Several hundred volunteers recently posed naked on a glacier in Switzerland, to raise awareness about climate change. New York artist Spencer Tunick, who has staged photo shoots of nude gatherings in cities around the world, teamed up with the environmental activist group Greenpeace to immortalize a "living sculpture" of the six hundred people atop the retreating Aletsch glacier.

The Great Aletsch is the largest and longest glacier in Europe, and forms part of a region in southwestern Switzerland that was named a United Nations Natural World Heritage Site in 2001. The site, which was enlarged this year, is situated in the Bernese Alps and consists of mountainous terrains that harbor a variety of ecosystems and a precious diversity of plant and animal species. The area as a whole, and the Aletsch Glacier in particular, is highly threatened by climate change.

According to Pro Natura, the conservation non-profit organization that runs the Aletsch Ecological Center, since the last ice age some 11,000 years ago, the glacier has been slowly retreating. But, there have also been times when it advanced. For example, in 1860 the glacier was 1.8 miles longer than it is now and about 650 feet higher. Today, due to the clearly visible effects of climate change, the Aletsch glacier is retreating at an alarming rate, losing 50 meters or around 165 feet a year. At that rate, not only the Aletsch but also most of the world’s glaciers are predicted to disappear by 2080.

By photographing the large assembly of naked people on the Alestch, Tunick said he aimed to draw a link between the human body and the glacier, and to highlight the vulnerability of both in the face of climate change. Members of Greenpeace organized the event: they recruited the six hundred participants as volunteers through their website, negotiated with local authorities, and managed the logistics of the photo shoot. The volunteers came mainly from across Switzerland, but some traveled from neighboring countries to take part in the mass installation art.

Vincent Donzé, a journalist for the Swiss newspaper Le Matin, described his experience as a volunteer. Tunick and his team of six assistants, the organizers from Greenpeace and the six hundred volunteers hiked up for several hours to reach the Aletsch. At an altitude of around 7545 feet, the volunteers stripped and, at Tunick’s command, took up different poses: standing by the edge of the glacier, standing spread out across the ice, or lying down and huddled together. They made use of slippers and pillows provided by Greenpeace to guard against the cold as they walked or lay on the glacier, and the air temperature hovered at around 10° Celsius or 50° Fahrenheit.

Another journalist for Le Matin reported that Greenpeace paid Tunick more than 20,000 Swiss francs, about $16,600, a sum that covers fees for the artist and his six assistants, and buys half of the rights for the photographs, which will be used for a Greenpeace publicity campaign in the near future. The artist will also sell his pictures to art dealers for thousands or possibly tens of thousands of dollars.

Reflecting on the costs of mounting such an eco-artistic project - the time, effort and money involved - raises the question: how effective was it? You might argue that the aim of raising awareness about climate change was reached, because the story of the six hundred naked people on a melting glacier made international news, featuring, for example, on the BBC and in major American and European newspapers. Or you might wonder what percentage of those who saw or read reports on the event had previously been unaware of climate change.

In other words, what kinds of response did the reports and the accompanying media photos incite? One reader, Jean-Pierre, wrote to a Swiss newspaper asking whether the impact of the project was significant enough to justify the energy consumed and the emissions produced, before, during and after the photo shoot. He doubted that Tunick and the volunteers had paused to consider the energy and the CO2 expended in the process.

These arguments and others lead us to ponder the more general issue of the role art plays in the green movement. I believe art can play a powerful role in furthering awareness and encouraging action on the various environmental challenges we are faced with. The story of 600 naked people on a Swiss glacier has caused a stir in the media, and it doesn’t end there. The resulting nude photos will drive the Greenpeace publicity campaign, and will be featured in galleries and museums, thereby reaching a wide audience.

We need not seek to quantify the contribution of a particular work of art, for we would be missing the point entirely. Eco-art and art for the environment should be vigorously but judiciously promoted. So, while we cultivate the development of green art, we must also be wary of vacuous gimmicks and inane publicity stunts that masquerade as creativity with conscience.

Image source: 24 Heures

Greenpeace

BBC

Le Matin