The Whole World a Bauhaus
10.10.–28.12.2025.
The reception the Bauhaus has become both a celebrated and yet controversial symbol of modern design and avant-garde approaches to life. Although the school was only in existence from 1919 to 1933 at different locations (Weimar, Dessau, Berlin), it has a unique standing as an exemplary representative of a modernist new start. In these years, only around 1,300 students trained at the Bauhaus – how did this school achieve such a remarkable influence, as the epitome of radical renewal in society, in design and in teaching? What makes the Bauhaus so special? Why are its products still made today? The exhibition title, The Whole World a Bauhaus, taken from Bauhaus student and teacher Fritz Kuhr (1928), is in many ways programmatic. It alludes to the fact that the Bauhaus redefined the parameters of art, the crafts, and technology, when Walter Gropius declared the aim of design to include the whole spectrum of design and also social practice in every sense. The exhibition title also refers to the fact that this is a touring exhibition which will address connections and look at the role of modernism at different venues, where it will serve as a platform for learning. Local curators will be invited to explore the avant-gardes in Argentina and Mexico, for example.
“The Whole World a Bauhaus” is divided into eight different chapters, each focusing on an aspect of work and life at the Bauhaus between 1919 and 1933. Floating explores the Bauhaus interest in motifs of weightlessness and also looks at how glass and skeleton frameworks dematerialised architecture, or how the cantilever chair resting on air became symbolic of an entire design movement. The chapter on Experiment presents objects that were both the result of new research into materials and space, and whose dimensions, proportions, and testing of materials were also designed to make mass production possible. While the Total Work of Art looks at the synthesis of all the arts, and also of art and science and of art and life, the chapter Community presents key objects documenting everyday life at the Bauhaus, including the famous parties. The chapter New Man shows that the Bauhaus was not just based on utopian left-wing politics, but also explored other radical new political and philosophical identities. The chapter Art, Crafts, Technology presents the Bauhaus workshops and the products they made, while Radical Pedagogy looks at the organisation of the Bauhaus and its teaching practice. Crosscultural relations are explored in the chapter entitled Encounters. Cultural relations were encouraged at the Bauhaus through lectures, numerous visitors from around the world, the diverse collections of the Bauhaus Library, and also in the search for new forms in design. There were close contacts with the Vkhutemas art school in Moscow, for example, while Mies van der Rohe attempted to make the Bauhaus more international through partnerships in the USA.
In just a few years, the Bauhaus addressed many of the pressing issues associated with the fast pace of industrialisation in Germany. Influential modernist artists taught at the Bauhaus, and many of them emigrated and spread its heritage all over the world. This exhibition shows photographs, works on paper, documents, films, texts, and objects that present the emergence and development of the Bauhaus, all of which later served as a source for understanding the history and appeal of modernism.
The exhibition is prepared by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) in Stuttgart, Germany, which as an independent intermediary organisation, plays a leading role in international artistic and cultural exchange, and its work helps to shape Germany’s international cultural relations. The exhibition is realised in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Riga and the Embassy of Germany in Latvia.
Curator of the exhibition is German author, dramaturge, and art historian Boris Friedewald (b.1969), internationally recognized for his publications and exhibitions on the Bauhaus, photography, and modern art. With a background in art history, theatre studies, and education, he has worked as a freelance dramaturge, lecturer, and curator of acclaimed exhibitions worldwide. He lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Images:
Bauhaus Dessau, Advertising brochure / order card for thejournal “bauhaus, all the circles of the cultural world”, folder, 1927. Foto: A. Körner, bildhübsche Fotografie, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen
Josef Hartwig (game design), Joost Schmidt (packaging typography), The Bauhaus, set, model XVI, 1924, maple, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020. Foto: A. Körner, bildhübsche Fotografie, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen