, arriving and saying: ‘I have to do this in a certain place’, does not seem right to me. I always ask if a certain location would be good or if there is any interest. People also suggest places to me. I am a collaborator by invitation.”

Tunick is in Mexico for a series of activities during Art Week included in the project Something more about Lolaorganized by Casa Basalta in collaboration with Saenger Galería. The first was an interview conducted “in bed,” as part of the InBED conversations, conducted by “cultural provocateur and storyteller” Klaudia Oliver – at one point they were accompanied by Kristin Bowler, the artist’s wife.

In the conversation, Tunick spoke about his first approaches to photography before wanting to be an artist, his crowd management, the relevance of working outdoors and, of course, his biggest project to date, the installation in the Zócalo during dawn on May 6, 2007, where he brought together more than 19 thousand people.

In this regard, he recalled: “People in Mexico were excited about the idea of ​​me doing a work; the government was not, so they rejected us for one or two years. Mireya Escalante, my producer, said: ‘we have to go to the press and inform them that they are rejecting the project’. This way the press would confront the government and exert pressure.” For Tunick, if he had been granted permission “immediately” he might have attracted about 5,000 people to pose, but the refusal increased public interest.

“Nowadays, if I used artificial intelligence I wouldn’t have to worry about the appearance of the sun and the glare it produces. Days before I had tried to see what time I had to start the photo session and when I had to stop, which was when the sun was already over the National Palace. So I was like a vampire: I had to create art before the sun hit me. The people were in a kind of canyon that was the Zócalo and I was up in the restaurant of a building shouting instructions, with the urgency to finish and placing the participants in position. The precision was incredible,” added the photographer.

There was a moment when Tunick thought he was going to fail. “Deploying the people in the Zócalo, one by stone, was the most difficult thing I have ever done. At one point I asked them to curl up in a little ball, which meant that the person’s head would be pressed against the butt of the person next to them, which I didn’t like. As I fought with the dawn, the participants ignored me. Then, I shouted something like ‘in the name of my grandmother, please do that for me’. Finally everyone crouched down and curled up into a ball, in addition to do other positions.”

The artist maintains the idea that “no one owns your body. If the government says yes, especially in a public space, that is not good. Your vision of how you see your artistic work should not be judged as an internal activity. The world is beautiful, also the outside. Buildings and skyscrapers, as well as roads that resemble rivers, like cityscapes or flowing corporeals, must be available as locations, or blank canvases. I don’t like that I tell me to stay inside. I am an outdoor person. The fact of not keeping my work indoors is one of the things that gives power to people.”

Currently there are many artists who work with groups of nudes. Tunick hopes that young people will continue to “push the boundaries.” As for his own work, “I miss photographing individuals, exploring ideas and experimenting in a more intimate way.” This is how he began his career in the first half of the 90s, photographing nudes individually on the streets of New York. At that time the problem was finding models that were not professionals. His tactic was to approach people and ask if they were interested in “going on an urban adventure” naked with him at dawn. From his wallet he took out some small photos of previous jobs, cut from a contact sheet, which he handed out. He has always given each of the participants a signed photograph from the session.

Let the urban adventures of Spencer Tunick continue!