After photographing tens of thousands of naked people in more than a hundred cities worldwide, American artist Spencer Tunick has found in Gran Canaria – “the best island in the world,” as he puts it in this interview – the ideal location for one of the most significant installations of his recent career. On 26 July, the New Yorker will turn Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Maspalomas into the stage for Gran Spectrum, a large-scale human installation inspired by the colours of LGTBIQA+ flags. It aims to project a global message of freedom, equality and coexistence from the Canary Islands.
This is not just another mass photograph. For Tunick, the work comes as a response to what he considers a particularly delicate moment for LGTBIQA+ rights. “In the United States there is a lot of disinformation coming from the government about LGTBIQA+ people, and that is generating fear and violence against the community,” the artist explains. “Whenever a vulnerable community is misrepresented, misunderstood or lied about, I feel that if I can somehow create a work that draws attention to that situation, it is an honour to accept the invitation to be part of this project.”
More than just an aesthetic work
That commitment turns Gran Spectrum into much more than an aesthetic piece. Tunick describes it as a participatory art action, sitting somewhere between conceptual art and documentary, capable of generating memories, emotions and an international conversation about diversity and human rights. “The work aims to send a positive message to the world,” he states. “The participants and I try to project the light of this great spectrum outwards.”
A volcanic setting like no other
What makes this project stand out is precisely the location. Having worked in cities such as New York, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Vienna, Mexico City and Sydney, Tunick believes Gran Canaria lends a unique meaning to the intervention. “It had been a long time since I worked on a volcanic island,” he recalls. “When I worked in Hawaii, I experienced a very powerful combination of nature, culture and the human body. Something similar happens here. There is a special energy beneath the ground, a living island where the natural elements become part of the experience.”
For the US photographer, the island’s volcanic nature makes Gran Canaria an impossible stage to replicate anywhere else. “Creating a human work on a living island generates a dynamic that can only be understood by taking part in it. I hope everyone who is part of the experience realises that I will do everything I can to create a work that resonates with our time.”
An island of inclusion
The choice of Gran Canaria also ties in with the role the island has played for decades as one of the great European benchmarks for inclusive tourism and the defence of LGTBIQA+ rights. The project is backed by the Gran Canaria “La Isla de Mi Vida” brand, through the Presidency of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, and by Turismo de Islas Canarias, reinforcing the archipelago’s international projection as a region committed to diversity and human rights.
Although the message focuses on the LGTBIQA+ community, Tunick insists that participation is open to absolutely everyone. “We invite everyone to take part. Any gender, any political ideology is welcome. This work aims to confirm the beauty, values and future of the LGTBIQA+ community, as well as its connection with free thinking, art and culture.”
The art of collective effort
The installation will use body paints inspired by the colours of the various community flags to build a large abstract composition made up of hundreds of people. For the artist, the true meaning of the image lies both in the final result and in the collective process needed to create it. “People will have to travel, get up early, completely cover their bodies with paint and work together to create abstract shapes. That collective effort is already a great message in itself.”
Nakedness as a leveller
For more than thirty years, Spencer Tunick has made the human body the main protagonist of his work. For him, collective nudity erases social differences and allows us to speak about identity from a deeply human perspective. “It is incredible how the human body is in constant transformation and how people have the capacity to change freely in a society where the government does not limit that evolution.”
Public space also plays an essential role in his artistic language. “Working with the naked body in public space creates a genuine lightning bolt of energy. For a moment, a collective euphoria appears that only remains alive thanks to the photograph. That frozen image ends up becoming much more than a visual document. What I try to do throughout my career is to capture a moment of collective euphoria in an abstract way.”
What participants can expect
Those who have taken part in Tunick’s installations before often describe the experience as deeply transformative. The photographer hopes the same will happen in Gran Canaria. “The first thing I want is for them to enjoy themselves. To work as quickly as possible so that everyone feels comfortable, but at the same time to take care of every detail to achieve the best possible work.” As in previous projects, each participant will later receive a limited-edition photograph taken during the installation. “It is a gift in exchange for their participation. Being part of something that generates such an intense collective energy is very powerful. The photograph freezes that moment and allows the imagination to complete everything that happened before and after.”
Tunick knows the final photograph will raise questions. “It always happens. People want to know who those people are, where they come from, where they left their clothes or why they were there. And that is precisely the true aim of the project. The participants belong to the LGTBIQA+ community and there are also allies. There are people of all genders, all nationalities. The whole spectrum is represented in this work.”
He then adds a sentence that sums up the significance of having chosen the Canary Islands for this project: “And that spectrum, moreover, will be gathered together on one of the best islands in the world.”
A global symbol from the islands
With Gran Spectrum, Gran Canaria will once again become an international showcase where art, the human body and citizen participation come together to create an image destined to transcend the artistic sphere and become a global symbol of coexistence, diversity and the defence of human rights.
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