Naked in New York

Imagine New York's art connoisseurs dressed for the gallery round on a beautiful Sunday in May. Then imagine naked, pink human bodies coming out of a steaming sauna. Now cross-pollinate the connoisseurs with the sauna bathers and place this strange experiment in New York. This is the scene of Stefan Randström's documentary, where Finnish architect and artist Pia Lindman gives the visitors of New York's Museum of Modern Art a bath in a real Finnish sauna. Pia Lindman is studying in New York. From thousands of young artists she was chosen to present her art at the annex of MoMa. She decided to build a real Finnish sauna where the museum visitors could bathe for free. 'I will never come out naked!', says one of the gallery guests. But soon he's out there with a bare bum much to his own and others' surprise and the artist throws a bucket of cold water over him. 'Naked in New York' shows the embarrassed visitor who wants to shut his eyes, the visitor who just stares at the naked bodies and the brave American who actually wants to try out the steaming sauna. The documentary as well as the sauna performance itself deals with the question of nudity. Why is it so hard for Americans to show their naked body and how come the Finns think it's so natural to be naked with total strangers in a sauna? Stefan Randström is a Finn now living in Toronto, Canada.