2016.09.27 Independent
Paris is set to have an
official nudist park after officials voted in favour of the plans on Monday night.
The park could open as soon as next summer, AFP reports, and two main wooded areas on the outskirts of the city, the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes, are being considered as possible options.
Naturism is popular among some Parisians but public nudity is forbidden unless taking place in specified areas, and can carry a penalty of €15,000 (£13,050) or up to a year in prison.
Paris currently has a swimming pool on the 12th arrondissement that allows nudity three evenings a week, but many naturists have been asking for larger spaces in which to roam free of clothes.
“There were 150 of us there on Wednesday night,” Denis Porquet, a member of the Nudist Association of Paris (ANP) told 20 Minutes. The 372-people strong group is often forced to hire other venues such as bowling clubs and spas to be able to host private events for its membership.
Performance artist Poppy Jackson climbed on top of Toynbee Studios in London and sat there naked for four hours on two separate days. She was ‘investigating questions relating to temporality, the body in site, representation and gender through consideration of the use of the body in performance as an activist practice’. Jackson previously called for donations of menstrual blood for a project.
Photographer Erica Simone wondered what the world would feel like naked ‘without the empowering or disempowering effect of clothing’ so decided to find out in New York.
Performance artist Milo Moire protested against the New Year’s Eve sex attacks in Cologne by standing naked in the city holding a placard reading: ‘Respect us! We are not fair game even when naked!’
Deborah de Robertis was arrested yet again for a nude stunt in front of Manet’s ‘Olympia’ in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. The performance artist lay down naked in front of the painting to mimic the pose of the famed nude portrait of a prostitute.
Photographer Mathilde Grafstrom takes pictures of women who don’t have traditional model looks to combat negative self-image. Her Copenhagen exhibition was closed down by police in December, prompting complaints.
The proposal for a nudist park was put forward by the Green Party of Paris and Deputy Mayor Bruno Julliard said the new space would likely be “near a lake, in a regulated setting so that there is no threat to public order,” AFP reported.
