There is a sound that exists nowhere else but at an outdoor pool: the gurgling and the splashing of the water, the squeaking and the screaming of the bathers, only drowned out by the announcements of the pool attendants. In the summer of 2018, this background noise, which increases with the number of people seeking cooling from the summer sun, resembled more of a background roar. Thousands of swimmers and non-swimmers seemed to scream at each other. Because these weeks were especially hot, even more so in Berlin. We enjoyed the lethargy caused by the blazing sun. It reminded us of dozy beach holidays. At the same time, the flickering of the air seemed to affect the visitors, who, for better or worse, were highly sensitive to their surroundings. And so the events in the middle of an open-air pool filled to the brim were a real borderline experience not only for the audience, but also for the artists, authors, musicians, curators and of course the TROPEZ team. I am all the more thankful to Sophie Boysen, Leona Koldehoff and Ziemowit ‘Jemek’ Nowak who stayed in Berlin during this crazy summer to realize the exhibition project VOYAGE.

The exhibits, performances and events realized for VOYAGE were intended to transport the pool visitors to foreign places and open up unusual perspectives for them. In 2018 for the first time we were able to invade the whole pool facility. The artists were no longer limited to a rigid stage setting. The audience no longer had to come inside or to the terraces of TROPEZ to meet art, music and literature. Outdoors there was, for example, the artwork Sink or Swim (2018) by Aurora Sander, a monumental Chinese take-out box opposite the french fries counter, from which the young bathers were allowed to borrow colourful pool noodles to play in the water. (The return of the noodles worked moderately well… But after all, Aurora Sander is concerned with subverting the market mechanisms of the art system). For the outside of the kiosk artist Nigin Beck had created four delicately veined marble panels. Greasy traces of ketchup and mayo on their inscriptions revealed that they were rather well received by children…

The Pool Reader

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