SWEAT: TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS SPA

SWEAT was a "temporary autonomous spa" that had several edition indoors at Roodkapje Rotterdam and 1646 in 2014. In 2015, it was moved for the first time to the outdoors, to the wilderness that is rural Friesland, for the first Triënnale van Beetsterzwaag, a manifestation taking place once in three years in the township of Beetsterzwaag, home to the art space Kunsthuis SYB (NL).

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Here, the geodesic sauna dome went back to the place where it was made. In the 2014 residency at Kunsthuis SYB, I crafted the wooden and copper structure of the dome by hand, after which a cover of linnen fused with natural rubber, turmeric and cinnamon was added.
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According to the artist, the gatherings of bodies are a fundamental tool of resistance: a means to explore the subtleness and impermanence that permeates all life outside of governance. A way of being together, that since the foreclosure of public bathhouses has seemed to vanish, along with natural reflection of having a body and seeing other bodies - not in stylized magazines and Hollywood movies, but as naked, sweaty kin that we grow up with, and share activities of leisure, hygiene and life with.

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The counter-industrialization motive of this work (the wish to return to "communal bathing") is hybridized with themes of shamanic healing in heated spaces. On a publication the artist made during the project, we can read that "In many cultures across the world the sauna is used as a tool for healing, creating a social atmosphere, or a space to meet with spirit life (1), and that "it is said that the word "Shaman" literally means "to heat oneself" (2). And this is what the project offered, a place to heat oneself, together.

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The nomadic project hosted international artists and body-workers, in intimate and communal encounters with participating audiences. It was a mobile & heated community space, where naked bodies came to rest and rejuvenate, inspired in design by the work of Utopian 60's architect Buckminster Fuller.

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Editions:

• SWEAT 1: Let’s Sweat!, opening event, Roodkapje Rotterdam‍
• SWEAT 2: Harmonic Hologram, performance event, Roodkapje Rotterdam
• SWEAT 3: New Age Activism, performance event, Roodkapje Rotterdam‍
• SWEAT 4: As Above So Below, performance event, Roodkapje Rotterdam
• SWEAT 5: We Meet at the Styx, performance event, Roodkapje Rotterdam
• SWEAT 6: Meet Your Maker, Museumnacht event, 1646 The Hague
• SWEAT 7: TEMPORARY AUTONOMOUS SPA, Triënnale van Beetsterzwaag | Kunsthuis SYB

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^{(1) Shamanic Voices by Joan Halifax, 1979, E.P. Dutton, N.Y., p.3
(2) SWEAT by Mikkel Aaland, 1978, Capra Press, Santa Barbara.}

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