Festival School Fundamental

What would a Bauhaus School look like today? How would it organise communal living and learning? And how could the campus microcosm serve to plant the seed for future politics of socially conscious design?

Though the Bauhaus was active as a school for six years only, its contributions to modern arts education continue to influence pedagogical practices until today. Its curriculum was embedded into the architecture of the Bauhaus Building and is still apparent in the Building’s spaces. The Bauhaus Building embodies the conviction that schools are a testing ground for configuring future ways of living together, they offer a place to experiment and play.

In the context of the Festival School Fundamental, this historical learning environment of the Bauhaus Building is reassessed from a contemporary perspective. How can we relate the Bauhaus curriculum and Building to current critical practices in design education? In a varied programme of workshops, performances, discussions, and talks, both the festival participants and the public will explore new ways of engaging with the iconic school building.
 

The programme consists of three main strands:

Learning Environment Bauhaus takes up three thematic fields of learning reflected in the layout of the Bauhaus Building. In the weaving workshop, various hands-on situations will address the notion of material in past and present design pedagogies. The preliminary course space will become the site for various sessions challenging conventional notions of knowledge. In the festive area with stage and canteen, the focus is on the project of the “New Human Being,” a core concept of the historical Bauhaus.

The Parliament of Schools provides a platform for exchange of new and alternative models of design education. Its members are experimental schools exploring alternatives to existing hierarchies and inequalities of access to knowledge and education. During the festival they are going to discuss the politics and institutions of social design for the everyday, and allow these ideas to materialize on site.

The symposium Bauhaus Translated addresses the wide-ranging translations of the Bauhaus school model throughout the world and the 20th century. The focus is on international examples of art and design schools that connected the critical realization of aspects of the Bauhaus school with the redefinition of their own educational agenda.

Curated by Regina Bittner, Katja Klaus, and Philipp Sack
Dramaturgy: Uwe Gössel, Arved Schultze

With Zoy Anastassakis & Marcos Martins (ESDI, Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial), Sepake Angiama, Mike Anusas, Dennis Atkinson, Suchitra Balasubrahmanyan, Stefani Bardin, Jan Boelen, Anna Bokov, Friedrich von Borries, Staci Bu Shea & Rosa Paardenkooper (Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons), Clare Butcher, Carolyn Butterworth, Helena Capkova, Leo Care, Shannan Clark, Alison J. Clarke, Elisha Cohen (Free School of Architecture), Anna Colin (Open School East), Mary Copple, Joseph Cuillier & Shani Peters (The Black School), Liza Fior, Lars Fischer and Jorg de Vriese (Public School for Architecture), Adam Drazin, Bridget Fonkeu and Justin Fonkeu Nkwadi (Silent University), Laura Forlano, Andrés Garcés Alzamora (Ciudad Abierta), Jon Goodbun (Derailed Lab/Rheomode), Mathura Govindarajan & David Lockard (Paper Crane Labs), Mary Emma Harris, Tim Ingold, Elena Isayev & Diego Segatto (Al Maeishah), Denisa Kollárová, Jo Krausse, Mark Lemanski, Martin Mäntele, David F. Maulen, Christof Mayer & Anna Kokalanova & Rosario Talevi (Open Raumlabor University), Kate McIntosh, Maurizio Montalti, Sofia Olascoaga, Deniz Ova, Nina Paim & Corinne Gisel (common-interest, Basel), Luiza Prado de O. Martins, Farid Rakun & JJ Adibrata (Gudskul), Gabriëlle Schleijpen, Maggie Taft, Akira Takayama (McDonald’s Radio University), Ferdi Thajib & Fiky Daulay (KUNCI), Frampton Tolbert (Center for Urban Pedagogy), Leire Verarga, Angelika Waniek, Clemens Winkler, Judith Winter, Albena Yaneva, and others.

All events are public and can be attended free of charge. Workshops have a limited participant capacity—in order to attend, please register on site at the festival front desk.

Detailed festival programme here

For general inquiries regarding the festival contact the festival team (fundamental@bauhaus-dessau.de).