The Weird Bauhaus – What is Left, What Inspires Us?
Performative Innovation at the Bauhaus and Beyond
When: Thursday, November 21st, 6pm
Where: Myrtle Hall 4E-03
Who: Sigrid Pawelke
The centenary of the Bauhaus gives us another chance to look back, to understand, to deconstruct and to demystify. Certain ideas of the Bauhaus are still relevant today in our Anthropocene era.
“Only an idea has the power to spread so far”, Mies van der Rohe famously said, yet there are still tons of ideas of and about the Bauhaus. What is behind the most significant art school ever and what influence occurred elsewhere that may still inspire us today?
One key Bauhaus innovation was its interdisciplinary and experimental approach within an international environment, coupled with the utopian ideal that through cooperation all the arts can play an integral part in the construction of a new man and society.
In this talk we examine the more spontaneous, one might even say “weird,” part of the well-structured und streamlined Bauhaus – its stage and parties. The stage workshop was the most innovative part of the Bauhaus. What did the students experiment and invent often during after hours, over meals or who knows when and how? One example is the innovation by Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack Reflektorische Farblichtspiele(colored light projections synchronized with music).
Other significant moments in Bauhaus influenced institutions were Black Mountain College and its lesser-known student-run “Light Sound Movement Workshop” as well as Anna and Lawrence Halprin’s “Experiments in the Environment”.
Inspired by the Bauhaus pedagogies and together with Dimitri Chamblas, (choreographer and Dance Dean at CalArts), we undertake a new pedagogical experiment entitled UNLIMITED BODIES at Performa 19 in New York.
http://performa19.org/tickets/for-performa-19-unlimited-bodies
Find out what inspires you!
