Letten Venus — wachgeküsst

* 1—4 performance panels 'schamhafte (shameful) Venus' and 'Venus impudica' | * 4—6-silhouettes of the Venus sculpture in the Badi Letten, which served as a model for the body drawing | * 7 script plan *

scenario for «Letten Venus»

In the narrow tunnel access to the Letten-Badi, I meet the spectators* who have returned from their tour to the inter­ventions, instal­lations and perfor­mances of the other parti­ci­pating artists*. In the narrow tunnel, they are holding themselves along the walls. The 'real' Letten-Badi (bath) guests have to go through the narrow corridor, which the audiences form, those arriving by bike have to get off and push their bikes to park them in the bike racks on the other side of the tunnel. I am dressed in a man’s bathrobe, which I have pulled over my head, thus standling headless in the tunnel, not being able to see anything. The encounters in the tunnel between the audience and the real Letten-Badi guests are sounding to my ears sometimes confron­ta­tional. I give the spectators* panels with inscriptions, which later they will take visibly along with them through the Letten-Badi: VENUS IMPUDICA... VENUS PUDICA ... SHAMELESS VENUS ... SHAMELESS VENUS... and a 'hit-list' with levels of addiction on drugs/​anaes­t­hetics, 1. HEROIN 2. COCOAIN 3. BARBITURATES 4. METHADON 5. ALCOHOL 6. KETAMINE to 20th CATH.

In the first half of the tour, with the bathrobe pulled over my head, the spectators have to navigate me on the pre-planned route through the 'Badi' which I describe to them. This tour in the ‘Letten-Badi’h­appens because of the sculpture by Hans Aesch­bacher. In the run-up to this action I photo­graphed the Venus from six different angles, then traced its outlines: Hili Leimgruber drew eight different outline forms with black ink on my body. In the second part of the ‘Badi’ route when I take off my bathrobe I am 'only' dressed with black underpants and this body painting.

A subtext, which I have prepared for this performance, guides and accom­panies me. It is performed in portions by the actor Andreas Storm. The chorus TAKE ME TO YOUR VENUS, from the Lady Gaga song "Venus", I am speaking like a mantra in between. The spoken sentences from the subtext explain to the audience* and not only to them, actually to everyone and everything in this place, why we are gathering here. The desti­nation is the sculpture «Venus de Six-Fours, 1955», formed from lava stone by Hans Aesch­bacher. The tour gives the frame for a tangible encounter with the sculpture, which has been standing in the bathing place 'Letten-Badi' for a long time, actually ignored by the bathing guests. But it is here and it is also used: laid out bath towels with sunbathers entwine around it, bags lean against its pedestal, sometimes the heads of the bathers rest on it. The subtext also deals with the origin of the term Venus, including 'Venus impudica' and 'Venur pudica' and facts about the Hottentot-Venus Sarah Baartmann are also mentioned. The text is about exclusion and being exposed. Our joint tour through the 'Badi' is also an oppor­tunity to bring to the surface the sunken dramas, stories, memories and politics of one of the most brutal fixer scenes in Europe, which took place in the 1990s, opposite the 'Letten-Badi', on the other side of the canal.


The 'Badi' is crowded with bathers on bath towels or deck chairs: They sunbathe, read, have headphones in their ears, smoke, eat ice cream and chat. Me and the spectators, we are strangers in this 'Badi' place, we are aliens: the spectators because they are dressed and me because my 'outfit' doesn't quite match the 'Badi' place? We more or less interrupt the unwritten rules of the bathing game of such a place like 'Letten-Badi. A temporary imposition for everyone, for the bathers as well as for the spectators who go along with me. We all expose ourselves. Are we all momen­tarily exposed to ridicule? To which movement do we belong to with our panels? We, the spectators of the tour and I are asked what we are demons­trating for.

script + subtext + panels   ...  'Venus de Six-Fours' and 'Letten Venus'