Röstånga Bygdebastu
Socially engaged public art intervention to create a co-owned mobile village sauna, Events programme, Publication
Role: Lead artist, engagement and producer design and build, writer and editor publication
Context: Artist residency, commissioned by Röstånga Utvecklings Bolag and funded by Goethe Institute Sweden.
With Graham Stanford (build) and Jula Osten (graphic design).
Excerpt from Bastubladet: Editorial
DEAR READER
Last summer, I was invited to Röstånga in order to create a public participatory process for the village to build a community-owned mobile sauna. It was too bold and unusual a proposition to refuse.
We worked for three weeks outdoors in one of the most public spaces in the village. It was a real collaborative effort. People shared their time and expertise, beers, food and great conversation. Nearly all the material (and lots of great advice) was sourced from local independent businesses.
The bydgebastu is finished and to everyones delight (and my relief), it actually does what it says on the tin: it moves and it’s hot. So the next question is: What else can it do? Because I am a believer in the perspective and wisdom gained through embodied experience, I asked local people to share their personal and cultural experiences of sweat bathing.
Many common themes surfaced in these conversations. Everyone commented on the significance of the sauna (hamam, bastu) space being other to the everyday: spatially, temporally and socially. They cross a pier or a dressing room to get there. They leave their phone, their clothes and their daily life behind. They take and make their own time to sweat and relax. And they describe a special kind of connection that can happen in the sauna, with their own thoughts, a family member or a stranger.
I was also fascinated by the descriptions of sauna customs and rules of engagement; how they are particular to each culture, and how each family or group of bathers also negotiates their own. Tapio and Marja built a community away from home via their sauna culture, Magnus connects to his Turkish father-in-law through the rituals of the hamam and Fia’s family created their own bastu ritual in memory of her brother.
I am curious to see what kind of culture and customs will develop around the little bygdebastu.
Today the Bygdebastu has over 30 members in the village and keeps on rolling every winter from home to home.