Naked World

Spencer Tunick has taken pictures of more naked people than many a lensman for Hugh Hefner or Larry Flynt. But don't lose your shirt; Tunick is an artist (currently exhibiting at MOCA Cleveland) who creates temporary site-related installations of nudes recruited from ordinary, common men and women, alone, in groups…and in super-sized quantities: inclad masses, scattered and draped among streets, monuments and pavements that Tunick has chosen instead of a studio. In her follow-up to her first Spencer Tunick chronicle “Naked States,” Arlene Donnelly Nelson follows the indefatigable Tunick on his most ambitious (and revealing) project: to document with photography and video installations public nudes on all seven continents, in Ireland, England, Japan, Russia, Brazil… “Something about Paris, they want to attack the naked people,” mutters the artist, finding the City of Light surprisingly intolerant. Australia's press denounces Tunick, yet his installation proves therapeutic for an HIV-positive volunteer. A South African subject with painful memories of Apartheid philosophizes about Tunick revealing the commonality of humanity, and we realize his aesthetic has truly gotten under peoples' skin. NAKED WORLD is the most fun you can have at the CIFF with your clothes on. Um, contains nudity. (In English with French, Portugese, Japanese and Russian with English subtitles)