On 1 November 1976, the city of Dessau purchased 148 artworks by Bauhaus artists for a total of 145,000 Deutschmarks via the Galerie am Sachsenplatz in Leipzig. Shortly afterwards, from 4 December 1976, the objects were exhibited in the reopened Bauhaus Building. Here, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Bauhaus, the Wissenschaftlich-Kulturelles Zentrum (Scientific Cultural Centre) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) commenced its work. From this point onwards, it was committed to the legacy of the Bauhaus.
The exhibition at the Bauhaus Museum Dessau is entitled “Versuchsstätte Bauhaus. The Collection”. It tells the story of the famous school in Dessau in three major thematic sections: Bauhaus as Experiment, Factory as Horizon, and School as Testing Ground. The Bauhaus is portrayed as a vibrant place for teaching and learning, artistic experiment, and working on industrial prototypes.
The collection of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation comprises around 50,000 catalogued exhibits, and is the second largest collection on the subject of the Bauhaus worldwide, after the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin. On 1 November 1976, the city of Dessau purchased 148 artworks by Bauhaus artists for a total of 145,000 Deutschmarks via the Galerie am Sachsenplatz in Leipzig. Shortly afterwards, from 4 December 1976, the objects were exhibited in the reopened Bauhaus Building. Here, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Bauhaus, the Wissenschaftlich-Kulturelles Zentrum (Scientific Cultural Centre) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) commenced its work. From this point onwards, it was committed to the legacy of the Bauhaus.
A special feature of the collection of the Bauhaus Dessau is that it contains a large number of works by students who later became influential players in the fields of architecture, design, and art, including many women. The exhibition “Versuchsstätte Bauhaus”, does not focus on the well-known Bauhaus design objects and their designers, but on the school and its students – the everyday life of learning and teaching, encompassing free design and industrial prototype, artistic experimentation and economic pressure: a training facility and a space for self-determination and equality. The various sections of the exhibition concentrate on teaching concepts and educational work, as well as on the Bauhaus as a multi-faceted testing ground, a collaboration partner for industry, and a place of lively exchange.
The exhibition embeds the design ideas of the Bauhaus, which are so familiar to us today, within the context of their own era and its social situation. It does not fail to mention the crises and constraints under which the school struggled for its existence. In a climate of political change and cultural uncertainty, the Bauhaus community, with its worldwide network, questioned the conditions of teaching, living together, and even gender relations that had prevailed at that time. During this process, the school encountered not only support, but also criticism, even in Dessau. “Versuchsstätte Bauhaus” lays out the school’s conflict-ridden struggle to achieve social recognition for art and design.
The Berlin design office Chezweitz developed a special scenography for the exhibition, curated by Regina Bittner, Dorothée Brill, and Wolfgang Thöner. It translates the complexity of the Bauhaus school into a spatial experience.
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a non-profit foundation under public law. It is institutionally funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the City of Dessau-Roßlau. The Bauhaus Museum Dessau and the exhibition Versuchsstätte Bauhaus. The collection is sponsored by:
