Michele Tagliaferri, A SWIMMING POOL, 2019

While the search for the new is rooted in our human nature, we privately entertain ourselves with the pleasure of routine because it gives us the assurance of controlling and therefore dominating time… at least for the moment. In keeping with the poetics of his previous works, in A Swimming Pool, Tagliaferri immerses us in his love–hate relationship with routine: on the one hand, he attempts to escape from it, but on the other, he is aware of his need for it and thus seeks the pleasure of daily life.
Throughout all seven chapters of the book, we experience pleasure similar to that of simple common rituals, recognising the repetitions and cycles that we have ensconced ourselves in ever since we abandoned nomadic life and became time-measuring
farmers.
The pictures, taken in different geographical locations using different cameras (aspects that further highlight the routine nature of work), capture the author’s private life, which he shares with us in an attempt to make it more bearable.
Everything seems monotonous, but beware, there are changes…