Exhausted Narratives. Transgressing the “Pioneers of the Modern Movement”
The index card with a detail photograph of the Bauhaus Building by Gotthardt Itting from the Bauhaus Archive contains a reference to László Moholy-Nagy’s book From Material to Architecture. From here, this photograph found its way into numerous publications on architectural modernism. Photographs were the source for the development of narratives in the historiography of modern architecture in the early 20th century. Key texts such as Nikolaus Pevsner’s Pioneers of the Modern Movement and Siegfried Giedeon’s Space Time Architecture followed the tradition of art history with their focus on objects and their authors. They follow a “narrative impulse,” with beginnings and ends connected by a telos, a unifying version of events in the sorting of the material. Their evidence was based on the coherence between buildings and architects. These publications contributed to the formation of a closed canon and gained great interpretive power for the Western reading of modern architecture. In 1960, Leonardo Benevolo published his standard work on architectural history with photos of the Bauhaus building undergoing repairs after its destruction in 1945. It remains unclear to what extent this work, issued internationally and in several languages, also contributed to its renovation and reopening in the GDR in 1976. In the meantime, however, the heroic narratives of modern architecture were met with massive criticism.
The understanding of architecture had changed just as much as that of history. The questioning of the master narrative of the genius architect created space for other forms and practices of historiography and its geographies. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Bauhaus Building in Dessau, the Bauhaus Lab is examining the place of the building in the changing landscape of modern architectural historiography over a period of 50 years, from 1926 to 1976. The participants of the Bauhaus Lab will conduct research into publications, networks of actors, media, and institutions. The critical reading undertaken in the framework of the Lab programme is not only concerned with shifting conceptions of historiography, but also seeks to bring forth cross-disciplinary and polyphonic practices of engaging with complex pasts of the built environment from our present positionalities.
About the Bauhaus Lab
The Bauhaus Lab is a three-month research programme for scholars and practitioners in the fields of art, architecture, design, curating, and related disciplines. Participation is free of charge, and all participants are given 24/7 access to workspaces in the Bauhaus Building. Participants will also receive a daily allowance of 24 EUR. The programme includes field trips (within Germany/Europe); the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation will cover travel and accommodation costs for these excursions. The process of collective research will culminate in an exhibition presented in the Bauhaus Building, the opening of which coincides with the festival Ein Gebäude tritt auf (A Building enters the stage) on December 4, 2026. Participants are expected to be present on site for the entire duration of the programme, to contribute to the collective research and to meet regularly with the programme organisers for follow-up and feedback. The programme will be conducted in English.
Call for applications
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation welcomes applications for the programme. To apply, please send a CV, a portfolio, and a letter of interest (in English) to Regina Bittner, head of the programme, by April 12, 2026: lab@bauhaus-dessau.de. All application documents should submitted as a single PDF file; documents with file sizes exceeding 10MB should best be shared via download link.
The selection process consists of two stages: First, an international jury will select a number of applications to be shortlisted; these candidates will then be invited to online interviews with the programme leads. Shortlisted candidates will be notified by April 30, 2025, and interviews will take place shortly thereafter.
Questions regarding the application and selection process, as well as the programme itself, can be directed to the email address mentioned above. We particularly welcome applications from candidates with profiles that have hitherto been marginalised in academic and cultural institutions of the global north. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation will endeavour to assist with visa formalities for applicants from outside the Schengen area.
