Off-season Activities by Eirini Sourgiadaki

Off-Season is a female collective active since 2023. Its members come from diverse disciplines, areas of research and geographic backgrounds. We all share the view that in today’s neoliberal economies of increased privatization of public spaces and natural resources it is urgent to rethink bathing culture as a medium -or perhaps antidote- to a culture of exhaustion and extraction. Baths have served as vital sources of healing, connection, collectivity, and cultural heritage for countless generations, embodying the enduring relationship between human and non-human worlds.

Inconclusive

2024

During the project week in Methana, Greece, the exploration of balance and healing took a literal form through a series of pH tests conducted on various water sources encountered by the body. Using pH strips, the artist examined the chemical profiles of tap water, bottled water, seawater, and thermal springs. While the strips provided initial readings, over time, the combination of mineral interactions and attempts to keep the strips moist for an audience in Baden led to changes in the results.

The tests showed near-neutral results for drinking water but revealed color shifts for other sources, yielding inconclusive data. This unpredictability mirrored the artist's own state—exhausted yet stimulated by the intense activities and restorative, yet overwhelming, experience of soaking in Methana’s thermal waters. This sense of disorientation inspired the naming of the work Inclusive, reflecting both the varied, shifting nature of the pH results and the artist’s own blurred perceptions.

Embracing change as a constant, the artist presents the pH strips alongside drawings created in Zurich, juxtaposing the fluidity of Methana’s experience with the reflective stillness of the artwork process.

Key Components of Methana's Thermal Springs

Agioi Anargyroi (Sulfurous Springs) Ai Pigai Hotel, Abandoned Bathhouse of Methane, St. Nichola’s Spring:

• Sodium chloride (NaCl)

• Magnesium sulfate (MgSO₄)

• Calcium chloride (CaCl₂)

• Magnesium chloride (MgCl₂)

• Potassium chloride (KCl)

• Magnesium bicarbonate [Mg(HCO₃)₂]

• Carbon dioxide gas (CO₂)

• Hydrogen sulfide gas (H₂S)

Agios Nikolaos (Chlorinated Springs) Pausanias Baths:

• Sodium chloride (NaCl)

• Magnesium bicarbonate [Mg(HCO₃)₂]

• Calcium chloride (CaCl₂)

• Magnesium sulfate (MgSO₄)

• Carbon dioxide gas (CO₂)

This interplay between the science of water composition and the emotional, physical, and artistic responses forms the essence of the project, where balance is as much an internal process as it is a chemical one.

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