Swimming Pool
Sculptures & Installations350 x 1250 x 2500 cm, intervention in existing swimming pool
wood, cement and tiles
photo: C. Demeter
Like many marketplaces, libraries and train stations, many swimming pools serve a remarkable social end. The hierarchy of social classes vanishes in swimming pools where everyone meets freely. The former swimming pool ‘De Schalk’ in the village of Willebroek is closed for a while and awaits a new function. It’s a unique opportunity for Wesley Meuris to realize his Dual Orientation, dysfunctional objects, on full scale. The original function of the building vanished and cannot be restored. The artists performs an act of restoration, imposing a new order. This re-contextualisation is purely aesthetic, in the broadest sense. It exceeds formal constraints of painting, sculptures or other pieces of art. It all comes down to the insight that the aesthetic is a gift from experience, a process shaped by centuries of handling reality. Natural proportions emerge and get tied up in collective memory. Despite its dysfunctionality, it bears strong objectives and mobilizes our imagination.