Nudism rise in Sweden; “This is an antidote,” art out of sauna baths

More Swedes are becoming naturists; “This is an antidote,” said Swedish artist Cristian Quinteros Sotos about his work Bath season at  Stockholm´s Fringe Festival, which explores how nude bathing can normalize society´s approach to the naked body. 

Nudism rise in Sweden 

With his experimental work, Sotos makes art out of sauna baths, wanting to “normalize the body” while we are fed manipulated images of bodies on social media. “I see this as an antidote to that, here you can come and look exactly how you look, it´s the opposite of social media where I´m expected to show my best side.”

Sotos said to the Press that he sees it his role to “put this rather ordinary thing” of the naked human body “in an artistic context.” He expressed society´s concerns about body image; “Bathing and having a body is fundamentally very basic, but in society, it becomes very complex – who gets to bathe? And who can swim?”

He also related it to Swedish traditions and the seemingly simpler past; “It is also in some way what you call the old Sweden, which was a lot of associational life. All that becomes a counterweight to the modern luxurious spas and that whole bit.”

According to Sweden´s Naturist Association, nudists in Sweden have been on the rise since the hit of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. This has especially been the case with sauna visitors, as Swedes begin to learn about the healthy benefits of cleansing and connecting with the body.

Sauna culture and nudism rise in Sweden

Cristian Quinteros Sotos is fascinated by sauna culture, as he considers it a place isolated from society´s barriers; “All prejudices and expectations about the body just disappear in the sauna, there we can meet as people regardless of where we came from. As a person who is racialized in Sweden, there is a care for me in this place by people who might not have given it to me in other contexts.”

He argued that when “taken into a larger perspective,” sauna practice can contribute to “a caring society.” Open all year round, typically naked-style in Nordic fashion, sauna is a common practice in Sweden and like in many northern countries, has been the meeting place for both leisure and business meetings.

Sauna popularity grew with the 2020 pandemic; a naturist and sauna host at Ågesta nudist bath Anders Wettermark believes that it will only continue to spread; “During the pandemic, those who used to go abroad and bathe naked could not do so. At the same time, more and more people discovered that it was nice to be naked, it´s undramatic.”  

A professor of Gender Studies at Lund University Jens Rydström also argued that since Sweden became the first country to implement mandatory sex education in 1955, it “made possible the body cultural movement which insisted that nudity is not sexual or pornographic.” 

He emphasised that practices like a sauna are then “meant to desexualize the body and make people feel more comfortable being naked in general,” as “the tone of most saunas in Scandinavia are to cleanse the body, not sexualize it.”

Nudism rise in Sweden; the rest of the world?

In most European countries like Sweden and Spain, there are no laws prohibiting people from being naked, as long as nudity is not intended to disturb others. Today, Spain hosts more than 400 nudist beaches and Spanish women are the world´s second most likely nationality to be braless on the beach, according to the report by travel website Expedia. 

Spaniards were also the European nation most approving of nudism, as 74 per cent of citizens asked about how they felt about nudist practises, said they were “very” or “somewhat” comfortable. Brits, on the other hand, are one of the most “uncomfortable” nations, as 40 per cent of British residents said to feel discomfort when seeing “women in skimpy underwear” on the beach.