Peeing in Public

Black Forest Library is a series for dilettante artistic research that wanders between the disciplines: from em-dashes to emblems, palm trees to peeing, Ulysses to Virginia Woolf, and basketball to furniture.

This is the wild history of public urination, as told through the boldest leaks in high and low culture, politics, and protest.

The state and design of public restrooms in a city, or an entire country, can reveal a lot about its hierarchies and values: who holds power, who is cared for, and who is excluded. While men often enjoy free and plentiful access, women are frequently expected to pay. And what about trans­gender and non-binary people? What about the 2.6 billion people around the world who simply have no toilet at all? The basic human right to relieve oneself in dignity and safety is contested on economic, political, technological, gen­dered, and sexual fronts. But peeing in public isn’t always just about necessity. Sometimes, it’s rebellion, activism, or raw spectacle. Soaked in taboo, bodily fluids be­come weapons—messy, powerful, impossible to ignore.