Summary
Brandenburg, August 2023.

Project Text
/ Pictures available for purchase.

Like Magritte's "This is not a pipe", a group of 20 artists will work over a virtual public bath that is, in many different layers, not a bath. The "virtual-existence" is a verbal contradiction itself: The virtuality announces an emerging force contained in packets of digits that allows us to experience the existence of a third entity: the bath. Meanwhile, the existence of the bath is contradictory: since its closing in the early 90s, the location lost its primary function: to perform that social entanglement between sports, entertainment, and social loisir, the bathing.

Brandenburg is located 1h by train from Berlin, the place where I live, tho I never thought of visiting. Coming from a larger city, I had a very strong impression of this at first sight. Brandenburg holds a unique blend of many different eras, having a modern look, next to old Prussian architecture, and a DDR vibe that jumps into the eye by its contrast. Is it Brandenburg City, representative of the state where is located? Is the city a scaled sample of a larger reality? Can be this applied between the Stadtbad and the city itself?

After the project's Kick-off meeting, I had a walk to "dive" into this concrete swimming pool called Brandenburg. What aspects could I recognize from the abandoned Stadtbad around the city? What relations can be built between a city (or its image), an artist, and a virtual space? In the next 3 months, we will work with a group of 20 artists to drop our ideas into this creative pool. Stay tune!

About the Residency

04.06.23: Sunday kick-off of the STADTBAD laboratory project 20 // TWENTY. Together with 20 artists and scientists from Iran, Belgium, Great Britain, Finland, Switzerland, Chile, Lebanon, and Germany who joined on-site and digitally we are now beginning an attempt to explore, design, question, and experience digital-virtual spaces.

In the virtual STADTBAD, you can now visit 10 new swimming pools, each of which will be publicly enlivened by a tandem in the coming months.

A complex backend was developed for the actors, with which 2D, 3D, multimedia, artistic elements, room design methods, light, and sound can now be carried out.

The artists leave regular status reports on the respective White Board in each pool to give insights into the process to the public.

Get to know the artists: https://www.stadtbad.eu/twenty
Visit the TWENTY spaces: www.virtualbathing.eu