Tattooed Lemons and Homemade Selfie Filters

Workshop –a term inextricably linked to the Bauhaus. Who doesn’t think of the successful textile workshop run by those Bauhaus women, who – I might add – could well have liked to draw architectural sketches instead? Or the metal workshop, the birthplace of such Bauhaus classics as the tea infusion pot by Marianne Brandt? Of course, the Bauhaus-Archiv is a museum and not an art school with an extensive range of courses for learning the handicrafts, and for teaching and training as the Bauhaus was 100 years ago. But our educational bauhaus_lab series tries to get as close as possible.

Visitors of the Bauhaus-Archiv have been participating in bauhaus_lab workshops every Saturday since 2015. They always focus on different themes and are based on the pedagogical principles of the Bauhaus, linking these to today’s collection at the Bauhaus-Archiv. Our large team of freelance instructors teach the participants various graphic and illustrative techniques and guide them in exercises from the historic preliminary course. In this way, participants can express themselves creatively while becoming acquainted with the Bauhaus through practical exercises. The preliminary course at the Bauhaus provided students with an introduction to the fundamentals of every artistic task and allowed students to explore their personality and creative potential. It was also intended to get everyone up to par before commencing their advanced training phase.

Our bauhaus_labs take place on a regular basis and highlight seven different themes which were developed by our team of freelance instructors. We draw inspiration from individual items, such as jewellery by Anni Albers, techniques such as weaving and drawing, and exercises from the historic preliminary course. An important source of material is the “original bauhaus” workbook, produced in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus in 2019. It contains a collection of fifty exercises which Bauhaus students in the preliminary course were assigned at the beginning of their studies.

For example, the art educator Johannes Siebler developed an exercise for the bauhaus_labs based on Johannes Itten’s preliminary course assignment “Draw a lemon” and combined it with his own interest in a tattooing machine and augmented reality. The result was a workshop in which participants could actually tattoo real lemons, or affix virtual tattoos to their bodies which they could design in advance on various media stations. The stations are designed to resemble the drawing course by Josef Albers. We know this from a female student’s portfolio – which now belongs to our collection – in which she meticulously numbered and commented on each illustration. These exercises, completed 100 years ago by students in classrooms at the Bauhaus, now inspire our workshops today in which analogue works with pens, scissors and glue are augmented by digital tools. We’ve noticed that this concept especially appeals to young adults. At the same time, we offer entirely analogue workshops where participants can practice weaving techniques and design jewellery based on traditional methods. The goal of the bauhaus_lab is to bring together visitors with a wide variety of interests.

Looking back at the past ten years of educational activities at the Bauhaus-Archiv, I’m most astounded by the development of our target group. In the beginning, we were focused on kids and appealing to their senses with hands-on activities which would introduce them to our exhibition in new ways. Children and adolescents were also the target group in diverse projects of the Bauhaus Agents programme which we coordinated with various partner schools from 2016 to 2020. However, our series “Practicing the Preliminary Course”, which accompanied the centennial exhibition “original bauhaus” in 2019, was targeted at adults who were interested in having artistic experiences of their own. The workshops were well attended and the positive feedback we received showed us that even adults were keenly interested in “hands-on” programmes.

The Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung has been undergoing renovation and expansion under landmark preservation guidelines since 2018. Here we offer visitors a peek behind the scenes at what we do at the museum. We pose questions that help us envision the museum of the future and present our own research findings. In this respect, the temporary bauhaus-archiv is a kind of workshop in which visitors can learn and carry out experiments – it’s also where the bauhaus_lab takes place. Every Saturday, the long, multifunctional worktable, which is normally covered with books, becomes the centrepiece of the lab with ample room for digital and analogue exercises. The large conference table is also used frequently for internal workshops or talks with our cooperation partners and designers.

Due to the pandemic, we couldn’t always stage the bauhaus_lab in person in 2020 and 2021. So we moved our educational activities to the digital realm. That’s how the idea of the bauhaus_worksheets came about. We created instructions based on individual elements from our workshops, which online users could download anytime from our website. Meanwhile, we’ve produced 15 worksheets which users can complete at home or school. These worksheets show you, for example, how to create a colour wheel, design jewellery, or practise the art of slow vision. Like the in-person workshops, the worksheets are also based on pedagogical principles and exercises originally developed at the Bauhaus.

Another digital programme – “The Bauhaus Preliminary Course in 180 Minutes” – was based on a concept we had offered for the first time in 2019 in connection to the “original bauhaus” centennial exhibition. The workshop for adults is offered online in German and English. The participants sit in front of their PCs or laptops, and under the guidance of our freelance instructors, try their hand at original Bauhaus exercises. Both workshops will function very well even after the pandemic recedes and will become a permanent part of our educational programme.

At the future Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung, the educational activities will literally take up a lot of space. The four-storey, light-flooded reception building will be used for a variety of educational formats – workshops for preschool and school children in the morning, family workshops at the weekend, impromptu drop-in events open to the general public, and expert workshops in the evening. Analogue and digital programmes will complement one another. In the new museum, visitors will be able to play an active role at all levels. The bauhaus_lab is just one series of workshops in a programme full of practical and creative experiences.