Eden Baths

World Water Day 💧🌍 Today we honour Water — the giver of life, the keeper of memory, the primal intelligence that moves through all things. At Eden Baths, we are beginning a long-term commitment to care for water through land, body, and community. On our land in Averøy, we are listening to the existing flows — wetlands, rainwater paths, and the subtle movement beneath the surface, in relationship with the ocean that surrounds us. Our intention is to restore and protect Water through: – small-scale wetland regeneration – creation of interconnected ponds – care for coastal ecosystems and marine life – preservation and awareness of kelp forests as vital underwater habitats – removal of ghost nets and ocean debris – community-based practices that reconnect us with water This is a slow and living process — one that asks for attention, respect, and collaboration. If you feel called to support the early stages of this work get in touch , you can also join our Founding Water Circle via , subject Water restoration . Your support helps water return to balance 💧 More info in bio / message us directly. #WorldWaterDay #EdenBaths #WaterIsLife #KelpForest #RegenerativeCulture

“What is the meaning of life? Why do human beings keep harming each other and the Earth?” In a moment when war feels close to our bodies and hearts, this question echoes louder than ever. Today we are sharing a new article published on the Bathing & Beyond platform, reflecting on our visit to the Taoist Temple Naroga @narogaterapia in Asturias — a place where healing is understood as balance; a conversation between the more-than-human, microbes, trees, and the living Earth. Deep gratitude to the teachings of Master Asho, Master Ichijo, and Yuka for holding this field of listening and care, and for helping us balance our Qi and microbiota. Writing this piece reminded is that peace is not only a sociopolitical aspiration — it is a practice of listening. Listening to the body, to the land, and to the more-than-human worlds that hold us. If we can relearn how to be in relationship — with care, humility, and reciprocity — perhaps we begin to soften the impulse to harm. May this story be a small offering toward remembering interdependence in times that ask us, urgently, to choose life. “When we dissolve the self, we connect to everything.” 🔗 Read the full article through the link in bio #BathingAndBeyond #EcologiesOfCare #RiceBranBath #Multispecies #NarogaTemple

Our visit to the Toledo baths @medinamudejar felt like entering a living stream of ancient memory. Set within historic structures, featuring elements like a 12th-century Islamic wall, a 15th-century cistern, and 17th-century tiles. This experience is part of our inspiration for Eden Baths, weaving the old traditions of water temples into our future sanctuary and bathing and Beyond gathering. Toledo carries a millennial bathing lineage. The hammam tradition reflects the harmony of purification: moving through the cold, warm and hot rooms, contrast therapy and steam room , the touch of stone , water and body . The marble known as Venus stone, echoes the sacred temples dedicated to the goddess of water, love and sensual healing. We moved by the sacred geometry energy of Toledo, its Tajo river, and its water pathways — a reminder that Water is a keeper of memory, harmony, a healer, and a guide. #iberiatrails #hammam #arabicbaths #toledo #bathingandbeyond

As the New Year opens before us, we send you our warmest blessings, with the wish that this unfolding cycle of 2026 may offer moments of joy, clarity, and grace, revealed often in the smallest and most attentive of gestures. At the threshold of this new phase, we are glad to share with you recently published texts on our website, tracing threads of ongoing research and reflections from last autumn’s gatherings within the Bathing & Beyond project. These writings carry with them the resonance of lived encounters and growth. With the turning of the year, we are also beginning to activate our Art Haven, opening space for interdisciplinary creative expression, exchanges, and art residencies—an invitation to work, listen, and dwell together in processes that require patience, care, and presence. Thank you for walking alongside us and for your continued support. May the year ahead encourage attentive listening, care, and thoughtful ways of being with water, land, and with one another. With warmth, Eden Baths Photos @neringasunday @vita.klimasevska Klimasevska @whitemirroroddities #bathingandbeyond #edenbaths #arthaven #watersanctuary #multispeciesdesign

