Schließfachwelten is an installation piece made for the Begehungen Arts Festival 2022, emerging from a participatory project that explores the social history of an abandoned swimming pool in Thalheim, Germany.

The swimming pool was, for many years, an important part of life in Thalheim. Opened in 1996 and situated on the former site of a twentieth-century lido, the Erzgebirgsbad was one of the first swimming pool complexes to be built in the region after the reunification of Germany. An initial period of success was followed by increasing competition from neighbouring swimming pools. Coupled with mounting financial pressures, the town was forced to close the pool in 2015.

Before demolition, the pool opened its doors one last time to house the Begehungen Arts Festival in August 2022. In the lead up to the festival, this artist residency gathered Thalheimers’ stories and memories of the Erzgebirgsbad, collating their contributions into an installation piece that was displayed during the festival.

The installation consists of a series of patchwork Badetücher (bathing towels) installed in the pool’s changing room lockers. Each fabric is made up of images and texts contributed by participants and traces a part of the social history of swimming in Thalheim. The artwork plays with the idea that swimming pool lockers briefly contain our ‘worlds’ while we swim. In them, we leave the items associated with our identities: the clothing and ephemera that hold our individual stories. Open the Schließfächer one by one, and the collective story of the Erzgebirgsbad is gradually revealed.