Nathalie Brum - Viktoriabad

In Zeiten des Badens und des Nachhalls

Afternoons echo through the tiled hall.
The sound of water has gone, but the resonance remains.
Bathing hours once marked the rhythm of this space—
Now, only reverberation lingers.
After the bath,
no more sound in the hall.

The sound installation In Zeiten des Baden und des Nachhalls is a four-channel sound installation created for the opening of the exhibition Caring for the Existing: Ten Strategies for Architecture, presented by the BDA (Association of German Architects) at the Viktoriabad in Bonn.

The indoor pool was completed in 1971, based on a design by architect Goswin Weltring and featuring a stained glass mural by Gottfried Böhm. Since 2010, the building has stood empty.

For this installation, sound artist and trained architect Nathalie Brum recorded underwater and above-water sounds from the Agrippabad swimming pool in Cologne. These sonic fragments—filtered, shifted, recontextualized—are projected into the dormant space, reactivating its memory through sound.

Quadraphonic Installation for an Abandoned Swimming Pool
presented in June 2022 at Viktoriabad Bonn
Presented as part of the exhibition Caring for the Existing. Ten Strategies for Architecture by the BDA

© Simon Veith

curators Nicole Richter (public relations BDA) and Barbara Schlei (project manager BDA)

all photographs by Simon Veith