“Pleasure palaces from a turbulent past, “Dark Pools: Historic Swimming Pools of Berlin” dives into 100 years of German history as seen through the city’s elaborately designed swimming pools. In a nation that idolised its swimmers, its pools were often built to high standards, with styles ranging from Roman bath to minimalist Bauhaus. Striking photos of the site of the infamous Nazi Olympics show the pool still in use and looking much as it did in 1936, the summer American runner Jesse Owens made Olympic History. Another pool was transformed into a dance club – fitting in a city famed for a nightlife that attracted the likes of David Bowie and Marlene Dietrich.
The photos and text, which includes quotes and snippets of poetry, form a narrative around the tumultuous periods in which the pools were built; an architectural timeline that stretches through the First World War, the Weimar period, the Third Reich, the Cold War and the Berlin Wall.
An imaginative look at urban structures that survived decades of both war and gentrification.
Photos and text by artist and filmmaker Lisa Seidenberg.”
— Anemone Press
