In this week-long laboratory environment, how can we create a ‘Badehaus’ (bathhouse) within the empty studio?
In the ‘Badehaus’ we sweat, we soak, we rehydrate. We rest alone and publicly together. There is gossip, caretaking, floating, sinking, and napping. We sit in the sauna. We use towels and fans to circulate the hot air. We take an ice cold dip. We feel our skin tingle. We cover our faces in honey. We exhale underwater until we sink to the bottom.
Considering a communal connection to fluids and the spaces which allocate this appropriatness, the ‘Badehaus’ luxuriates a process of swelling, dehydration and attention toward a coming and going of water.
Unable to step in the same water twice, We will gather input on various field trips to watery locations in Vienna, possibilities being: the Badehaus Sargfabrik, Therme Wien, and the Donauinsel. Aquatic bodywork practices will be shared and a playful series of tasks will offer entry points to interact with these liquid spaces. From our collective bodies of wet experiences and field research we will speculate on our own ‘Badehaus’ in the studio and open our doors to the public.
Alex Franz ZehetbauerJen Rosenblit
