Festival for the Centennial Launch
from 6 pm
>> Bauhaus Building (booked out)
The programme for the centennial launch, sponsored by the Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung, is based on the material explorations of the historic Bauhaus and its experiments with space, body, movement and material. To this end, contemporary artists have been invited to explore these aspects of the Bauhaus legacy. By testing, touching, feeling and experimenting, they explore materialities that shape the body, movement and space. The human voice is explored as a compositional material and the medium of film in its material nature.
The creative connection between the Bauhaus Stage and the workshops and their material experiments is epitomised by the so-called material dances: metal, glass and stick dances. Developed between 1926 and 1929, these were part of Oskar Schlemmer’s “Der Mensch” teaching course.
Performers Isabelle Schad and Manuel Lindner contrast Schlemmer’s fixed geometric forms with a mobile arrangement of bodies and movable costume elements. They are interested in the changes in materiality triggered by movement and the power of poetry and sensory perception that can be triggered by these transformative processes. Joana Tischkau’s reinterpretation of the material dances is dedicated to the asymmetrical relationship between different cultures of remembrance from a Black German perspective. With Mike Dele Dittrich Frydetzki and Raiko Sánchez, the ability for intimate co-operation becomes the material of their performance.
Short films – S-Tanz from Farbenlichtspiele by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, 1923/2000, Opus 3 by Walter Ruttmann / Lore Leudesdorff, 1924, Tanz der Muscheln by Alfred Ehrhardt, 1959 and an excerpt from Reflektorische Farblichtspiele by Kurt Schwerdtfeger/Rudolf Jüdes, 1922/68 – show how the medium of film in its material nature itself becomes the focus of artistic-filmic attention.
The Italian composer and musician Piero Mottola premieres Voices of Bauhaus, a complex orchestra of voices. The piece is conceived as an emotional walk that associates images, stories and emotions. It is based on recordings of 43 voices, of people who work at the Bauhaus or have a relationship with the Bauhaus. Voices of Bauhaus will be premiered by the Extra Choir of the Anhaltisches Theater under the direction of Sebastian Kennerknecht, soloist Marina Drobyshevskaya and baritone Alexander Argirov.
The evening ends with the Berlin-based brass band Schnaftl Ufftschik in the café-bistro at the Bauhaus.
Material-Previews for the Centennial Launch
The Bauhaus buildings in Dessau were celebrated as the expression of an innovative new architecture – thanks in no small part to the materials they are built from. For the launch of the centennial under the motto To the Core. Bauhaus Dessau 100, join us on a materials trail of discovery and get acquainted with the venues of all the planned centennial year exhibitions and other interesting buildings in Dessau.
The material previews are free short guided tours. A free ticket can be booked via our ticket shop. Please note that you need a regular ticket to visit the Bauhaus Building.
Concrete + Glass
5 Sept 2025, 11:30 am + 13 pm
>> Bauhaus Building
Gropiusallee 38
Start visitor centre
Metal + Slag
5 Sept 2025, 2 + 3:30 pm
>> Steel House
Start at the Steel House, Südstraße
Triadic Dance Club
5 Sept 2025, 5 – 10 pm
>> Hochschule Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Building 04
As in previous years, Hochschule Anhalt University of Applied Sciences Dessau is organising the Triadic Dance Club at Seminarplatz in cooperation with AG-Kultur and the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. There will be the exhibition Parallel Visions with works by young Dessau artists, a bar by the São Tomé and Príncipe team as well as video installations and performances that show how international students reinterpret performative architectonics-dances and mask games from the historic Bauhaus.
