Isabelle Meiffert, Mirko Winkel

Vom Baden lernen

The Social Practices of Bathing

People have been bathing in Baden, the Swiss namesake of England’s Bath, for as long as the town in the canton of Aargau has existed. The immersion in the hot springs, one might say, is its raison d’être, and the element of water has been the point of departure for all major subsequent changes, which prototypically reflect social developments in Switzerland more generally.

With the slow-paced festival Vom Baden lernen, Isabelle Meiffert and Mirko Winkel subject this exemplary history of transformation to critical scrutiny. They trace the water’s branched channels and its cultural and social traditions and set them in interrelation to the ongoing evolution of values. The book is released in conjunction with the festival and documents the scholarly contributions and site-specific works of art—interactive audio walks, walk-through and swim-through installations, and immersive videos set up at various locations around the baths and along the River Limmat.

The book gathers works of art by Alfredo Jaar, Bianca Kennedy, Fabian Knecht, the collective Arpha, Susanne Lorenz, Sabian Baumann, Corinn Gerber, and others as well as a dedicated series of photographs by Georg Aerni that records traces of the thermal springs’ history throughout the towns of Baden and Ennetbaden.

With an introduction by Isabelle Meiffert and Mirko Winkel, and an essay by Jochen Gimmel.