The historic specimen jars filled with bathwater allude to a medical treatment method that was used in psychiatric institutions until the mid-20th century. During what was known as “continuous bath therapy”, patients were required to lie in the water for days, weeks, and even months.

Angela Alves traces the history of these individuals and this treatment practice. Inspired by Elizabeth Faulhaber’s drawing (see above), in which she imagines another person joining her in the tub, Angela Alves invites other chronically ill women into her private bathtub to bathe and talktogether—about the drawings of the continuous bath patients Elisabeth Faulhaber, Maria Puth, and Karl Zimmermann, about bathing itself, and about the experiences of the “sick woman” in the medical system today. Both the bathwater in which these conversations took place and the conversations themselves are collected in excerpts and preserved.

Four compilations of these bathtub conversations are made available via a listening device in the “On Water” exhibition. They are approximately 7 minutes long and can be selected individually via a button. The corresponding bathwater was transferred into one of the four specimen jars from the collection of the Berlin Museum of Medical History at Charité and is also part of the exhibition.