{"id":28034,"date":"2025-12-23T15:25:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T13:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cda.org.il\/?post_type=mt_event&#038;p=28034"},"modified":"2025-12-23T15:25:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T13:25:24","slug":"6-swimming-pools-behind-broken-glass","status":"publish","type":"mt_event","link":"https:\/\/cda.org.il\/en\/events\/6-swimming-pools-behind-broken-glass\/","title":{"rendered":"6 SWIMMING POOLS BEHIND BROKEN GLASS"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":28035,"template":"","event_cat":[152],"acf":{"event_type":"exhibition","subtitle":"","logo":null,"event_custom_toptix_link":"","duration":"04\/12\/2014 - 03\/01\/2015","video":"","start_date":null,"price":"","location":"","ages":"","people":"","hosts":"","dates_text":"","single_page_text":"","bottom_text":"A project by\u00a0Tanja La\u017eeti\u0107\r\nProduced during La\u017eeti\u0107\u2019s residency at the Center for Digital Art\r\n\r\nSwimming pools are, essentially, man-made containers designed for swimming and leisure. But they do not contain only water. They are also a reference to the sea: a tamed and restricted version, a convenient and demarcated area of nature. These pools are usually blue, also adhering as much as possible to semblance of the sea. And as the blue sea is actually a reflection of blue skies, both a result of the short-range sunrays in the atmosphere, the pool is also a slice of sky. Diving in is a dive into a domesticated sea, a pit of dug-up earth, a piece of highly engineered firmament.\r\n\r\nThe private swimming pool, a status symbol and culture icon, is the central element of Ruscha\u2019s artist book \u2013 \u201cNine Swimming Pools and a Broken Glass\u201d (published in 1968). The book is comprised of 64 pages that include 9 seemingly random pages of glossy color photos of private and unidentified swimming pools from around Los Angeles, and one additional page featuring a photo of a broken glass on a blue background. The other 54 pages are left blank.\r\n\r\nRuscha\u2019s swimming pools \u2013 in lustrous hyper-realistic blue, still and empty of people \u2013 are the foundation for the project \u201c6 SWIWMMING POOLS BEHIND BROKEN GLASS\u201d of Slovenian artist Tanja La\u017eeti\u0107, who has gathered photos of swimming pools of kibbutzim convalescent homes.\r\n\r\nIn contrast to Ruscha\u2019s desolate pools, La\u017eeti\u0107\u2019s images from photos taken in the \u201870s are vibrant with life. But like the barren pools of LA\u2019s ultra-rich, the lively kibbutz pools were also politically laden icons. In 1981, after one of Israel\u2019s most tense and violent election campaigns, the Likud Party leader Menachem Begin spoke of \u201cthe millionaires in the kibbutzim with their swimming pools\u201d. Pools were used to establish an image of a hedonistic over-privileged homogenous ethnic group versus the huge and marginalized mass of \u201csecond Israel\u201d. Begin created a viewpoint that looked at the modest kibbutz pools but saw the opulent pools of LA.\r\n\r\nBut the actual kibbutz pools are a far cry from Begin\u2019s imagery. Many were constructed as convalescent home facilities \u2013 a hybrid that combined nursing home and hotel services. These convalescent homes were open to members of the workers association, often forced to wait for long periods of time before being allowed to \u201cconvalesce\u201d. These places were poor, austere versions of the hotel experience we enjoy today, a product of a socialist society that took a severe view of pleasure-seeking and unproductive leisure time.\r\n\r\nIronically, it was Begin\u2019s two Likud administrations that adopted a liberal economic policy which began the privatization process of Israel\u2019s economy, thus only exacerbating the polarization of Israeli society. The attempt to dismantle the established powers of the Israeli socialist left wing created new power classes, but the plight of development towns remained and was continually ignored. The numbers of Israel\u2019s marginalized population swelled, and over time this liberal economic policy would end the traditional kibbutz structure, and convert the use of land from agricultural and industrial purposes to huge shopping malls whose profits (and State profits incurred by allowing their development) are divided with gross inequality.\r\n\r\nIn this context, it is interesting to note that the same year Begin made his statement about the over-privileged kibbutzim, the \u201cIsrotel\u201d hotel chain was established, providing a new economic aspect to Israel\u2019s leisure time culture. No more modest convalescence, but true laissez-faire unapologetic indulgence. No more modernist buildings designed to blend with nature, now hotels stood sky high. No more recuperation and growth, now the focus was consumption.\r\n\r\nLa\u017eeti\u0107\u2019s compilation of swimming pools was gathered from old postcards that \u201cconvalescents\u201d sent home to their families. La\u017eeti\u0107 scanned postcards, reprinted them and framed them, then shattered them with a hammer and reconstructed them with clear adhesive tape[i]. Ruscha\u2019s broken glass image \u2013 a formalistic act adding to the impact of the West Coast\u2019s fancy and abandoned pools \u2013 is transformed by La\u017eeti\u0107 to amalgamated shards through which we see a completely different image. The broken glass, providing the same effect as the swimming pool photographs, becomes a screen through which we view Israel at the point between socialist market forces and a capitalist economy. The glued fractures map out the mechanism of collective image manufacture.\r\nRan Kasmy-Ilan\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n[i]\u00a0La\u017eeti\u0107 employed this exact same method in 2010 with photographs of Yugoslavian swimming pools from old tourist brochures. This work was exhibited in the 6th\u00a0Triennial of Slovenian Contemporary Art: Idea for Living - Realism and Reality in Contemporary Slovenian Art U3 curated by Charles Esche.","bottom_gallery":null,"list_title":"","list":null,"platform_hours_title":"","platform_hours_content":"","platform_info_title":"","platform_info_phone":"","platform_info_cell":"","platform_info_email":"","platform_credits_title":"","platform_credits_subtitle":"","platform_credits_icons":null,"posts_query":"latest","posts":null,"select_term_id":null,"Code":"","Name":"","ID":"","BriefText":"","DetailText":"","ReviewUrl":"","TrailerUrl":"","DirectLink":"","SummarySaleStatus":"","LongMinutes":"","BreakMinutes":"","MediumImageUrl":"","SmallImageUrl":"","LargeImageUrl":"","ShowTypeId":"","RecommendedForSlideShowInGenres":"","ShowTypeName":"","EventDate":"","FormattedDate":"","ActualEventDate":"","StartSaleFrom":"","EndSaleAt":"","LastUpdate":"","SaleStatus":"","SoldOut":"","IsFutureSaleForDisplay":"","OwnerId":"","OwnerName":"","HallName":"","HallGuid":"","smallimage":null,"mediumimage":null,"largeimage":null,"event_display_dates":null,"gallery":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>6 SWIMMING POOLS BEHIND BROKEN GLASS &#8226; 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