Sauna & Subculture

Conversation: Mads Ananda Lodahl & Khaled Alesmael.

Meet writer Mads Ananda Lodahl and former journalist and author Khaled Alesmael in a dialogue about sauna and gay culture. The two authors take us on a subcultural journey from Syria to Copenhagen. Drawing on their own artistic practices and personal experiences, they explore sauna culture from secret gay communities in hammams to closed sauna clubs in inner Copenhagen. They look at how queer lives are lived, hidden, shaped and unfolded in different cultural contexts — from the underground to the visible, from the vulnerable to the liberating.

The conversation revolves around migration, identity and sexuality, but also about the spaces and subcultures in which alternative communities emerge and survive. The sauna here serves as both a concrete place and a cultural phenomenon: a space of intimacy, anonymity, care and politically charged cohesion.

The event invites the audience into an open and reflective conversation about the diversity of queer culture, its stories and significance today.

The conversation is in English.