rauminhalt_harald bichler
space & content

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More Rewarding Than Any “Business”

As much as I know that it’s bad for me, I find nothing more restorative than sunbathing. Lying down on a sun lounger – on a towel, on the rocks – feels so- mehow productive, as if I’m a plant experiencing photosynthesis.

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Being beside a body of water, the sea, a pool, or

a river, is my main prerequisite; for the contrast

of cooling off, but also as something to look at.

At the beach people mostly face the same direction, like we’re all at the cinema but in place of a screenit’s the horizon line. Looking out over calm waters or crashing waves makes for a grounding sense of perspective, and no matter how many times we see the sun set over the water, it’s always going to be a surprise how beautiful it is. Swimming pools are reflective and sparkling, too, but mostly calm, except for some splashing around; or the cultural legacy in literature and film of swimming pools as a place of luxury, leisure, and probable murder, or at least intrigue.

 

Bathing, whether that means going swimming, to

a sauna, a steam room, a hamam, a hot spring,

or something else entirely, requires us to let time

slow down, as we devote ourselves to resto-

rative leisure. Speaking of life at his villa outside

Ancient Rome, Pliny the Younger once wrote ‘it’s

a good life and a genuine one, which is happy and

honourable, more rewarding than any „business“

can be. You should devote yourself to leisure.’

 

In BADEN, collective Temporary Arrangement explores bathing culture and leisure through a varietyof approaches and dimensions; placing everyday culture, material aesthetics, and symbolic meanings into unexpected contexts. The exhibition considers contemporary expressions of self-care and wellness culture, familiar sights and smells from being by the water — sandcastles, inflatables, dripping swimwear, fingers that look like prunes, the smell of sun cream, and shells that become toys or emblems from a day out. Through their playful and thoughtful visual impressions, Anna Zimmermann, Bettina Willnauer, Lino Gasparitsch, and Klemens Schillinger, consider

the social significance of communal bathing —

particularly in Vienna, with its distinct bathing culturerooted in a desire to democratise leisure.

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The exhibited works oscillate between readymade,

craftsmanship, and artistic intervention. They combine symbolism, everyday culture, and design and are, whenever possible, realised in collaboration with local craftspeople or made by Temporary Arrangement. BADEN doesn’t claim to provide a comprehensive representation of bathing culture, but, rather, a series of fragments, drawn from their experiences and perspectives.

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Text: Billie Muraben