Bauhaus ideas as questions of the present day.

A conference with contributions by Ulrike Bestgen, Friedrich von Borries, Naika Foroutan, Nina Horaczek, Skadi Jennicke, Olaf Lauströer, Hans-Georg Lippert, Sylvia Lemke, Thomas Locher, Steven Schäller, Louis Volkmann, Helmut Willke, Andreas Zick.

The Bauhaus movement, which centred around Weimar, Dessau and Berlin, has long since acquired its own mythos. By mid-November 2019, when numerous museums, galleries, libraries, theatres and art galleries in Germany will have addressed its history and heritage both admiringly and critically during the course of hundreds of events, almost all the “songs will have been sung”. Dozens of new publications and numerous radio, film and TV contributions have educated the public on almost all facets of Bauhaus (hi)story. These documentaries of the famous art school and its protagonists are dominated by a perspective drawn from aesthetics, art, media and architectural history.

However, during this anniversary year, less attention has been paid to the fact that early Bauhaus was born after the war and did not become reality until after the November Revolution in 1918, since it was in many respects highly politically charged and its opponents mostly attacked it with political arguments.

The Bauhaus “brand”, the “label” for all that is “modern” and that appeared to be “square, practical and good”, belittled the ideal of an artistic practice that – in terms of aspiration – would turn the world upside down, instead transforming it into no more than a fancy for something “different”. This eroded one of the core intentions of the historic art school and the institutions that succeeded it, i.e. to radically develop the freedom and individuality of artists and art students so that they could ultimately find their way to a “new sense of community”.

The final event organised by the Free State of Saxony for Bauhaus Year 2019 aims to take a closer look at the radical, socially utopian impetus of Bauhaus and pit it against present-day issues in order to provide an antidote to the predominantly formal, aesthetic celebration of Bauhaus on its 100th anniversary. A dialogue between disciplines and generations will decide whether Bauhaus and certain of its ideas are no more than parts of our cultural heritage or whether they are (or could be) part of a modern, individual social “identity”.

A cooperation between the German National Library’s German Museum of Books and Writing, the Saxon State Ministry of the Interior, the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony and Justus H. Ulbricht, Dresden.

Programme

Thursday, 14 November 2019

10:00 Arrival

10:30 Welcome

• Stephanie Jacobs, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
• Günther Schneider, Sächsische Staatsregierung
• Manuel Frey, Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen
• Justus H. Ulbricht

11:00 Freedom

• Helmut Willke: Freiheit in Zeiten der Konfusion
• Naika Foroutan: Die postmigrantische Gesellschaft im Spannungsfeld zwischen Freiheit und Gleichheit
• Friedrich von Borries: Politics of Design, Design of Politics – wie politisch ist Design?
• Skadi Jennicke: Streitkultur – Dilemmata zwischen Neutralitätsgebot und kritischer Stellungnahme. Beispiele aus der Leipziger Kulturpolitik

13:30 Lunch

14:30 Art

• Louis Volkmann: Bauhaus und Ostmoderne – eine Begegnung in Fotografien
• Sylvia Lemke: Die baugebundene Kunst der DDR auf den Spuren des Bauhauses – Dresdner Beispiele
• Olaf Lauströer: Vom ich zum wir – Künstler*innen zwischen individueller und kollektiver Subjektivierung
• Hans-Georg Lippert: Traditionalismus und Moderne – und dazwischen das Bauhaus

17:00 Snack

18:00 Brigo Bräugefergk und der gedrillte Dart.

A musically theatrical installation of the EUPHORIUM_freakestra, feat. Oliver Schwerdt, Günter Baby Sommer, Friedrich Kettlitz, Hartmut Dorschner

18:30 Meet and greet

20:00 Dinner

in the restaurant Volkshaus, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 30 (on a self-payer basis)

Friday, 15 November 2019

9:30 Arrival

10:00 Podium: Community

• Thomas Locher: Brüchige Gemeinschaften
• Steven Schäller: Identität. Zwischen Verfassungspatriotismus und Volksgemeinschaft
• Andreas Zick: Verlorene Mitte? Menschenfeindlichkeit in der Gesellschaft
• Nina Horaczek
• Ulrike Bestgen: Bruchlinien innerhalb einer verschworenen Gemeinschaft

12:00 Lunch

13:00 End