Mid-Winter Blessings ❄️✨🌑💫🔥 Nothing sacred can emerge unless you ground your full weight upon the Earth. Authentic truth is slow in its arrival, demanding patience, requiring us to wait, listen deeply, and embrace repair. Wisdom only reveals itself through complete surrender. We pause to honor the stillness of the season, offering our gratitude and blessings to the quiet earth beneath the snow, the dormant seeds, the still waters, the low sun, and the electric sky that holds us. This is a time for listening, resting, and gathering strength. A season to trust what is in gestation in the dark, as the land prepares in silence. We give deep thanks for our first season and for every single person who has supported, contributed, and walked with Eden Baths this year. Our first workshop (“Wild Bathing & Parliament of Species”) and the growth of the “Bathing & Beyond” project overseas have marked an important beginning. We are excited to share our website has been renewed, and permission has been granted to build our first main sauna and bath house. What began as intention and care is slowly, patiently taking shape. As the light begins its gentle return, we open to the coming year with readiness. Eden Baths welcomes wonder, art residencies, workshops, and new collaborations in the seasons ahead. May this solstice bring rest, clarity, and renewal for you all. With love and gratitude, Eden Baths ❄️✨🦢 #Midwinter #WinterSolstice #Stillness #EdenBaths #bathingandbeyond

Moved by Water @viktorijajanauskiene @energy_mapping , closing event of Bathing & Beyond program @umedefest . Developed through the Wastu® Lithuania water experience and somatic bodywork, this offers a sensory immersion in water that interlaces with embodied authentic movement, allowing participants to sense the threshold between the self, water, and the unseen forces connecting us to the greater aquatic body of life. Movement combined with the sound waves of instruments, gongs, Tibetan bowls, bells, and Eglė Vilpišauskienė’s voice rippling in space and water creates invisible waves that connect the body and the environment through expanded awareness and cellular consciousness, strengthening experiences of care, support, and transformation. Viktorija is a Watsu® therapist, active since the year 2011, an AQVUS underwater modality practitioner, a certified Integrated Body and Movement Therapy (IBMT) practitioner, merging elements of Shiatsu, 5-element theory, somatic practices, and Chinese image medicine into her work, practicing Jun Juan qigong and energy work. She works individually and with groups, leading somatic meditations. Eglė Vilpišauskienė is a professional art therapist, graduated from Metafora School in Barcelona, Spain. Egle has over 10 years of experience working with individuals and running therapy group sessions across different age groups. In addition to her practice as an art therapist, Egle is a certified mineral therapy specialist and Gong master from Vilnius, Lithuania. She has completed an intensive sound healing course in Lithuania, as well as specialized training in Tibetan singing bowl massage. Her practices also include creating healing drawings/portals, combining her voice with the power of light language, movement, therapeutic instruments and minerals to open transformative spaces. Filmed by @vita.klimasevska Bathing & Beyond is supported by @nordiskkulturfond #watertemples #soundbathing #authenticmovement #bathingandbeyond #ūmėdėfestival #waterprayer #innerwaters #cellulardance

It has been a week since Bathing & Beyond took place @umedefest @sodas2123 , Vilnius. I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who supported, trusted, and shared presence within this project — artists, organisers, and volunteers. Thank you for being part of this beautiful journey into fluids, liquids, bathings, weaving sea storymaking, and all the unseen confluences we lived together through these luminous days. @jolanta.sendaite_paulauskiene @saulius_leonawicius @viktorijajanauskiene @energy_mapping @theweavereva @whitemirroroddities , Eirini Sourgiadaki & Vytautas Michelkevicius. I am so touched by each of the works, the kindness, and the way we held space with such care — a weaving of inclusion, many voices nurturing the living spirit of this project. Together, we reclaim threads once lost — reweaving Baltic Sea stories of resilience , repair, and renewal. We rediscover the body as a an ecosystem of ancestral liquidities, traveling to the origins of life, receiving liquid light codes deep within our cells — from the cosmic ocean. Recently, I came across a reflection about how musicians in an orchestra learn to breathe together — to create harmony rather than seek to stand out. It felt like the essence of Bathing & Beyond: how we, too, are learning to move and create as one body — attuned, listening, and surrendering to the collective rhythm that carries us. In this shared flow, we rediscover the true beauty of listening — a symphony of care, memory, and belonging. Through temperature, sound and water, we remember the power of surrender, sacred union, and harmony. We are ready to love , acknowledge and release what divides us. ✨💧✨ The project is supported by @nordiskkulturfond , @yauya.lt saunas , @oca_norway , @norwayinlithuania . Partly supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture, and Vilnius City Municipality. Curated by Nazaré Soares @edenbaths Photos by @vita.klimasevska , @jolanta.sendaite_paulauskiene & @umedefest #BathingAndBeyond #Umedefest #ArtandEcology #Hydrofeminism #WaterRituals #steambath #aquaticbodywork #FluidBodies #MoreThanHuman #CollectiveCare #interconnectedness #authenticmovement #lemuriancodes #soundhealing

