Michael Rathmayr: Remedy

Remedy

Michael Rathmayr
Nearest Truth Editions, 2025

In Remedy, Michael Rathmayr turns his attention to Vienna’s Amalienbad, one of the most significant civic buildings of Red Vienna. Opened in 1926, the bathhouse was conceived as a space of social equality, offering access to hygiene, leisure, and health across class boundaries. Rathmayr approaches the site as both architectural monument and living social organism.

The photographs move between formal detail and observational portraiture, mapping the building’s art deco interiors alongside the rhythms of its contemporary users. Pools, corridors, stained glass, and back rooms are rendered with attentiveness to material and light, while the presence of swimmers and athletes situates the space firmly in the present. As the Amalienbad approaches its centenary, Remedy reflects on the endurance of civic ideals and the capacity of architecture to hold social memory across generations.