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Corona Files Play & Sports Rotterdam

Welcome to the Downtown Athletic Club

With sports facilities closed due to Corona, clubs are forced to give group trainings outside. Whether you exercise to feel better or to improve your body, within the confined space of a sports facility you are among like-minded people, initiates. The carefully groomed athletic body must be seen by others, to get the full satisfaction of unspoken appreciation; hedonists among themselves.

But when exercising in public space, the body is exposed to the random gaze of passers-by. Being part of a group of peers, as opposed to exercising individually (jogging), makes it easier to claim the required space and to endure the gaze of the un-initiated. Whilst for the spectator it feels awkward, at least to me; witnessing something that I am not supposed to see, makes me feel like a voyeur or peeping Tom.