Artist Statement
Freikörperkultur I is derived from the German Naturists Movement that had it
beginning in the Lebensreform movement and the Wandervogel youth movement
of 1896. Emerging from Steglitz, Berlin, it promoted ideas of fitness and vigour,
while at the same time, doctors of the Natural Healing Movement were using
heliotherapy, treating diseases such as tuberculosis, rheumatism, and scrofula
with exposure to sunlight.
The Freikörperkultur und Lebensreform movement remains active throughout
Europe, Scandinavia, the UK and increasingly Australia. Through out the 20th
century it fostered a significant subculture producing artworks, photography and
publications. The pagan movement is very active in Freikörperkultur too.
Today, there are many clubs, parks and beaches which are clothing optional.
Germans & Scandinavians are typically the most commonly visitors at nude
beaches in France and around Europe.
In Australia, clothing optional areas around Sydney were established from the
1970s that include Lady Bay, Cobblers Beach & Obelisk Beach in Sydney
Harbour and Little Congwong Beach in Botany Bay. There are many small
secluded parts of Pitt Water and the Royal National Park that are clothing
optional.
The ‘Freikörperkultur und Lebensreform Sydney’ project will bring the aesthetic
from the heyday of German Freikörperkultur in the 1930s into a contemporary
Sydney context. It will replicate the styles and ethos of Freikörperkultur in a
contemporary art form involving local people and local places.
Steve Starr