Cristian Quinteros Soto

Nikebadet 

Konstakademin - 2021

For The Royal institute of arts graduation exhibition at Konstakademin , I wanted to work site-specific, which meant that I connected my practice with the history of Nikehallen and the Academy of Arts. When I worked with collective nudity, swimming pools, saunas, etc., it felt natural to reflect on the closed bath Strömbadet and connect it to both distance and purification, which was relevant then with the pandemic. Nikehallen became the Nikebath (Nikebadet) because the original statue of Nike is a figurehead (Louvren), which made me want to bring her back to the water as a symbolic gesture of artistic movement.

I borrowed the swimming lines from a municipal swimming hall that had closed down due to covid regulations. In addition to that, I’ve worked with the scent of chlorine, birch and burnt wood along with the sound of water and the sound of people to create a feeling of the pool's atmosphere.