Blarney in the buff as naked truth of more than 1,100 bodies goes on display

OVER 1,100 people who stripped off for American photo artist Spencer Tunick at Blarney Castle as part of last year’s Cork Midsummer…

OVER 1,100 people who stripped off for American photo artist Spencer Tunick at Blarney Castle as part of last year’s Cork Midsummer Festival will discover today what their endeavours have produced when the work goes on display in Cork and on the web.

Cork Midsummer Festival Director William Galinsky confirmed Tunick’s work from Blarney will be on display on the artist’s website from today.

Those who took part in the project will be able to collect their copies of the work at the Triskel Arts Centre. Those who participated in Tunick’s Dublin installation last year will also receive souvenir photographs from today.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority said it would post limited edition photographs of the installations at South Wall and the Treasury Holdings Alto Vetro Building to all who took part in the photo shoots in the capital.

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Every participant, both in Cork and Dublin, would receive two prints, the docklands authority said.

Mr Galinsky said: “Spencer Tunick is world renowned, so for a festival like the Cork Midsummer Festival to secure him to do an installation here was a great coup – we were punching well above our weight and everyone who participated in the project can, I think, be very proud . . . It was a very euphoric sort of moment where people celebrated the shared humanity of the naked body because very often the only photographs we see of large groups of people naked are photographs of famine victims or of people in concentration camps.”

Mr Galinsky was speaking in advance of this year’s Cork Midsummer Festival, which starts on June 13th and runs for 16 days with close to 50 acts, with events taking place in venues around Cork city. He said attractions for children included the AIB Street Performance World Championship on June 13th and 14th in Fitzgerald Park.

He listed theatrical shows by Corcadorca and Hammergrin that promised to be “very exciting”.

Cork born playwright Raymond Scannell will return with his play Mimic, while new theatre from Scotland will include Traverse Theatre’s production of David Greig’s Midsummer.

For full details see: www.corkmidsummer.com

Spencer Tunick’s new site is at: www.tunickireland.com

Barry Roche

Barry Roche

Barry Roche is Southern Correspondent of The Irish Times