Bathtub Bliss (Object)

2025

Marker and nail polish on inflatable plastic dolphin, 160 × 100 cm

When I heard the title Architecture of Memory, the first thing that came to mind was the flat in Lucerne where I lived with my parents and my brother from the age of one to eight. Four and a half rooms, first floor, small balcony. My memory of its size jumps back and forth: while I was playing, the walls seemed to open up; when I cried at night, everything felt unbearably cramped.

I drew the floor plan from memory onto an inflatable plastic dolphin, with a marker. A heart in red nail polish marks the bathtub.

The dolphin refers to an evening when I was about four. Exceptionally, I was allowed to take my huge inflatable dolphin into the bath, and my mother joined us.

“How did we fit in that small 1960s tub? Well, like a sandwich: my mother at the bottom, the dolphin in the middle, and me on top. It was cramped but cozy. I felt safe. My heart opened up.”

The floor plan has faded in my memory, but that moment has not.

Publication
Clara Maria Puglisi, Sonja Elisabeth Fuchs, Elodie Habert (eds.), Architecture of Memory: Recollecting Spaces, exhibition catalogue, 2025, pp. 24–25: “Bathtub Bliss”, my own text in German and English, with illustration. ISBN 978-3-033-11109-7

Exhibitions
Architecture of Memory: Recollecting Spaces, touring exhibition
2025 · Architekturforum Zürich
2025 · Stadtgalerie Chur
2026 · Domushaus, Basel (opening 26 November 2026)