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.

Living Through Winter

It's hard being a naturist in winter. Personally, I still can't complain too much. Yes, right now, I'm looking out at a dreary gray mass of clouds and I have to wear clothes or I'll endanger my health. Still, weather is a variable thing. Just days ago, temperatures were around 26 degrees Celsius and there was sunshine, perfect weather for naturism if only the environment - read the other people - allowed it.
But in these winter times, I have to think of naturists who are far worse off than me. Europe's been hit by one of the coldest spells in recent memory, with frost continuing for two weeks on end, day and night. That's the kind of weather that any person, naturist or textile, would want to leave behind for good.
Yet, even in the coldest of times, there is still hope. A naturist can think of better things. Australia for example. A rare look at the CNN weather report told me that Melbourne had 32 degrees, Cairns 30 degrees, Darwin 33 degrees, Perth 34 degrees, and Alice Springs a scary and unnecessary 39 degrees. But then, that's why people in Australia call that summer.
Another way to survive winter is to pretend it doesn't exist. Like those brave people who go out swimming in mass events on the Atlantic coast of the US and Canada, or on the North Sea coast in Europe. Or people who take pictures of themselves in the snow wearing swimming suits or absolutely nothing. The former are known as Frosters, the latter as Naked Snow People, and guess which group got booted off Facebook?
Finally, if like me, you are not brave enough to venture into the snow or the icecold water, and you don't live anywhere near Australia, all you can do is dream and look forward toward the summer in your place of the world.
The people at the Italian naturist group Fenait helped me do that by sending me another edition of their magazine Info Naturista. One way to spend part of the naturist winter is to visit travel fairs which have a naturist presence, such as the January 10-15 fair in the Dutch city of Utrecht.
Staying with the magazine, it reports on an international naturist swimming competition held in Prague, the clash between naturism and neoconformism, a review of an Italian book about nudity in art, the social aspect of naturism and naturist associations, and the latest news from Italy's regional naturist associations. I live a long way from Italy, but I visited Sicily in 2006. While as we said before, naturism in Italy is still weaker than in other Western European countries, it is growing and deserves our support and attention.
With wishes of courage for all naturists to make it through this winter, I leave this blog now to make it back to the warm comfort of Twitter at http://twitter.com/thenudeguru. See you there.

On Your Bikes, Downunder!

The coming March 5-6 weekend marks the opening of this year's round of World Naked Bike Rides. Since a measure of warmth is needed to appear on the streets without clothes, the Southern Hemisphere will be the first to start off the activities.
The major Australian city of Melbourne will host a ride this Sunday, March 6, but both this and the weekend after, several locations in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil are expected to form the stage for naked cyclists.
The movement is not just about cycling in the nude, and not all participants have to be completely naked.
The first World Naked Bike Ride started in the Spanish city of Zaragoza in 2001, and then as now, the main aim is to defend the weaker road users against irresponsible car drivers, the waste of energy, pollution, and related 'green' or environmentalist topics.
You know my stance on using naked bodies to protest - I think nobody should feel offended, so that might take away the purpose and effectiveness of a protest. While I do think speed limits should be respected and energy should not be wasted, I also believe that cars can be beautiful design items that should not be demonized, while under public pressure, carmakers are already looking for alternatives to oil.
Having said that, the World Naked Bike Rides could be one of the most effective ways to have
the naked human body be accepted by the public at large. The participants are not all completely naked, and many of them are covered in bright paint, making the rides a carnival-like event full of smiles and beauty.
Some countries are still touchy about allowing naked or semi-naked men and women ride bicycles in city centers in broad daylight, but on the whole, the World Naked Bike Rides have been well received and have been spreading around the world.
Once the cold of winter and spring subsides, early June will see the World Naked Bike Rides fan over across the Northern Hemisphere, with major events taking place in some of the world's most famous locations in North America and Europe.
For the time being, if you are a naturist in the southern half of the world, it's time for you to get nude and get on your bikes!

December in the Nude

Most parts of the world are covered in snow nowadays. A large part of North America, Europe, China, Japan. Even the rest doesn't look so bright. Strong winds and rain in the Middle East, usually a refuge for European holidaymakers.
So how does a naturist survive the winter? There are two answers: either by going textile and limiting his nudity to warm quarters like home and the sauna, or by moving (temporarily at least) to warmer climes.
There are numerous examples of those where naturism is still possible: Australia has naturist beaches and resorts, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and even Thailand.
Those are faraway places for most of the rest of the world, so staying at home and turning the heater up or frequent visits to saunas are more realistic alternatives.
For most of us however, waiting until the spring or summer will be the thing to do.
Naturists are above all realists. Even though we prefer to go through life in the nude, we know this is not always possible. Therefore we go textile when we have to, to protect ourselves from excess cold or heat. December is one of those times. But snow doesn't mean we have to cover up all of the time. Remember, there are people who go skiing in the nude, and they do it on the same type of snow as all other skiers, so it is possible to combine nudity and snow, and to survive. Didn't Spencer Tunick take one of his mass nude shots on a glacier?
See you later this month, so in the meantime keep warm.