spuma—scūm—stroma

The performance  spuma — scūm — stroma, developed for the CURRENT festival, uses the Luftbad Verein in the former health resort in Degerloch as a setting and starting point. Based on the text “Born of Foam” from the book “The Symbiotic Planet” by Lynn Margulis, the artists examine the symbiotic interplay of microorganisms, humans, plants and animals in their performance and question the illusion of the autonomously functioning individual. Visitors are invited to linger in the installation and, together with the artists, take a bath in the invisible — an air bath: with every breath — in and out. Not only does oxygen flow in, but with it invisible collectives of microbes, co-inhabitants and co-creators. The air incorporated into the foam gives the festival's theme a tactile materiality. As a collective The Symbiotic Approach, Julia Hainz & Carmen Westermeier develop and investigate artistic methods to reveal site-specific power relations. Appropriating the concept of symbiosis, the two artists transfer it into their performative practice; the symbiosis of the two bodies is conveyed through various, including digital, media. 

Performative camera: Sabrina Schray  
Costume design: Simone Körner