The mission of the "Staatliches Bauhaus", founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919, was to educate a new type of designer. Students at the Bauhaus were to acquire artisanal and artistic foundations as well as knowledge of the human psyche, the process of perception, ergonomics and technology – a profile that continues to define the occupation of the designer to this day. Yet the concept of design at the Bauhaus also gave designers a comprehensive creative mandate: they were not to merely fabricate objects of daily use, but should take an active role in the transformation of society. With this approach, the Bauhaus sketched out an all-encompassing understanding of design, one that today finds itself embraced with new vigour. With such keywords as social design, open design or "design thinking", we now see renewed discussions of how designers can place their work in a larger context and help shape society. Viewed from this present-day perspective, the exhibition regards the Bauhaus as a complex, multi-dimensional "laboratory of modernism" with close links to current design tendencies.
The current perspective on the Bauhaus is achieved by confronting historical exhibits from the Bauhaus era with works by contemporary designers throughout the exhibition. These include digitally produced furniture by Minale Maeda and Front, Van Bo Le-Mentzel’s "Hartz IV furniture" as well as manifestos by such designers as Hella Jongerius and Opendesk, interviews with creative figures like Lord Norman Foster, Enzo Mari, Sauerbruch Hutton and Boss Womenswear Artistic Director Jason Wu, as well as homages to the Bauhaus by Mike Meiré, Studio Miro, Dokter and Misses and other designers. These contemporary contributions highlight the broad spectrum of influence that the Bauhaus continues to exert – from automotive design at Mercedes-Benz to the furniture series Pipe (2009) by Konstantin Grcic for Muji and Thonet, which was inspired by Marcel Breuer. Among these current works featured in the show, a special role is played by four projects commissioned especially for the exhibition from the Leipzig-based artist Adrian Sauer, the concept artist Olaf Nicolai as well as Joseph Grima and Philipp Oswalt, who are both architects and authors.
The juxtaposition of historical and current exhibits yields a new, more differentiated picture of design at the Bauhaus. It does away with the cliché that so-called Bauhaus design was primarily minimalistic, cool and geometric, showing the great interest of Bauhaus designers in social interconnections, experiments and processes. With its open concept of design, the Bauhaus has played a decisive role in the omnipresence of design today. The exhibition reveals surprising parallels between many current debates in design and those that played a central role at the Bauhaus – such as the discussions about the possibilities of new production methods and materials, as well as the role of the designer in society or the advantages of interdisciplinary collaboration. This is also reflected in the exhibition’s subtitle, which invites visitors and readers to share their own views on this topic.
More informationen about the exhibition at Vitra Design Museum.