Annual Theme 2015
Collective
In 2015 we are going for the big picture, for quantity and quality, and for the relationship between individual and community. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation devotes its annual program to the “collective” and at the same time has an eye on lateral thinkers
The “Bauhäusler” which not only included instructors and students but also friends of the school, saw themselves in the 1920s as members of a formative collective for learning, working and experimentation. Here at the Bauhaus they not only designed the products and visions of a new life but also tested them first-hand.
The tenor and context of the collective notion changed multiple times over the fourteen Bauhaus years because of the different objectives of the directors Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: from the romantic-idealistic idea of a monastic-elitist visionary community to cooperative collective models to liberal team and network ideas.
However one idea of the Bauhaus as a workshop of modernity remained constant throughout: the principle that all learning, experimentation, invention and work must be a collective endeavour. In 2015, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation views this principle not merely as a subject of historical reflection but also as the background and occasion for inquiring about today’s opportunities and potentials for collective design.
The following are some of the upcoming projects conceived by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation within the framework of the annual theme:
Tracing O.S. – A Performance in Search of Traces of Oskar Schlemmer
Energy Avantgarde Anhalt – Network & Laboratory
Bauhaus Lab 2015 – Cracks in the Curtain Wall – Beyond an Architecture of Cleanliness
Household Trade Fair – “How will we live a healthy and efficient lifestyle in the future?”
The Coop Principle – Hannes Meyer and the Concept of Collective Design
18th Bauhaus Festival – Kollektives Blau / Collective Blue
COOP Design Research Programme – Design as Research, Design as Education, Design as Projection
Stage Lab and Festival: play bauhaus – Spatial Machines, Spatial Concert and Spatial Dances
