Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf

In Zeiten des Baden und des Nachhalls

In June 2022, IMM alumna Nathalie Brum presented her quadrophonic installation for an empty swimming pool, “In Zeiten des Badens und des Nachhalls” (“In times of bathing and reverberation”), at the Viktoriabad in Bonn as part of the Association of German Architects (BDA) exhibition, Sorge um den Bestand – Zehn Strategien für die Architektur (Taking Care of the Existing Building Stock – Ten Strategies for Architecture).

Completed in 1971, the Viktoriabad indoor swimming pool was designed by architect Goswin Weltring featuring a stained-glass window painting by Gottfried Böhm. Since 2010, the building has stood empty. To create the work, Nathalie, who is both a sound artist and an architect, recorded sounds in the Agrippabad swimming pool in Cologne, above water and below. The work is accompanied by a poem:

In Zeiten des Baden und des Nachhalls.
Nachhall in der Halle.
Halle am Nachmittag.
Nach dem Tag ein Bad. Badezeit.
Nach dem Bad
kein Schall in der Halle mehr.

(In times of bathing and reverberation.
Reverberation in the hall.
The hall in afternoon.
After the day, a bath. Bathing time.
After the bath,
No more noise in the hall.)

Composition: Nathalie Brum
Curation: Nicole Richter (BDA Publicity) and Barbara Schlei (BDA Project Management)
Event Technology: Jürgen Wassong