Shadow Casters, Shapes in Light
Playing, investigating and collecting with the Bauhaus Agents in Dessau's Bauhaus Museum
The Bauhaus Museum in Dessau opened on 8th September 2019. The museum sees itself not only as an exhibition space telling the story of the "Versuchsstätte Bauhaus", but also as an open stage, a space for learning, action and encounters. Our tour of the museum with the agents shows the part played by the work of the Dessau Bauhaus Agents and what additional offers await interested visitors.
Intro
How do you exhibit a school? This question was key during curatorial considerations regarding the new Bauhaus Museum in Dessau. "We are concerned with the path of learning, of unleashing and rejecting ideas," explained Regina Bittner, co-curator and deputy director of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation at the opening. The interactive information stations that the Dessau Bauhaus Agents have developed for the exhibition in the new museum building, designed by the Berlin office chezweitz, take up this same approach.
The show begins in the foyer of the glass building block, which the Dessau museum makers see as an "open stage" – for discussions, performances and workshops. This generous space is intended to provide a link to the city, a freely accessible venue for encounters and communication. It is here that museum guests and passers-by–who are perhaps just looking for a shortcut from the shopping centre opposite to the city park–can meet, for example, at "ALMA 100". This ensemble of play and seating elements was designed by the Leipzig office LUKS and was inspired by the toys of Bauhaus designer Alma Siedhoff-Buscher.
The "Spielomat" offers a wide range of additional games free of charge for players of all ages. The device has 100 ideas for indoor and outdoor games, developed by pupils from the partner schools in Dessau and Halle together with the Bauhaus Agents. The apparatus was designed by the Büro für Sinn und Unsinn (Halle/Saale). Simply select the desired playing time, the degree of activity, the number and age of the players, crank the handle firmly – and off you go!
A playful Beginning in the Foyer
"A playful beginning (undisturbed by theory, thus without preconceptions) develops courage, leads to discoveries". These are words once used by Josef Albers, who had a decisive influence on the preparatory course at the Bauhaus Dessau. In this sense, the Spielomat awakens a spirit of discovery and some games may require a bit of courage: "Change your hair" is one of the game instructions. "Do weird hairstyles for each other, look for inspiration in the museum. How about Walter Gropius' hairstyle, for example?" Another suggestion is the game "Typo-Salat", developed by a 16-year-old pupil, Gerdis: "Explore the terrain and find all the letters of the alphabet". The role that typography played at the Bauhaus can be seen in the exhibition one flight of stairs further up.
Casting shadows and modelling light
The "Experimental Space" of the Bauhaus Agents occupies a central position in the main exhibition area. "It is the most active element of the exhibition," says Dorothee Brill. Here, the agents are not only showing documentation of their project work with the 15 partner schools from Dessau-Roßlau and Halle (Saale). At the "Shadow Caster", visitors can also become active themselves. This light show apparatus was inspired by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. In 1922, as a Bauhaus student, he discovered quite by chance the phenomenon of "coloured shadows", which are created by superimposing different light sources. In the exhibition, the "Shadow Caster", which was created in collaboration with designer Leander Leinenbach and pupils from the primary school "Am Akazienwäldchen", can be used in numerous variations to test how light can be a material of design.
Visitors are also introduced to "Light Theory" at the hands-on station on the opposite side of the exhibition course. For instance, the famous lamps designed by Bauhaus member Marianne Brandt on behalf of Kandem were also the result of intensive research into light. Together with designer Oliver Proske, the Bauhaus Agents have developed an analogue-digital experimental station with which visitors can change beams of light on the lamp model using different mechanical settings, and so continue the Kandem light studies themselves.
