“We question the legends of the Bauhaus”
In the coming years, the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung will be undergoing extensive renovation in accordance with monument protection guidelines and expanded by a new museum annex. With 2,000 square metres of floor space – compared with 700 square metres before – the Bauhaus-Archiv will have far more space at its disposal to exhibit its extensive collection. Curator Kristin Bartels is responsible for the future presentation of the collection. In the following interview with bauhaus stories, she discusses the ideas behind the concept and their practical implementation.
Kristin, what was your basic idea for the new presentation concept?
The Bauhaus is incredibly multifaceted. When you start developing a presentation concept, you have to consider several basic questions. For example, are we talking about the historic Bauhaus? Do we connect the Bauhaus to its time in history in the Weimar Republic, which is also an important topic? Or do we focus on the reception of the Bauhaus in various countries after 1933? In this case, the United States is an obvious choice, but also the reception history in both West and East Germany – which are two completely different histories. We could also present the women artists of the Bauhaus and their careers. What did they do before their time at the Bauhaus? What did they do after 1933, or after 1945? The range of facets we can talk about and present is endless.
What aspect did your team finally agree on?
The core concept of the new presentation indeed focuses on the historic Bauhaus and the idea that the Bauhaus was primarily a school where art and design were taught.
After deciding on the focus, how did you go about developing the presentation concept?
For the core concept, we began with three questions. The first is especially important: What kind of school was the Bauhaus? And based on that, how were the topics taught and experienced? Who were the instructors, and who were the students? The second question is: What was created at the Bauhaus? Because the Bauhaus didn’t only produce designer objects, but also handicrafts and works of fine art. The third question is: What ideas were discussed at the Bauhaus? What solutions did the Bauhaus develop and for what type of social problems? In the field of architecture, for example, the Bauhaus was occupied with housing estates in response to the general housing shortage. Those are the three core questions which will run throughout the presentation and hopefully offer a good impression of the historic Bauhaus in the context of its times.
How are you and your team putting your ideas into practice?
Since January 2021, we’ve been working with the exhibition design agency TheGreenEyl. We’ve since completed the basic assessment phase, during which we presented the rough concept and determined the direction it could go and the basic requirements we’re working with. So essentially, very basic data: How many objects could we exhibit? How many square metres of exhibition space do we have? We’ve now also concluded the concept phase and will soon be starting the planning phase.
“We don’t present a show of works, but ask ourselves – and select according to that – for whom the objects were created and why they look the way they do.”
Have you decided which objects you’ll be exhibiting? Surely the classics, like Marcel Breuer’s tubular steel chair and the teapot by Marianne Brandt?
For the moment, we’re trying to get an overview of the historic Bauhaus and the themes that were important there. We aren’t planning a comprehensive exhibition; rather we ask who these objects were created for and why they look the way they do – and then select the items accordingly. We’re still in the middle of the selection process with an open outcome.
So it’s not a comprehensive exhibition, but a selection of objects based on thematic criteria. What might this look like in concrete terms?
Take, for example, the kitchen cabinet that Marcel Breuer designed for Ludwig Grote’s work flat at the Palais Reina in Dessau in 1927. If we showed this cabinet without comment in the collection presentation – “Look, here’s a Bauhaus kitchen” – it would neither be very exciting nor enlightening. The interesting question is why we are interested in kitchens at all. Why do designers or architects even care about this subject? Who are these kitchen cabinets made for? For housewives or domestic servants? It also says a lot about the image of women in the Weimar Republic. What made this cabinet so new? Nowadays, we’re all familiar with this type of kitchen and associate it with fitted kitchens. The fact that the colour blue, for example, or the storage canisters were innovative back in the 1920s sheds light on other questions and background information. They offer a completely new perspective on the furniture and the context in which it was created.
What kind of exhibition can visitors expect when the museum reopens?
At the opening we’re going to showcase the collection. Keep in mind that when we started, we had a very small exhibition room, which is absurd since we own the largest Bauhaus collection in the world. We’re talking more than a million pieces and an exhibition space of just 700 square metres. That’s extremely confined. Thanks to the new annex, the exhibition space will grow to around 2,000 square metres, in which we hope to show the entire spectrum of our collection. Since even 2,000 square metres is limited, we’re going to regularly rotate objects and present new groups of works. This will enable us to highlight entirely new themes. There’s going to be variety – and not just every ten years.
The Bauhaus was one of the most influential architecture and design schools of the 20th century – the focus of intensive research and the subject of countless books. How will the collection presentation address the many “images” of the Bauhaus?
When people talk about the Bauhaus, it’s usually in connection to architecture and design, and most often, in reference to modern architecture and modern design. But it’s not that simple. During its time, the Bauhaus addressed topics that other designers were also interested in. Nowadays we usually refer to the design ideas of the Weimar Republic, or generally that of the 1920s, which many people frequently and mistakenly equate with the Bauhaus. In our collection presentation, we deconstruct these legends and reveal how the members of the Bauhaus reacted to the issues of their day.
Kristin Bartels has been a curator at the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung since 2019. She manages the visual arts and photography collection at the Bauhaus-Archiv.