«Vom Baden lernen»
(«Learning from bathing» as well as «Learning from Baden»)
In Baden, bathing has been around as long as the town itself. In fact it is precisely the bathing in hot springs to which the Aargau town owes its very existence and the natural element of water is the source of all significant further transformations that have become so prototypical for Switzerland’s social developments.
With their decelerated Festival «Vom Baden lernen», Isabelle Meiffert and Mirko Winkel take a critical look at this exemplary history of transformation. Following water and the cultural and social practices that surround it, they create a contextual framework within contemporary shifts of values. So «Vom Baden lernen» also means learning from Baden in this case. The town and its baths are currently in the midst of a radical transformation with far-reaching consequences, which require calm reflection. By applying artistic methods, the place itself will undergo a treatment and its history will be situated within a larger social debate.
Over the duration of a year international artists will go into residency in Baden to develop site-specific works with the intention of combining new and old narratives. To this end, the project explores the city's metaphorical and physical construction sites, where questions of ownership of public space and their histories become apparent. During a one-year program, international artists go into residency in Baden to develop site-specific works. The focus will be on combining new narratives with old ones. From the summer of 2021 to the summer of 2022 interactive audio walks, swimmable installations as well as immersive videos will be realized at multiple locations around the various baths and the Limmat.
In addition to a transdisciplinary framework, various collaborations with local universities and institutions will take place. Adapting methods of care, from artistic to therapeutic, the festival dives into an exploration on how mediations on the social and cultural history of the region can guide new approaches for future challenges.
