The Bauhaus is widely regarded as an attempt by the arts to drive, shape and aesthetically accompany technical, social and political transformation. The Bauhaus is also associated with social and technical progress and a fundamentally positivistic attitude, conceived as an all-encompassing utopia for the democratic masses and concretely formulated by an elite group of artists and designers in an open academic and productive process. These have come to characterise the Bauhaus as much as the convergence of all artistic disciplines into universal, metatheoretical and aesthetic categories. They shaped and corresponded to the spirit of the industrialised modern age. The desire for something new, symbolised by the “New Man”, left its mark in all areas of human life. Functionality, pure form and the currents of (New) Objectivity were guiding principles. This is the focus of the festival concept which enquires into the artistic practices of today. How much of the Bauhaus is contained in the self-image and the aspirations of the art world today? Isn’t it possible that we are subconsciously referring to the artistic currents of the Bauhaus era because we see ourselves faced with similar challenges with respect to the digital revolution and globalised living circumstances? The festival aims to answer these questions by exploring the elementary concepts of art and design and investigating the effects of the Bauhaus ideas on the national and international contemporary art scene. The goal of the festival is not to take stock of contemporary artistic production, but rather to determine our position relative to four thematic areas, i.e. light, body, functionality and space, featured sequentially during 2019. The festival organisers have invited artists to address these themes in the form of public performances, exhibitions, installations, concerts, club nights, workshops, artist talks and artistic field research. The project will kick off with an introductory meeting for all participants in Weimar. The festival will conclude with an interdisciplinary symposium.
Artistic director: Elke Seeger
Events
No upcoming events at present
Previous events
10 April, 2019 to 9 February, 2020: Try again, fail again, fail better
Impuls Bauhaus - Festival
Folkwang Universität u.a. Orte, Essen
Contact
Folkwang Universität der Künste
Klemensborn 39
45239 Essen
www.folkwang-uni.de (external link, opens in a new window)