CONCRETE JUNGLE
︎Public swimming pools in different cities around the world.
︎2018 - Ongoing project.
︎2018 - Ongoing project.
I'm from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Where summers can be quite overwhelming, not to say hell on earth. Heat up to more than 40 degrees celsius and humidity almost 100%, all this in a city that hosts more than 10 million people a day.
As a kid, summer school holidays in the 90s were sometimes, just watching tv, naked, sitting on the living room floor, throwing glasses of fresh water on our heads so that the fan would make a difference for once. The beach was far away and going wasn't cheap.
There was nothing left to do but to join a neighborhood club and go to the public swimming pool. Every day you could, for as long as possible.
You'd make friends there, sometimes enemies. Make up adventures, compete against other kids, and all sorts of things. You were safe from the heat, enjoying it.
But of course, there was always the doctor's revision first. If you had lice, or any kind of fungus on your body, you couldn't get inside. Everyone would stare at you. Shame.
The swimming cap was mandatory, and sometimes that hideous thing would cause me strong headaches, damage my skin, etc.
As a kid, summer school holidays in the 90s were sometimes, just watching tv, naked, sitting on the living room floor, throwing glasses of fresh water on our heads so that the fan would make a difference for once. The beach was far away and going wasn't cheap.
There was nothing left to do but to join a neighborhood club and go to the public swimming pool. Every day you could, for as long as possible.
You'd make friends there, sometimes enemies. Make up adventures, compete against other kids, and all sorts of things. You were safe from the heat, enjoying it.
But of course, there was always the doctor's revision first. If you had lice, or any kind of fungus on your body, you couldn't get inside. Everyone would stare at you. Shame.
The swimming cap was mandatory, and sometimes that hideous thing would cause me strong headaches, damage my skin, etc.
I'd also go to the club’s swimming pool during the rest of the year, to take swimming classes mostly.
Growing up, I started to meet other types of people. In my first year of University, I met a lot of people who'd never been in a public swimming pool. They had swimming pools of their own. Their friends had their own swimming pools as well.
There was a whole other side of Buenos Aires, one I was completely outside of. The one of the “private” swimming pools. These people had never been in a “public” swimming pool before. These sides never mixed.
I was surprised and had quite a lot of mixed feelings about this. I soon understood that public swimming pools were not for everybody. But that’s still the side that captivates me the most.
You can learn a lot from a place, a city, a culture, just by spending some time in a public swimming pool. That’s why I’d love to continue exploring public swimming pools around the worl for as long as I can, exposing their people and space. Comparing each other.
Learning, exploring and enjoying this side of the world, this side of humanity. Thank you very much for reading.
Magalí Daich Varela.
Growing up, I started to meet other types of people. In my first year of University, I met a lot of people who'd never been in a public swimming pool. They had swimming pools of their own. Their friends had their own swimming pools as well.
There was a whole other side of Buenos Aires, one I was completely outside of. The one of the “private” swimming pools. These people had never been in a “public” swimming pool before. These sides never mixed.
I was surprised and had quite a lot of mixed feelings about this. I soon understood that public swimming pools were not for everybody. But that’s still the side that captivates me the most.
You can learn a lot from a place, a city, a culture, just by spending some time in a public swimming pool. That’s why I’d love to continue exploring public swimming pools around the worl for as long as I can, exposing their people and space. Comparing each other.
Learning, exploring and enjoying this side of the world, this side of humanity. Thank you very much for reading.
Magalí Daich Varela.