“Pool People” explores the past, present and possible future of outdoor swimming pools as places of democratic negotiation and diversity. In August 2026, the “Michi” (Michaelibad), Munich’s largest outdoor swimming pool, will host a three-part art project: a performance, an underwater sound installation, and a pool party.
Artistically, the question posed is: What does this swimming pool, which opened in 1955, represent? Who swims laps here? Who jumps from the diving board? Who nabs whose spot on the sun lounger? The pool is a place where people, where bodies come together, encounter each other and negotiate shared space between the pool and the sunbathing lawn. Sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly, sometimes with glances, sometimes with gestures.
The preceding artistic research incorporates both an examination of historical themes relating to Munich’s public baths and contemporary negotiating processes that determine how people interact in the baths. Archival research and conversations with historians and sociologists are supplemented by interviews with bathers amidst the water slide, diving board and kiosk.
Directed by Christiane Huber, the opening performance brings together performers, teenage bathers, and members of Munich’s theater youth club scene to talk about the outdoor pool as it is in summer 2026, as well as how it once was and what it might be in the future.
For the immersive underwater sound installation, Christiane Huber and composer Nadia Botello explore the auditory space of the “Michi” based on interviews with bathers and the sound of the pool.
The concluding pool party will culminate in the unveiling of a sculpture by Robert Keil, which will remain in the pool area, inviting interaction and communal use.
Christiane Huber, born in 1973, lives and works in Munich.
Program Michaelibad
Chapter 1: Pool People – the performance
Saturday, 1 and Sunday, 2 August, from 4 pm
Actors, Isar nymphs, and teenagers invite you to take a stroll through the Michaelibad, between the water slide and the sunbathing lawn. What did it look like here 70 years ago? Is the Michaelibad really a place for everyone, as it was designed to be in the 1950s? What about french fries and the cult of the body? How do you do the best cannonball in the world? And what does all of this have to do with us anyway?
Chapter 2: Pool People – an underwater music installation
Thursday, 7 – Sunday, 9 August, all day
Opening of the installation on August 7 at 4 pm with the Isarnixen & Team
Get in the water, paddle, and listen! In an underwater music installation for the large pool, swimmers get to share their thoughts and explain what they love so much about the outdoor pool.
Chapter 3: Pool People – the party
Saturday, 15 August, from 4 pm
(in case of rain: August 16 at 4 pm)
To wrap things up, Pool People invites you to the grand finale:
Candles from the ten-meter board, somersaults from the five-meter board, a water ballet by the synchronized swimmers, and “Michi” stories—nothing but swimming fun! With beats, fries, and slushies.
Workshops in synchronized swimming and high diving invite you to join in.
For dates and registration, visit: https://christianehuber.net/
Team
Christiane Huber – Concept and Direction
Manon Haase, Christoph Gurk – Dramaturgy
Antigone Akgün, Anna Neata, Dana von Suffrin – Text
Robert Keil – Set Design
Nuphar Barkol, Jiale Zhu – Costume Design
Nadia Botello – Composition
Susanne E. Schneider – Choreography
Antigone Akgün, Cammisa Buerhaus, Ecem Fatma Çalışır,
Seyed Bardia Hashemizadeh, Nadège Meta Kanku,
Alexandra Martini, Annika Neugart, Llewellyn Reichman,
Enes Şahin, Esra Özmen, and young people from Munich youth theaters – Performance
Paolo Mariangeli, Nicholas Brown – Sound
EsRap – Music
Young people from theater groups in Munich
Sianza Zink – DJ, Radio 80000
Laura Manz / Rat & Tat Kulturbüro – Artistic Production
Moritz Appich – Graphics
Sven Zellner – Photos
Virginia Olivia Obiakor, Dina Demchenko, Pauline Jaisle, Emma Păcurariu – Interview
Sophie Oldenbourg – Interview Editing
Additional Contributors/Supporters
Synchronized swimmers / Isarnixen D.S.V. München e.V.
High divers SG Stadtwerke München
BB Boxing 1961
Team Michaelibad SWM München,
Zeugnerhof Children’s and Youth Center, Special Education Support Center and Middle School Innsbrucker Ring, a.k.a.Ingenieure, Steffi Krause, Barbara Liegl, Simone Keppler Waldman, Michael Kemenater, Burak Bozkurt
POOL PEOPLE is sponsored by the City of Munich, Public Art, and the Berthold Leibinger Foundation. Support provided by Real München e.V.
