2013 · Wenn das Bad zur Bühne wird.
2013 · Berlin. Zwei Titel für Malte.
Archive story · 2013
When the pool becomes a stage.
Fountains, a training room and people in robes facing an applauding audience. These original photographs open a different page of the 2013 archive.
Red light, blue water.
The first view is wide. Platforms project into the hall, jets of water curve across the pool and red light meets blue reflections. Several people stand high above the water. The reflections alone give the room depth.
The stage carries the title “Die Pool Champions”. RTL’s programme description identifies the show as a celebrity water-sports competition including diving and synchronised swimming. RTL · Die Pool Champions ↗
These archive photographs preserve the television setting. They let us look at the space around a performance: the lights, the height of the room and the audience’s view of the water.
Another room, another scale.
A white wall, blue mats and a trampoline. In this frame, a body is upside down above the bed. There is no grandstand in view and no wall of coloured light. The figure occupies the room on its own terms.
The picture changes the scale of this selection. A whole arena is followed by one person in a training space. It shares a file series and camera date with the show pictures, but its location and connection to a particular production remain unconfirmed.
Robes at the poolside.
No one is flying in this photograph. People in white, navy, bright blue, black and red robes face the stands. The programme title is embroidered across their backs. Behind them, members of the audience are clapping.
It is an ordinary poolside garment in an extraordinary setting. That makes the frame worth keeping beside the large stage views. There is room in the archive for the people standing together, not only for a body in mid-air.
The pool stays in the picture.
A diver in red shorts hangs above the water. The tower occupies the left of the frame; illuminated stands fill the background. In front, a pool ladder remains plainly visible, with the water reflecting pink and blue around it.
The set is large, but the ladder brings the view back to the poolside. It is a useful final detail: a familiar piece of a swimming pool inside the television spectacle.
The pool in the spotlights.
Three additional views show the stage, the structure above the water and the fountains in changing light. Their camera date is 21 June 2013. They extend this photographic record without establishing a broadcast date or a competition result.
