Elmgreen & Dragset have created new installation titled Bent Pool for a commissioned project for the city of Miami Beach. Bent Pool is permanently installed outside the Miami Beach Convention Center to coincide with the Miami Art Week. Elmgreen & Dragset, who often reinterpret familiar spatial and cultural structures that surround us in modern times with criticality and subversive wit, offer viewers a fresh perspective into the landscape of the city with the Bent Pool. 

Bent Pool is a 6-meter-high sculptural installation which features a swimming pool folded in half, continuing Elmgreen & Dragset’s longstanding interest in the swimming pool motif. Identified by details such as the ladder, diving board, and pool lamps, the abstracted object can easily be recognized as a swimming pool even though its arched shape prevents it from carrying water. Drawing on the Minimalist reductive tradition and use of geometric forms, Bent Pool features a turquoise blue interior, one of Elmgreen & Dragset’s signature colors, and a matte white exterior, leading the work to stand out against the greenery of the park outside the Miami Beach Convention Center. Due to Miami Beach’s status as a beloved holiday destination, swimming pools are a natural part of the city’s fabric. The distorted shaped of the Bent Pool, however, makes us more aware of how objects are perceived relative to different contexts. Elmgreen & Dragset are not limited to presenting messages through the sculptures, but develop possibilities of public art that remind us of the enjoyment that can be found in so many experiences, oftentimes in the everyday.