Breaking Water with Rui Pimenta & Layne Hinton
This Breaking Water segment highlights Rui Pimenta and Layne Hinton. They are the co-creators of Public Sweat; a fusion of art and sauna culture. They talk about how to project got started and the power of community they’ve discovered throughout the journey.
Can you please introduce yourself and tell us where you work/what you do?
We are Rui Pimenta and Layne Hinton, the Artistic Directors and Co-curators for Art Spin.
Since 2009 our organization has been deeply involved in presenting contemporary art, from a diverse range of artistic disciplines, in a manner that emphasizes accessibility to as varied an audience as possible, including people who might not normally visit galleries or museums. For many, these more traditional spaces for experiencing art can feel intimidating and uninviting so it was a guiding priority for Art Spin to present programming that was accessible while still being thoughtful and engaging in its curation. At the heart of what we do is an exploration of what constitutes public art and the ever evolving pursuit to find new and exciting ways to expand and reimagine the meaning of public art.
Could you tell us about how Public Sweat came to be?
Art Spin is perhaps best known for its curated bicycle led art tours, where we lead mass groups, between 300 to 400 people, through specially designed routes to visit all manners of commissioned art programming presented in unique and alternative spaces. Some past examples have included decommissioned schools and churches, industrial spaces, a self-storage facility and even an underground parking garage. We quickly discovered that the physically engaging aspect of this model in the form of cycling allowed our audiences to feel a stronger sense of participation and connection to the artwork we were presenting them with.
In the case of Public Sweat, we were inspired by the equally embodied and participatory act of having a sauna or sweat bathing as we like to call it, serving as a unique context for exposing people to art. In general, one’s interaction with art can all too often privilege the mind and overlook the importance of also involving the body as a way to create new entry points to experience and interpret art. The other important aspect of Public Sweat is how social the act of sweat bathing is, something we see as a vital condition for creating a more stimulating environment for engaging with art.
Public Sweat’s sauna village is home to five sweat bathing structures, each designed and built by a different artist or collective, to function both as an art installation and a communal hot space. The saunas range in size and design, each offering its own unique experience. Guests can look forward to using hot spaces that incorporate features like wood, granite floors, felt and metal exteriors, skylights and digital art. We have an artist-designed greenhouse for resting, hammocks, a campfire, and a cold rinse station to complement hot and cold thermal cycles. We also have an indoor lounge area where visitors can enjoy a variety of artworks related to diverse bathing cultures, listen to live musical performances and relax with friends.
Photos by Priam Thomas
How has the experience been received by the community so far?
We have been deeply moved by the overwhelmingly positive response to Public Sweat. It feels like we have really touched a nerve with people through this project and that beyond the physical benefits of sweat bathing there’s been a very strong appreciation for the social connection Public Sweat has facilitated. A key goal for this project was that it feel approachable to a broad audience at a time when divisiveness and identity based fragmentation seems to be dominating our cultural landscape. In the time we’ve been open we are incredibly pleased to have witnessed the significant diversity of people who have come together to participate in this project.
We see Public Sweat as a social experiment of sorts where we’ve created a unique setting for bringing together and setting up the possibility for interpersonal connection and communication. While it’s easy to focus on getting a good sweat going, we encourage participants to dive a little deeper into the ideas that artists are presenting through their installations and use this as a talking point with strangers in the saunas.
Where can people learn more about this experience of connecting with water?
Learn all about our Public Sweat project at https://www.publicsweat.com/
Do you have anything else that you’d like to share about your work, your connection to water, or how we can encourage people to join the movement for a swimmable, drinkable, fishable future?
Over the years we have developed a strong interest in our waterfront as a result of having presented various projects around the lakeshore. We have often felt compelled to work in this part of the city in the hopes of helping to overcome a sort of psychological barrier that seems to exist in Toronto between the city and the lake.
Our decision to locate Public Sweat at the Harbourfront Centre was not accidental. There is a deep and meaningful relationship between sweat bathing and bodies of water that can be found all over the world. Even if people are not able to access the harbour for a cold plunge to cool down after the sauna portion of their thermal cycle, there is something about the visual connection to Lake Ontario that has symbolic value, as well as being visually satisfying.
Clif Family Foundation is proud to support hundreds of organizations that are working tirelessly to strengthen our food system, enhance equitable community health outcomes, and protect the places we play by being stewards of our environment and natural resources. Their desire is to leave the world a better place for our children.
