1997_04 The Daily Collegian April 1997

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THE DAILY
COLLEGIAN
Wednesday, April 16,1997
In Sweden, staying clean is an art
By Doug Lansky
College Press Sen-ice
LUND. Sweden — The opening
night of Peter Johansson's show.al
ihe art museum in Lund, a univer¬
sity town in southern Sweden, had
several of ihe elements that nor¬
mally accompany such events:
people dressed in black, people
wearing more rings than they have
fingers, people serving those little
cheese cubes with toothpicks slick¬
ing out of them.
The major difference was lhal
about 20 pcicenl of the gallery
goers wore nothing bul towels, in¬
cluding me. Johansson had built a
huge sauna right in the middle of
the museum, and nobody seemed
10 mind.
In fact, this'was why people had
come: to see one hig-honking
sauna, lhat actually works.
I didn't know quite what lo ex¬
pect before I went lo see The Scan¬
dinavian Sauna Project but cer¬
tainly not this. I thought it might
be a collection of sauna photos. Or
there would be some small sauna
models made of popsicle slicks.
Perhaps the gallery might even turn
up the thermostat a lew degrees lor
the occasion. I didn't envision gel¬
ling naked and sweaty in a museum
... at least nol during daytime
hours.
A sauna is nol the sort of art ob¬���ject you can enjoy from the outside.
11 requires participation. So I bor¬
rowed a towel and went to the
changing room, a simple, free¬
standing wooden structure. Men's
and women's doors were denoted
wuh non-descript symbols. I chose
the door with a sign lhat looked like
two eyeballs on either side of a big
nose.
Then, with a towel wrapped
firmly around my waist, I followed
an elevated wooden path through
the museum to ihe two-story pine
sauna. From the outside, if I didn't
know belter. I wouldn't have taken
it for a sauna. Il was big enough lo
be a guest house,*but less complex.
architecturally, than a two-car ga¬
rage.
I entered through the men's door,
which I recognized immediately,
and took a shrtWcr in a sculpture.
The cylindrical stall was crafted
from copper, and some sort of
smooth, Japanese garden rocks cov¬
ered the ground for drainage.
Then I went through a door on
the other side of the room, which
brought me into the sauna at the
bottom of a stairway. I walked up
the stairs to find a beautifully
crafted, elliptical silting area wilh
10 sweaty men and women, and
room for another 30.
I joined them and began to
sweal. It was hard lo ignore lhat
more and more of ihe people com¬
ing in were not wearing lowels. Or
anything else.
How ironic. I thought, thai the
same Swedes who are generally too
reserved lo say "hi" lo each other
on the street are perfectly comfort¬
able disrobing in public.
Once the nudists outnumbered
the non-nudists, we lowel-wearers
felt the social pressure and dolled
our cover-ups. loo. As ihey say.
"When in a Swedish sauna... ."
Perhaps the most impressive
engineering marvel of all was the
lighting. There was just enough
lighl lo see everyone's bodies and
just enough darkness so no one
could tell where you were looking.
And the oval-shaped room was
designed for viewing. There was a
full cross section of Swedish soci¬
ety, from infants to 80-ycar-olds in
every weight division, all naked. 1
overheard some male college stu¬
dents saying it was fun to be part of
the exhibit.
"We're art!" ihey exclaimed to
.the room. Looking around. I'd have
to say some of the people were
more arlisiic-looking lhan others.
One of the most important parts
of the Swedish sauna experience is
beer. Ordinarily, a beer purchased
in-a Swedish bar costs around $6,
due to extortionate government
taxes. But here (the best thing about
Daily Collegian
Applications now
available for the
following positions
for the Fall 1997
semester:
Editor-in-Chief (1)
Supplement Editors
Hye Sharzhoom
La Voz DeAztlan
Uhuru Na Umoja
Application deadline
is April 17.
Applications can be
obtained and returned
to the Associated
Students Office 316.
opening night) the beer was free.
Aside from tasting delicious, it ccr-
. tainly improved the artistic value of
the exhibit, if you calch'my drift.
But wc were nol just sitting
around naked and drinking beer. Wc
were also whipping each other with
freshly cut birch branches!
They say branch-whipping is
supposed lo improve circulation,
but I'd sooner believe the propa¬
ganda of Priscilla Presley's hair
supplement infomereials. I couldn't
exactly picture a doctor saying.
"Poor circulation? Here, have your
wife,beat you to a pulp with this
branch three limes a day."
My girlfriend. Signe. sensing my
surprise al the branches, picked one
up and offered to whip me with it.
Either she wanted to help me enjoy
the lull sauna experience or punish
me lor my wandering eyes.
It occurred to me as I was sil¬
ling there in the buff, sweating,
drinking beer and letting my naked
girlfriend publicly whip me with a
birch branch thai this probably
wouldn't go over so well in. say.
The Smithsonian Institution.
Pleas*.- see VAGABOND page 5.
ACROSS
1 YeiowcoKx
5 Pigtail
10 Minute opening
14 F« ol Starving
15 Stallone rote
16 Surmounting
17 Annoys
18 Bay window
19 Ascend
20 Begin
22 Diplomat
24 Quarrel
26 Lacking spirit
27 Inhabiting Uees
31 Reaches the top
of
35 Gehrig ot
Cosleto
36 Blunder
38 Stair post
39 Ova
41 BUI and —
42 Hack
43 Oka object
45 Enroll
48 Homo sapiens
49 Shaking
51 Certain kind ol
55 Precept
56 -Hamlet-
char actar
59 Young swan
63 —die
(indomitable)
64 Where Tripoli ;
67 Gas: pref
68 Punta del -
69 Turn inside out
70 Yam
71 Farming need
72 Compact
73 Minerals
DOWN
1 Way ol walking
2 Monster ol fairy
tales
3 "Cool Hand —"
4 Spanish
explorer
5 Tender
6 Household god
7 French pal
8 Girder
9 Indian ol Mexico
0 Bird often caged
i Of the ear
2 — Hashanah
3 Sword
1 Discharge
3 Seagull
5 Broad comedy
7 Like a lookout
B Piiors -OK-
9 Horn
0 Nuts
2 Hindu ascetic
3 Austin native
4 Throw
7 Helicopter part
0 Stewed
4 Unfriendly
6 School
7 Be dependent
0 Stored up
2 Smoothly, m
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in    nnn    nnnn
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nnnnnnn "nnnnn
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57 Affectation
58 Table tf—
60 Close
61 Writer Gardner
62 Foot parts
65'—HuT
66 Time periods:
abbr.
QBNtVf^A StMp9S B?U$rlri'i"y"?,»
1WVyt»¥-%|tN-r«Ttt*tH
Jurassic Park® -The Ride
Back To Future® -The Ride
Waterworld -a Live Sea War
Spectacular
Totally Nickelodeon
LACIERS!   1
For Tickets & Information Contact:
USU Information Center
on the main floor of the USU
.   or call 278-2078
SWIM WITH DOLPHINS!
CLIMB ACTIVE VOLCANOS
HIKE RAINFORESTS AND GLACIERS!    ,
vw
LIVE ON AN AUSTRALIAN ISLAND!      '
(and earn General Education and Capstone credits in
Biology, Geology, Art History and Sculpture)
SOUTH PACIFIC
SEMESTER,
SPRING 1998
Information Meetin2.
* April 17. at 4 p.m. in Sci 110
For more information call: 278-2051, 278-2001