Practising the Bauhaus!
In the Berlin exhibition "original bauhaus", cooperation with the Bauhaus Agents helps to place the preliminary course centre-stage
What does it mean here, original? From 6th September 2019 to 27th January 2020, the Bauhaus Archive at the Berlinische Galerie is telling the story (ies) of the Bauhaus and following the emergence of original ideas and their development right through to reproduction and imitation over the decades. The Berlin Bauhaus Agents and their partner schools have played a decisive role in the conception, testing and implementation of the exhibition.
Pre-course original
Every Bauhaus student had to complete the preliminary course at the beginning of his or her education–run at first by Johannes Itten, later by Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy. Josef Albers once formulated the aspiration that everyone should learn together and in a new way, so experiencing material, colour and form anew.
The "exercise canon" included, among other things: tactile exercises, folding paper, copying, writing names in mirror writing, drawing by heart, naming pairs of opposites, morning greetings, emotional stenograms, breathing stenograms, physical exercises, figure skating on paper, drawing lemons, etc.
Nina Wiedemeyer and Friederike Holländer see the shared experiences at the beginning of training as a source of the community idea at the Bauhaus–and as potential for community and participation today.
In the exhibition, the student works are grouped according to tasks, inviting the visitors themselves to try out exercises from the pre-course lessons at the Bauhaus at inclusive exhibition stations.
Pre-course reloaded
9th and 10th grade pupils from the Nelson Mandela School, partner school of the Bauhaus Agents Program, tested the exercises in advance. For one year, each week they attended a workshop run by the Bauhaus Agents as part of their compulsory elective art course. Under the motto "practising bauhaus", they tried out both historical and contemporary exercises from the preliminary course as interpreted by a team of artists and teachers (Doro Petersen, Imke Küster, Julia Marquardt, Zara Moris, Florentine Baumann). Other Berlin partner schools joined the group and completed workshops from the preliminary course compendium, and teachers have also been trained. A cooperation with the Beuth Hochschule finally enabled a six-hour pre-course marathon with over 80 architecture students, as Professor Minka Kersten integrated the test run into her design seminar.
