Gong | Bang | Whistle

For Gong | Bang | Whistle, the first solo exhibition in Germany by the Danish artists Astrup & Bordorff, the duo have created a new film in collaboration with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.

Archaeological excavations conducted at the Bauhaus Masters’ Houses in Dessau in 2007 mark the starting point of the film’s narrative. The many objects unearthed are now kept in the Construction Research Archive of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Among them are historic drainpipes, some of which could be assigned only presumably to particular houses. In the film, this archival uncertainty provides the impetus to explore the relationship between desire and the writing of history: In search for traces of a possible fifth Masters’ House and its forgotten inhabitants a small team of female researchers is drawn into an emotionally charged vortex of professional ambition, collective fascination, and queer desire.

In the Bauhaus Museum Dessau’s “Spatial Stage”, the site-specific installation “Pipe Dreamer” extends the film’s narrative into its exhibition space. The monumentally enlarged replica of a drainpipe reflects the film’s interest in how historical meaning is selectively created through perspective and proportionality. The scenography of the exhibition provides a frame for both film and installation. As an abstract composition of architectural form and color features characteristic of the Dessau Masters’ Houses it refers to the filmic use of architectural models in Drainpipe Dreams and underscores the shift in meaning caused by scaling.

Astrup & Bordorff

Kirsten Astrup and Maria Bordorff have worked together as the Danish artist duo Astrup & Bordorff since 2018. Combining cinematic language, theatrical staging, original music, and performance, their films explore the often fragile relationship between fiction, history, and contemporary society. Drawing on traditions of cabaret, melodrama, and musical theatre, their works move between humour, desire, and critical reflection. The film was commissioned by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and realised between 2022 and 2026.