Arad, Israel, September 29, 2021: www.TheDeadSeaMuseum.com is excited to announce the public opening of a virtual exhibition on October 17 with internationally renowned artist Spencer Tunick that, for the first time, showcases his full range of artworks from the Dead Sea . The exhibit includes the Tunick’s public installation at Mineral Beach in 2011 where he enlisted 1,200 Israelis and travelers from across the globe to pose nude in and around the salty waters. The artist’s showcase event will also include individual portraits shot from across the Dead Sea, as well as never before seen photography from the Ein Gedi and Ein Bokek Waterfalls where a group of 30 women participated. The exhibit will culminate with group works from the original installation site at Metzuke Dragot that was weathered down over the years. Carefully photographed, the area is no longer accessible due to sinkholes. Sea levels have since declined drastically leaving the region unrecognizable from the beauty that it once held.
The exhibition is a collaboration between Tunick and Ari Leon Fruchter, social entrepreneur who has been working with the artist for 30 years, and was instrumental in facilitating the virality of Tunick’s 2011 and 2016 Dead Sea installations.
Ari Leon Fruchter said “I am excited that Spencer Tunick has decided to share his entire Dead Sea works for the first time to the public and has chosen TheDeadSeaMuseum.com to host his exhibition. With international travel being limited, TheDeadSeaMuseum.com platform allows anyone in the world the ability to enjoy this museum exhibition free of charge and reaffirms the need to rejuvenate this historically significant body of water that was once home to Tunick’s beautifully documented art. With Spencer’s support and upcoming trip to Israel we plan to hold another live art installation and inaugurate the founding of a physical museum for the Dead Sea in the city of Arad that will also help us preserve and restore this wonder.”
Spencer Tunick said, “Everything you see in my 2011 photographs is gone. The people in this installation moved on, their bodies and minds ten years older, with the one constant being the landscape- the minerals, the rocks and sea. Yet, today, the setting of my 2011 works are entirely unrecognizable. I have remained deeply connected and concerned about the Dead Sea and an hoping to help make sure it remains.
The Dead Sea Museum was launched initially as a virtual museum as a collaboration between Fruchter and the architects Neuman Hayner Associates, Ikonospace, and Kunstamatrix. It’s first exhibition featured the winners from an international photo competition for the Dead Sea that drew over 15 thousand submissions from over 40 countries, with Tunick as one of the judges. For more information and to view photos of Spencer Tunick’s 2011 installation, please see https://www.thedeadseamuseum.com.
