In 2019, the centenary of the foundation of the German school of art Bauhaus will be celebrated, a milestone that led to the birth of the modern movement in the history of the arts.
The most important school of architecture, art and design in Germany, which gave rise to a movement of avant-garde and innovation, and whose teachings are still today a source of inspiration, took its first steps in the German city of Weimar from 1919, the date of its foundation, to 1925. Later, it moved to Dessau, until 1932 and then to Berlin until its final closure, a year later, due to the advent of Nazism. Bringing together the teaching of the various arts, sculpture, architecture, decoration, but also craftsmanship and technology under the wing of design: this was in principle, the fundamental aim of the school.
One hundred years after its foundation, we’re ready to relive the magic atmosphere of Bauhaus, characterized by essentiality and rationalism: in fact, work is underway on the preparation and renewal for the hundredth anniversary, and the whole Germany is trembling with excitement. Many exhibitions, congresses, events are in program to celebrate the importance of the school in the art, and the personalities who taught there. The new year will begin with the opening festival that will be in Berlin at the Akademie der Kunste from 16 to 24 January under Bettina Wagner-Bergelt’s artistic direction.
The three festival, which will take place in throughout the year 2019, will present in a contemporary way the philosophy of the Bauhaus of the past. The first of the three, that will be from 20 to 24 March is the Festival School Fundamental, a festival of learning, which will tell the methods of teaching. From 31 May to 2 June, the Festival Architecture Radical will take place, set in Walter Gropius’ historic work office, as a symbol of social change. From 11 to 15 September, the Festival Stage Total will take place, where the performance of Wassily Kandinsky’s Violet will be staged: traditional theatre is revisited in an innovative way with new techniques of expression.
2019 will be also the year in which two new museum will be created: on 6 April the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar will open, with Heike Hanada’s project, while on 8 September the new Bauhaus Museum in Dessau will open, housing the collection of the Bauhaus Foundation designed by Gonzalez Hinz Zabala.
For the complete program of the events, you can download the document in pdf format at the link: https://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/dl/427703c01d07142faf3374333ea7a6ba/SBD_Bauhaus_Centenary_2019.pdf
In the celebration of the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus, great importance will also be given to the role of the female figure: women, at that time in Germany, lived in difficult years, where gender equality was an achievement far away, even if the founder of the school Walter Gropius had declared that there should be “no difference between the most beautiful and the strongest sex”. Many women had applied to enrol in the school, but the access to the courses was denied to the most of them, and then they were bound to the weaving workshop. Among these, was Anni Albers, who found her own form of expression in weaving: this discipline allowed her to become a talented textile designer. An exhibition is dedicated to her works at the Tate Modern, in London, where there are her original looms, her revolutionary ideas, her projects in the world of design, as she reinvented the traditional hand weaving in a modern key: an opportunity not to be missed to learn more about the enormous contribution made by the pioneering textile artist. The exhibition will be open until January 2019.
Not only: the project The Hidden Treasures Bauhaus Dessau was born. With this project, the typefaces used by the great masters were found and renewed. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, in collaboration with Adobe, has decided to digitize and give a new imprint to five typographic projects, using the Adobe Illustrator CC program. The first one, round and minimalist, was designed by Joost Schmidt and it’s called Joschmi; the second, called Xants, is a neoclassical font, and it was recreated by Xanti Schawinsky. And then, there is the Carl Marx font, in both Regular and Bold versions by Carl Marx, the Alfarn font by Alfred Arndt, and the Reross font, in both Quadratic and Rectangular versions by Reinhold Rossig. You can download the font sets at this link: https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/hidden-treasures?mv=other&ref=tk.com&sdid=S36FMY6Y . For more information, just visit the website dedicated to the initiative: https://adobehiddentreasures.com/ .
- Giulia Zamponi
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