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Volunteers bare all for art event

Jan Saudek pushes the envelope with a nude shoot

By Benjamin Thomas Cunningham
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 8th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
134 men and 84 women posed naked for a series of photos by controversial Czech photographer Jan Saudek at a historic fort near Olomouc Aug. 5.
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COURTESY PHOTO
Jan Saudek
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KŘELOV–BŘUCHOTĺN,
CENTRAL MORAVIA
They came. They jumped. They had their collective picture taken. Naked.
At a historic fort near the city of Olomouc Aug. 5, more than 200 people took off their clothes for a series of photos by controversial Czech photographer Jan Saudek.
The latest controversy started when Saudek and local organizers tried to hold the photo shoot on a main square of this conservative city, about two and a half hours’ drive east of Prague. But after Archbishop Jan Bosco Graubner sent a letter to the local newspaper to protest, the group decided to change the location to the more private fort.
Never one to be shy, Saudek took off his clothes for the shoot, too. He then had the group jump and throw their arms in the air once, twice, three times. He stood on a hill above them, along with a group of journalists, trying to get just the right shot.
There was laughing at first, then grumbling as some of the naked volunteers got uncomfortable performing so much.
“Three times was too much jumping — I was shaking by then,” said Zdenka, 22, a student at Olomouc University who declined to give her last name. “Otherwise, it was fun.”
Zdenka and her friend Daniel, 25, sat on a bench afterward holding coupons for plastic cups of beer and goulash. She said she heard about the event through e-mails from friends who were planning to participate. But, in the end, no one else was brave enough to make the trip to the fort besides her and Daniel.
Zdenka said her participation had nothing to do with her views of the Catholic Church.
“It’s just a personal thing for me, and it’s a free weekend day. I don’t care about church opinion,” she said.
Vendula Dvořáková, 25, said she came to support avant-garde ideas.
“We are a small town and we need something like this,” Dvořáková said. “Our cultural life is too silent, it’s too peaceful.”
The shoot mimicked a similar project in recent years by American photographer Spencer Tunick, who takes pictures of nude people in artistic formations, usually in big cities. Tunick set a world record in May when about 18,000 people showed up for pictures he was taking on a main square in Mexico City.
Saudek did the jump shot for its artistic merit, according to Petr Albrecht, one of the event coordinators. People ages 18–74 came from around the Czech Republic and as far away as Slovenia to participate, Albrecht said.
“It was just for the atmosphere,” he added. “[Saudek] wants to take a shot from, I don’t know, some unique angle.”
Church spokesman Petr Gatnar declined to comment on the new location, which was marked only by a few event signs and was guarded by volunteers.
Albrecht said the gathering represented a record, since Czechs have never gotten naked en masse for art’s sake before. The group was made up of 134 men and 84 women.
After the photos were taken, some of the participants got dressed immediately. Others stayed naked and spread out on blankets, or enjoyed lunch at picnic tables in the walled-off fortress area. All of them will receive a digital copy of the picture for their volunteer efforts.
“What we’re trying to stress is that this is really a good thing,” said Petr Kotrla, another organizer. “This is not an act of exhibitionism. Saudek is well-known and people support him.”
Local organizers, including David Hrbek, who works at the Olomouc museum of modern art, approached Saudek about doing the photo. Hrbek said he and others came up with the idea as a way to push the envelope of the types of events held in the largely rural area.
“It’s always good to provoke a little bit and to push the borders of toleration,” said Hrdek. “If we did it in Prague, there would be no provocation, because it’s a big city with people who are used to events like these.”
Saudek will sign and auction off the picture in a follow-up event Sept. 19 at the museum, Hrdek said. The money will be donated to Malý Noe, a local charity.

Benjamin Thomas Cunningham can be reached at bcunningham@praguepost.com


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