Within the framework of his centenary, Alhambra beers has promoted an unprecedented artistic intervention in Andalusia. The brand has collaborated with Spencer Tunick, an American artist recognized for its photographic facilities of naked crowds, to create the work “Portrait Alhambra 1925”, an installation that brought together about a thousand volunteers, naked and covered with green paint, in an olive grove on the outskirts of Granada.
The resulting image – even a pending presentation – has been conceived as a tribute to aesthetics, the natural environment and the Andalusian roots of Alhambra beers, born in Granada in 1925. The choice of green color, which completely dyed the bodies of the participants, responds both to the iconography of the brand, its ‘naked’ bottle Alhambra
“I have always wanted to use green paint. I have been with this idea for 15 years: to find a visual way of bringing bodies closer to nature.”Spencer Tunick explained during the day, marked by the Andalusian Sun and a precise logistics to lead the almost thousand participants with megaphone from a hill.
The artistic action has also been the first one made by Tunick in Andalusia and one of the few in which he uses body painting. “Green has been historically used by artists to create utopian landscapes that combine surrealism and fantasy”he added.
The volunteers, arriving from 25 countries, aged between 20 and 85, lived a choral and transformative experience, according to some of them. “The beautiful of this installation is to feel human, all the same in our differences”Petri and Heidi commented, a Finnish marriage. “An experience that is recorded forever”said Jesús Rosado, who has participated in all Tunick facilities in Spain.
The installation is part of the cultural actions promoted by Mahou San Miguel, a group to which Alhambra beers belong, to reinforce the brand’s link with art, time and territory. “It is a celebration of our Andalusian identity and the philosophy without haste that has guided us for a hundred years”says Emmanuel Pouey, General Marketing Director of Mahou San Miguel.
The final image, which will be presented soon, seeks to transcend the ephemeral of the action as a testimony of a brand that has made care, aesthetics and roots a badge. The installation adds to other company initiatives such as the Alhambra Emerging Art Beer Prize or the promotion of new flamenco sticks such as the “Sosegá”, whose musical experimentation has had the participation of artists such as Ana Mena or Dellafuente.
“The bottle without label, the body without clothes, art without rush. It is the same idea expressed from different languages”summary from the company.
The day, which consisted of three photographic sessions, was an experience that questions the contemporary relationship with the body, the landscape and time.
The final result will be a new piece in the artistic universe of Spencer Tunick and a visual symbol of the centenary of Alhambra beers.
