Heat Cold Devices

What can the fascinating material experiments conducted in the preliminary courses at the Bauhaus tell us about the utopian desire for equilibrium and balance? With the project “Heat Cold Devices. Bauhaus – Attempting Balance”, the Kunstfest Weimar takes a fresh look at how the Bauhaus developed its dynamic-constructive programme of new balances and a utopian vision of everyday life through experimentation amid the “constitutive imbalance” (Helmut Lethen) of the Weimar Republic. In various installations, performances and a discussion programme, the terms “heat” and “cold” – in reference to temperature, condition or situation – are used as the basis for discussing phenomena like chaos and disorder on one hand, and statics and order on the other.

The first part of the project, slated for presentation in summer/autumn 2018, will feature an “Archive of Heat and Cold”. The participating artists are asked to engage in dialogue with historical materials, documents, objects and models, e.g. with Bella Ullmann-Broner’s “Analytical Drawing of a Bicycle” from 1929. Artistic reconstructions of material and balance studies (Gerda Marx, Johannes Zabel, Paul Reichle and others) and works that allude to Gertud Grunow’s harmonisation theory are reflected in Choy Ka Fai’s speculative design works and Jenny Brockmann’s sensory installations. Political processes can also be regarded as an exercise in balance, as will be demonstrated in a re-enactment of several debates held between 1919 and 1925 at the Thuringian State Parliament on the State Bauhaus in Weimar. With regard to Bauhaus and the upheavals of the Weimar Republic, an international, public discussion forum will address the critical processes, with which issues of balance continue to be debated today.

Artistic director: Janek Müller, Niklas Hoffmann-Walbeck
Production: Christian Holzhauer

Artists: Anna Aristarkhova, Jenny Brockmann, Choy Ka Fai (GB), Helmut Lethen, Sodja Zupanc Lotker (CZ), Thom Luz (CH), Timm Ulrichs, Kris Verdonck (BE), Benjamin Verdonck (BE), Joshua Wicke, Luiz Zanotello (BR)