The installation reflects on the gentrification of East London and the ongoing loss of public spaces
Submitted at Oct 3, 2018, 2:11 PM
German artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset have transformed the ground floor of the Whitechapel gallery into a vast and eerily abandoned public swimming pool. The intervention is part of the exhibition This Is How We Bite Our Tongues , which opened on 27 September. The installation on a large scale was created as a reflection on the gentrification of East London and the ongoing loss of public spaces. 
Elmgreen & Dragset have transformed Whitechapel with a fictional narrative that tells the story of its rise and fall, from its philanthropic founding in 1901 to its rise as a famous public service institution and its politically sanctioned and commercially driven decline. Empty of water and With its deteriorating surfaces, the pool points to a loss of faith in public space in an age of austerity. East London was once populated by bars where artists used to hang out. Now there are artists' studios that have closed down and become luxury apartments. At the same time, poorer neighborhoods experienced the effect of austerity policies. 
Additional works by the artists are featured within the pool, such as "Some Stayed While Others Left" (2018), a fallen statue of a headless male body evoking classical sculpture. Nearby, "Gay Marriage" (2010), a work that consists of two urinals with their pipes intertwined and connected and "Very Heavy" (2017), an immense aluminum rock that weighs down on a trampoline. 
"Elmgreen & Dragset: This Is How We Bite Our Tongues" is at the Whitechapel Gallery from September 27, 2018 to January 13, 2019. The exhibition was organized by Laura Smith, the gallery's curator, and assistant curator Habda Rashid. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated publication, including an interview between Iwona Blazwick, Director of the Whitechapel Gallery and Elmgreen & Dragset. 
