Beat to the Balance was realised in Astrid Noack’s Atelier in Copenhagen in 16. – 26.11.2015. Beat to the Balance involves having a sauna (usually build on spot with found materials) and tree healing; a tradition of using whisks – branch bundle of different tree species. It is a treatment that combines the psychosomatic experience of sauna, tree healing, plant and folk mythology and aromatherapeutic effects of different plants used in whisking.

If the cause of the problems of human-kind are the loss of heritage and empathy – sauna is the place to reconnect as it’s for washing, silence and has a ritualistic nature. The leaf bathing creates an overall conscious, even fierce touch. It enables the holistic power of different tree species, re-connection to the communicating systems of the forests and opens the locks of trauma we carry due to the humans’ exploitation of the Earth.

The community of the yard where Astrid Noack’s Atelier is situated is rather diverse: there are many musicians, a car engineer and people who just have the workshops in the yard as their hang around places. Earlier, the yard was in despair, it was a place for drug dealing and gang activities. This has had an affect on the community.

Beat to the Balance sauna was set up on the yard after the research and getting to know what some of the members of the community think about the project. They were interested but not all of them wanted to straight forwardly take part in it. This was a reason to open the project to all people linked to Astrid Noack’s Atelier (their members and people who support them as well as anyone interested). The idea was to be present and getting people used to the project. The atelier space was transformed into a mixture of peaceful dressing & resting room and an exhibition. The video part of the project was exhibited in this space.

Each day, there were individual one hour sessions and an open sauna in the end of the day. The leaves bathing appointments were rather popular. The project was organised in collaboration with Danish Sauna Society and their chair person Michael B. Jensen.

Read more about Beat to the Balance on this website and view the Flickr album of the project.