Conversations on Knots as a First media Nets and Connections – Workshop & Installation at @umedefest 2025 @sodas2123 @edenbaths Grateful for these connections. Together, we reclaim threads once lost to the sea, reweaving stories of resilience, repair, and renewal. An installation and participatory workshop reimagining discarded fishing nets as vessels of ecological memory and transformation. Participants explore the tactile imprints of marine life and the passage of time on the nets, engaging in dialogue about water pollution, cultural continuity, and collective repair.

Technologies of the Bodymind Eirini Sourgiadaki Fri 17.10, 16:00–16:45 / 17:00–17:45 @umedefest In a 2003 article in the British Medical Journal, pharmacologist Jeff Aronson traces the etymological relation between whole, holy, and health, revealing how words with different roots came to meet in their contemporary meanings. Drawing from these connections, we will use the sauna as a site of teleportation and transformation—activated through somatic practices and rituals inspired by chaos magick. Within its confined space, the body becomes a dynamic relay station, opening a passage between the individual and the collective, fact and fiction, memory and imagination. @eirini_sourgiadaki was born in Crete and grew up in Athens, where she received a diploma in Sociology and a Master’s in Cultural Management from Panteion University of Social and Political Science. She studied Greek and English/American poetry at the Takis Sinopoulos Foundation and trained extensively in dance, somatic, and movement practices. In 2017 she completed an MA in Transdisciplinarity in the Arts at Zurich University of the Arts and holds a PhD in Transdisciplinary Artistic Research/Media Design with a focus on teleportation, transformation, and the impossible (Linz, 2025). Her work spans storytelling, media, and embodied research. She is a Lecturer and Research Associate in the MA Transdisciplinarity and the Minor Alternative Futures at Zurich University of the Arts. Full program Bathing & Beyond at @umedefest — Rooted and Off-Grid & @edenbaths #EiriniSourgiadaki #TechnologiesOfTheBodymind #BathingAndBeyond #ūmėdėFestival #RootedAndOffGrid #SomaticRituals #ChaosMagick #Bodymind #TransdisciplinaryArts #SaunaRituals #EmbodiedResearch #TeleporationAndTransformation

Sauna Ritual: Smells of Birch and Oak Leaves Vytautas Michelkevicius Sat 18.10, 15:00 – 20:00 @umedefest Smells of birch and oak leaves in small temporary community gives you a chance to travel to the other festival stage with no physical moving . Vytautas Michelkevicius is a writer, curator and some kind of artists who was busy to practice and discuss “media art” since 2000s. However in the recent 5 years he was thinking how media artists can work when they are off-grid and off-line. He got into traditional smoke sauna experiences, started to run a 100 years old Nothern-Eastern smoke sauna in the forest and remembered his experiences from teenage years when he was wandering in Lithuanian meadows and collected medicinal herbs. They were later used for traditional teas in herbal pharmacy run by his family. Writings can be accessed here https://vilnius.academia.edu/VytautasMichelkevicius Full program: Bathing & Beyond @umedefest , Rooted and Off-Grid & @edenbaths Photos: Nazaré Soares & Vytautas Michelkevicius #saunaritual #bathingandbeyond #umedefest #lithuaniasauna #beyondmedia #whisking

