Sunday, April 05, 2015

Nude at the Museum


Spencer Tunick has staged mass events at which naked people were the piece of art. Another American artist, James Turrell, has had an opposite idea: inviting guests to walk around naked to admire his art. Either way, it is a positive move that can benefit international naturism, the movement which encourages public and social non-sexual nudity.
Visiting a museum can now be added to the more traditional #thingstodointhenude, like swimming, sunbathing, sports, sleeping. While at first sight, meeting up with a bunch of total strangers to walk around a cold building seems a strange idea, but the participants in the event at Australia's National Gallery in Canberra were mostly positive.
It was not weird, because everybody was in it together, one person said, while a woman enjoyed doing a naked cartwheel. That is precisely the point about naturism: everybody is in it together, and nobody should feel shame about his or her body, about being different. Naturism is freedom, also from distinctions created by clothes, as the tour guide pointed out.
The visitors to the James Turrell exhibition - and there were two groups of 50 per day - should learn more about naturism and be able to get naked in more places and at more times than just during a short museum tour.
An idea for other museums: just like public swimming pools or water recreation parks in some areas organize naturist days or hours, museums could come up with naked-only tours at specific times.

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