photo: Megan Bruinen, “This All Happened Today, Tomorrow and a Year Ago”

“In 1996, Chris Kraus hosted the ‘Chance Event’ at Whiskey Pete’s hotel & casino in the scorching hot Nevada Desert. The Chance event was announced as being a ‘three-day philosophy rave’, during which visual artists would converge with philosophers, poets and musicians. The Chance event was conceptualized based on Jean Baudrillard’s findings on ‘chance’, and they therefore fittingly chose the casino to build the event in and around.”

Megan Bruinen & Nadine Renee Borst occupied the 2020 residence of het resort, the former gay sauna ‘t Pakhuisje, during August 2020. This summer took place in a time when, induced by a Global pandemic, our society was forced into a constant state of change. The Summer Sauna Take Over therefore revolved around the theme of ‘transition’. Transforming ‘t Pakhuisje into a platform for conversing with the current state of society, they decided to invite fellow artists, musicians and researchers to join them in a month-long investigation into - and conversation about this transitional period.

During the month of August, Megan and Nadine welcomed nine different artists, who each passed by for a few days to interact with the space of the former gay sauna and the theme of transition. These different perspectives were on show in the last two days of the Summer Take over, in the final exhibition: ‘Safe Crash’. During ‘Safe Crash’, ‘t Pakhuisje was transformed into a monument of transition: a space where, through a variety of visual, research-focused, performative and sound-based works, a collective approach towards dealing with transition was shown. The invited artists included Indigo Deijmann, Nadia van Essen, Marrit Meinema, Anastasija Kiake, Mans Weghorst, Heike de Wit, Sam Reith, Annick van Vliet and Cara Farnan. Below, you’ll find a brief overview of Safe Crash and details of individual artworks.

1. Nadine Renee Borst, Video Still of “Back When I was Calm and Seemingly Solid”

2. Mans Weghorst, “Sculpture”

3. Overview of 3rd Floor

4. Megan Bruinen, “This All Happened Today, Tomorrow and a Year Ago”

5. Indigo Deijmann, “Untitled (Indigo)” & “Untitled (cat)”, multimedia installation

6. Anastasija Kiake, Video Still of “Prologue”

7. Reading Table, including written works by Annick van Vliet, Cara Farnan and Heike de Wit

8. “Dear Reader: Bodies in a Bathhouse”, contextual reader by Heike de Wit (Edition of 5)

9. Safe Crash exhibition zine, Graphic Design by Sam Velenne Reith (Riso Printed, Edition of 50)

10. Details of the “Water Archive” installation by Nadia van Essen and Megan Bruinen / Listen to the recording of the installation piece (shown on the 27t and 28th of August) here.

11. Cara Farnan, “Responses to a Request” performance / Listen to the recording of the performance “Responses to a Request” by Cara Farnan (performed on the 28th of August during Safe Crash), here.

12. Nadine Renee Borst, “Back when I was Calm and Seemingly Solid” (detail)

PREVIOUSLY

OPEN CALL for SAUNA SUMMER TAKE-OVER

Who: art initiatives, art collectives, artists, curators or observers

Deadline: 25/06/2020  (The winning plan will be announced no later than 01/07/2020)

Take–over period: 15/07/2020 – 30/08/2020

Want to organize? Want to curate? This summer we’ll give away our building along with €1000 to the best, most exciting summer take-over. Submit your plan for a 7 week take-over of any form or discipline. Only one will be selected.

This project is made possible by Mondrian Fund with funding coming from corona-fundings by the dutch government.

We want to directly forward this money to you artists out there with these OPEN CALLS for two extra projects that het resort is initiating this summer! Don’t be shy to sign up for our open calls Infiltrating Public Space & The Summer Sauna Take Over.