Sowat took part in a residence at the historical Les Bains Paris over the last month. Artists were invited by Magda Danysz to come install temporary murals and installation work in the Les Bains while it was vacant awaiting an extensive redevelopment. Sowat thrives in In situ installations and this project was perfect for the artist to paint. Sowat was lucky enough to paint next to a piece of history a untouched and preserved Futura piece painted in 1985, you will also see a Sambre Piece in the Background. Sambre was also part of the project look out for updates on his wall soon. The Les Bains was popular for its rock star past and you could only imagine what had taken place in between these walls. Here is a beautiful set of photographs by Stéphane Bisseuil and Nicolas Gzeley.
GF
“1885-1978 Les Bains Guerbois were operated by the family Guerbois for nearly a century until the beginning of the 70s definitely before closing their doors. Space is a temple massage, mineral baths, Japanese, Russian and Turkish. Marcel Proust liked to come and take steam baths, forts, halls all around-there were shower and drink a coffee in the morning calva.
1978-2010 concert hall rock that turns into disco and a restaurant upstairs and a night bar. The decoration was entrusted to a young decorator-designer Philippe Stark. The place is erected in an institution, concert hall and temple fashion, it becomes the rallying point between entertainment, media and arts. Depeche Mode, Brian Ferry, Simple Minds, Joy Division. David Guetta, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Jean Nouvel, Grace Jones, Spike Lee, Kim Basinger, Catherine Deneuve, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell Claudia Schiffer, Bono, Prince, David Bowie, Mick Jagger, etc.. The list is endless.
In summer 2014, Les Bains reborn, the new age of a long life to come: a hybrid location will occupy the entire building. A private house, a hotel, a club? A chic, mixes, creative, cross-cultural, bohemian, historical, elegant, welcoming … new.
But before the makeover in which the building is very ill prepared to swim a short parenthesis opens before us because of this imminent change of skin, the site is completely vacant for the first time in 128 years . In a natural extension of the artistic soul of the place, we have transformed this suspended time and elusive creative effervescence. Baths are converted into a residence for artists and the entire building arises a giant canvas comes to urban artists commissioned by Magda Danysz. Here is a new generation of international talent created an ephemeral work on the walls, between walls, the same ones who saw Proust and Basquiat, Joy Division, Warhol and Prince. A symbolic gesture to reconnect with the past so strong and infuse its renewal, a manifesto proclaiming that Bains, we love, live! It is here the first page of THE SOCIETY OF BATH and the return of society Bains.”