Stella Maris / Amber Tears Nazaré Soares Sat 18.10, 20:35–21:35 @umedefest Stella Maris, the water carrier, whose once vital yet overlooked labor sustained entire communities. In a world set ablaze by war and devastation, we are called to become water carriers—bearing care, memory, and resilience through ritual. Offering water, bath, and anointment become gestures of humility and preparation for transition, opening a liminal site where grief and renewal flow together, and the body is invited into elemental listening and response. “The speakers of dead teach practices of remembering and mourning that enlist extinct humans and non-human critters in the ongoing work of cutting the shackles of Double Death, which strangled a vast proportion of ways of living and dying in the Plantationocene, Anthropocene, and Capitalocene.” — Donna Haraway This lamentation invokes the Star of the Sea, as guide and protector. At its heart is water: a medium of grief and rebirth, carrying the memory of tears and reflecting the cycles of life, death, and regeneration. The work honors overlooked labors of care while mourning war, genocide, and ecological devastation. Rooted in research around the Baltic Sea—a body of water marked both by amber’s “tears” and vast lifeless dead zones—the performance becomes a poetics of loss and cosmic grief, a barefoot passage into the fragile continuum of origin, destruction, and renewal. @whitemirroroddities is interdisciplinary artist, curator, aquatic bodywork therapist, and steam bath specialist whose practice merges relational arts, spiritual technologies, and deep ecology. Through aquatic bodywork, phyto-thermal bathing, and communal water rituals, she explores themes of cellular memory, liquid intelligence, and intergenerational healing. Her work integrates psychoacoustics, cinematic environments, and performance to create immersive spaces for practices of incubation. She Maps architectures of relation and cultivated conditions for collaborative survival. Full program: Bathing & Beyond @umedefest & @edenbaths Photos: Nazaré Soares #BathingAndBeyond #umedefest #nazaresoares #StellaMaris #waterritual

The New Church of Hares Saulius Leonavičius Saturday, 18 October, 15:00 – 20:00 @umedefest A participatory performance that blends indigenous ethnographies, new animism, and eco-activism. It seeks to awaken pagan heritage and deepen our connection to the origins of life. Through the ritual space of the sauna, the work transforms this place of cleansing into a chamber of somatic storytelling — where myth and memory merge, and the vitality of the past rises to meet the present. Drawing from medieval chronicles that once spoke of a Hare God worshipped by the Balts, this speculative reconstruction becomes both remembrance and renewal. The piece reframes the sauna as a communal and spiritual site rather than merely therapeutic — a gathering place to invoke the forest goddesses and spirits and to question the modern exploitation of natural resources. Through heat, steam, and story, The New Church of Hares invites us to reimagine sacred connection and ecological reciprocity. @saulius_leonawicius is an interdisciplinary artist, activist, and traditional sauna practitioner. Educated at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, he completed doctoral research on the performativity of Vydūnas’s diet. His artistic practice moves between installation, participatory performance, and social intervention, exploring how archaic and traditional ethnographies can be reinterpreted for contemporary urban life. His current work investigates the intersection of new animism, dark ecology, and mythic consciousness — exploring how ritual, narrative, and embodied practice can help cultivate a renewed sense of sacredness in a post-secular age. Leonavičius’s projects engage with liminal cultures and boundary experiences, offering spaces for collective reflection on ecology, spirituality, and transformation. www.leonavicius.lt This event is part of the project Bathing & Beyond: Bathing, Art and Ecology in the Age of Water , curated by @whitemirroroddities Full Program @umedefest @edenbaths Photos by © Paulius Vepstas & @saulius_leonawicius #BathingAndBeyond #RitualPerformance #SaunaRitual #MythAndEcology #BalticHeritage #ForestRituals #SomaticStorytelling