Item 3332 - The Bath House

Identity area

Reference code

ES OVNI RSC-3332

Title

The Bath House

Date(s)

  • 2009 (Accumulation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

Video

Context area

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The bath House Is a filmed a re-imagination of ‘The Bathhouse', a 1930's Russian Constructivist play written by Vladimir Mayakovsky and directed by Vesevolod Meyerhold, Mayakovsky's "drama in six acts with a circus and fireworks" was a satire on state bureaucracy, featuring a time machine rather than a bathhouse. Meyerhold used the play to display whole gamut of styles of theatre, from naturalism through dance to agitprop. Each served as an attraction in itself, but as a sequence became a stinging challenge to critical / ideological / political complacency. The Bath House video was commissioned by Collective Gallery and produced to mark a closure of the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh. The Commonwealth Pool, designed by Edinburgh architects RMJM in the 1960s, is a classic piece of Scottish modernist architecture. Halonen was struck by the similarity of the building's interior, particularly its platforms and diving boards, to the set used for The Bathhouse, staged in 1930. The group mostly affected by the closure, the Edinburgh Diving Club's Junior members perform as actors creating their own demonstration against the closure. Half way through the original Maykovsky's The Bathhouse the actors rebel and take control of the direction, this process is paralleled in this re-imagination.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Press: No; Catalogue: No; Itinerancies: No; Online archive: No; Television: No

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

    Language and script notes

    Physical characteristics and technical requirements

    Llengua: Inglés. Països: United Kingdom (Great Britain)

    Finding aids

    Allied materials area

    Existence and location of originals

    Existence and location of copies

    Related units of description

    Related descriptions

    Notes area

    Note

    Master sin especificar Revisar duración 12.4 min falta sinopsis en catalan falta sinopsis en castellano

    Alternative identifier(s)

    Slug

    the-bath-house

    Access points

    Subject access points

    Place access points

    Name access points

    Genre access points

    Description control area

    Description identifier

    ES_OVNI_2009_halhen003-the-bath-house

    Institution identifier

    OVNI

    Rules and/or conventions used

    Status

    Level of detail

    Dates of creation revision deletion

    Language(s)

    • Catalan

    Script(s)

    • Latin

    Sources

    Archivist's note

    @Henna-Riikka Halonen

    Accession area