You Can't Swim in Leandro Erlich's Swimming Pool

June 24, 2011 2:33 PM

Swimming Pool is a piece by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich that gives the illusion of people walking and breathing underwater in an ordinary swimming pool. Video from the MoMA PS1 installation.

More Erlich:

Window and Ladder (Too Late for Help) at Prospect.1 (New Orleans Biennial) [writeup and photos] [video]

Carousel at the Liverpool Biennial [writeup and photos] [video]

Batiment [writeup and photo] [video from Paris Nuit Blanche 2004]

"La invención de Leandro," an essay by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti about Erlich's work [pdf] [Google Doc]

posted by hurdy gurdy girl (10 comments total)

Hey! I saw/experienced this in Japan a while back! It was pretty neat.
posted by saul wright at 2:38 PM on June 24, 2011

It's a neat idea, but it doesn't work for me because no one is moving in slow motion like they would if they were actually underwater.
posted by bwg at 2:43 PM on June 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I knew I've seen this before!
The same artist set this up as a permanent installation at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan (designed by the architectural firm SANAA).

1. Walking to the Pool.
2. Above Water.
3. Under Water.
4. Museum Basement Level.
posted by lemuring at 3:07 PM on June 24, 2011

Where's the skinnydippers?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:20 PM on June 24, 2011

oooooh that is so cool. thanks.
posted by Euphorbia at 4:39 PM on June 24, 2011

Nice pictures but this is about as original as painting an apple. People have been taking photos like this since the birth of photography.
posted by joannemullen at 5:25 PM on June 24, 2011

I love this, and Batiment looks like great fun. Thanks for posting!
posted by various at 6:29 PM on June 24, 2011

@joannemullen, I'm guessing you only clicked the first link? Because this post isn't about photography.
posted by anotherkate at 7:17 PM on June 24, 2011

Illusion, Michael.
posted by neuromodulator at 11:14 PM on June 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Embedding disabled on request" on video in main link.
posted by maryr at 7:27 PM on June 25, 2011