India Roper-Evans
I discovered Stadtbad Lichtenberg while searching for art deco/modernist buildings in Lichtenberg. On my way to Berlin, I stopped via Riga, Latvia, the city is famous for it’s art nouveau architecture and museum. I had 7 hours in Riga on my flight over and spent most of it wandering the streets discovering these beautiful gems and facades, upon entering the art deco museum in Riga, I found a photo studio set up with appropriate matching costumes and hats, where I posed myself for portraits. This set the premise to finding art nouveau buildings in East Berlin, in the area of Lichtenberg. The Stadtbad was built in 1919 but only opened its doors in 1928 due to structural faults and bureaucracy. It was the first public baths to open after World War I. It was bombed badly during World War II where lots of the glass structure was shattered. After World War II the Red Army wanted to reacquisition the women’s pools and use it as potato storehouse, luckily this was prevented by staff members of the baths. Due to the damage it sustained in the war, lots of the buildings plans and integral documents went missing. This gave me the idea to fill in the missing history and ask. What if? What if the Red Army did manage to repurpose it as a potato storage warehouse, would it have remained as it is now, derelict but possible functioning futuristic public baths? Unfortunately I could not get access to the main pool areas of the baths as it has been taken over by a Berlin property management and rented out for events and commercial shoots for a minimum of €500. By luck, I managed to enter the hallways of the building but only equipped with my phone camera. I tried once again to sneak my way in, this time equipped with my camera and potato sacks in hand, but alas was stopped by one of the agents and told to exit the premises. My initial plan was to make a short film in the main pool area with models wearing potato sacks, wandering in and out of the changing rooms, holding potatoes, a reference also to Marina Abramovic’s image of her peeling potatoes. As this was not possible due the capitalistic tendencies of modern day Berlin, I used the small amount of images I had and projected them in the Lichtenberg studios with myself as the potato sack model. The image below is the result. I would like to return to this building in the Summer and continue the project with possible funding from the district of Lichtenberg to complete my potato peeling, futuristic story in this amazing concrete expressionism of a place.
