Screening of Tamás Wormser’s Touched by Water

A free screening of Tamás Wormser’s Touched by Water, a documentary about bathing rituals around the world, will take place on the back lawn of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston on Thursday, June 11, 2009 (with additional screenings on June 25 and August 6). A functioning hot tub will be setup on the lawn with open dipping and snacks available from 6:30pm-8:30pm. Screening starts at 8:30pm. Viewers are invited to watch the film from the lawn (bring a lawn chair or blanket) or request reservations for hot tub seating by calling (713) 284-8257 (limited space). Event postponed in the event of rain.

Presented and hosted by artist/curator Andrea Grover, this screening is part of a series of public programs produced by Grover for the current CAMH exhibition No Zoning: Artists Engage Houston, on view through October 4, 2009. This program follows the tradition of thematic, collage-style, site-specific, and social screenings that Grover created for Aurora Picture Show, the microcinema she founded in 1998.

Film to be screened:

Touched by Water, 2006, Tamás Wormser, 46:00, color, video From the holiest rituals to fashionable leisure, from ancient Roman baths and elite European spas, via Turkish hammams and ritual dips in the Ganges, to high-tech, multi-media pools, this film looks at bathing cultures around the world and explores our essential bond with water-—the sensual pleasure we derive from it as well as the spiritual renewal. Touched by Water is both an ode to the social ritual of public bathing and a thought-provoking look at water’s spiritual significance.

About Tamás Wormser Tamás Wormser was born and raised in Budapest, Hungary, and has lived in Montreal, Canada since 1986. Touched by Water was inspired by Wormser’s native experience of public bathing in Hungary, as well as his interest in the social rituals of bathing. He shot this film single-handedly over ten years in 13 countries, with a small video camera that allowed him to unobtrusively capture rarely documented locales, including a Turkish hammam, and a mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath. Wormser is the founder of Artesian Films through which he has directed eleven films, including Traveling Light, a film about nomadic artists.

• I’m making lists! (with the my new app: Remember the Milk– highly recommended for freelancers)

• I’m working as a Curator and Producer for Confluence: Points of View on Buffalo Bayou, a contemporary art project of the Buffalo Bayou Partnership that initiates the creation of innovation public art and related programming on, along and within the environs of Houston’s historic river, the Buffalo Bayou.

• I’m freelancing for Aurora Picture Show’s Aurora Video Label, and completing production on two outstanding titles: A Film Is A Burning Place: Works by Enid Baxter Blader; and Cinemad 2009 Almanac, which is curated by Mike Plante.

• I’m co-editing a book with Ed Halter on a history of U.S. microcinemas, titled A Microcinema Primer: A Brief History of Small Cinemas.

• I’m hosting a new bi-annual series at The Menil Collection called “Menil Movies.”

• I’m being a hausfrau and mutter

Pictured: Tour of Buffalo Bayou with Sandra Percival, Cynthia Toles, Terrie Sultan, Gilbert Vicario, Mary Leclere, and Donald Sultan.