Piscina de ondas
2014 - 2015

Each place, environment or space can be described in different ways, according to the manner we perceive them and the meanings that we assign to them. These meanings assigned and transferred to the collective, start to feed our imaginary and build stories, myths and legends.

How I hadn't experienced the Brasília's Artificial Waves Swimming Pool, those ruins didn't awaken me any memory, there was no meaning beyond what I could see in the ruins that I had found. What would be the "colors" that place when it was still active? How the waves would be? What would be my reaction to this environment?This work intend to rescue the memories of the people who knew the place in your best years to rebuild the imagery of the pool with whole of emotional meanings included in the collective imagery. A new swimming pool able to translate the whole complexity of this place.

João Paulo Machado“I lived in [the city of] Guará... a group of us would get together from Guará... and take off [on our bikes]... Since we’d get there and we were still underage…we had this trick of entering through the fence, near some bocce courts. And I’d have a blast, stay about 2 hours…The memory that lingers is of the gang of us going there together and diving into the wave pool. Utter joy!”

Daniel Barbosa“I remember the motion of the waves and those little heads, everyone bobbing...as a kid, I’d never gone to the beach so, for me, it was awesome to see that…I remember the last Viplan busses (a public transportation company in Brasilia) had those turnstiles and the entrance to the pool had the same exact turnstile. I recall that we used to play and say – ah, now we’re going to ride the bus again…”

Raimundo Nonato, Natinho“...The two times I went to the wave pool was as a counselor at a day camp…That period was really exciting, I was 18 years old and I was a camp counselor…the children couldn’t go to the part of the pool where the waves formed and broke…I remember there was a line that we’d string across and the counselor had to control the kids so they wouldn’t go past that point... at that time, the population density was different, [there was much less people], it was really romantic, so the wave pool was all the rage.”

Philipe Nagô “I remember only one time…I was there with my brother, I had a Styrofoam surf board…many many people, lots of kids in the pool... everyone wanted to borrow my surf board, I was the only kid who had one. It was funny…it was that, lots of people…”

Mario Jorge “It was a memorable time for the youngsters who lived through that era... there were places where people would gather around the pool, places to set up your towel and we’d lay there in the sun with all the other kids and everything....when the sirens sounded, the waves would come…it was really interesting, it was an enjoyable place.”

Tiago Sato, “I remember being there, it wasn’t that many times because we were members of the army country club so we went to the club more often. We went there [to the wave pool] more to check out a different experience, I don’t have many memories…I remember more the moving water, really, lots of people, clear skies, that’s the recollection...”

henrymacario