Art Project In Public Bathing Center

In the early winter of 2012, some artist friends in Beijing planned a collective art project called the "Bathing Plan" at a bathing center near 798 Art District, intervening in the space in an artistic way. At that time, many young artists had a rebellious impulse against the art museum system and a desire to break through the white cube space. They hoped to bring the strong critical spirit and guerrilla tactics of the underground state into the real context, create conflicts, produce dramatic effects, turn ordinary daily things into a theater of artistic events, and use sincere personal experiences to narrate, thereby combating the vulgar routines and paradigms.

I have a complex emotional attachment to public bathhouses. Born in the 1980s, I used to go to the public bathhouse with my father at his workplace when I was a child. To be honest, I didn't like the misty and dimly lit place where many elderly people enjoyed soaking in the large pool to relieve their fatigue. I always felt that the place was not very clean, whether it was the rusty water pipes, the mottled tiles, the funny slippers, or the damp towels. And for me as a child, the high temperature and humidity not only made breathing difficult but also created a repugnant odor that permeated the entire space. But every time I went there, I carried a sense of adventurous excitement because that place was not an ordinary place. It was one of the rare scenes that could briefly relieve me from my boring teenage life. At least, its misty atmosphere and indescribable smell were stimulating my imagination. Plus, some of the Jianghu stories circulating in the bathhouse socializing and occasional incidents of people passing out due to oxygen deprivation or breaking their front teeth made it a window for me to peek into the adult world and social corners.

When I faced this project, these memories surfaced again. Of course, the current bathhouse is luxurious, and it is no longer the misty bathhouse of the 1980s. But there are still some indescribable smells that persist, which I think may be an elderly smell. The earliest experience I had about the aging of the body was in the bathhouse where I washed when I was a child. Even if the details of aging were not clearly visible through the mist, the body marinated in time would eventually begin to emit that indescribable sourness. I think it is this smell that makes people resistant to it from their genes. Therefore, the older people get, the more they crave the youthful and full-bodied physique. This is why people have fantasies about rejuvenation and immortality, such as the legend of the Fountain of Youth. If the smooth and round water that can polish stones exists, I believe it can also make excessively pickled bodies glow again.

So I implemented a rejuvenation plan at the bathing center. Before taking a bath, I asked my friend to make me up as an old man, and while soaking in the large pool, the gelatinous material used for the makeup gradually softened and the makeup began to fade. Then, through rubbing and washing, the makeup material was scrubbed off like dead skin, and after cleaning, I was restored to my real young appearance.

I named this performance art piece "Spring", which of course refers to the legend of the fountain of youth, but also implies the meaning of rejuvenation as spring is a symbol of new life and vitality.

One Dream Project