Vegetation under Power
May 10–August 7, 2021
Gropiusallee 38
06846 Dessau-Roßlau
Germany
Hours: Monday–Sunday 10am–5pm
T +49 340 6508250
service@bauhaus-dessau.de
Bauhaus Lab 2021
Vegetation under Power
In the collection of the Bitterfeld District Museum there is a herbarium of leaves from 1930. The object bespeaks the effects of environmental pollution in the region during the early 20th century: within a few decades, this Central German region was transformed from a rural to an industrial area. Huge opencast mines, power plants, and industrial companies shaped the face of the landscape.
When contemporaries were awed in December 1926 by the impression of the Bauhaus Building, this almost floating cube illuminated by electric light, few considered the clouds of smoke and the defoliated trees that formed the underbelly of the electrification of the region and of the capital Berlin. The starting point of the Bauhaus Lab 2021 is this botanical collection from 1930. These silent witnesses to the exploitation of natural resources form the backdrop against which the programme participants investigate how modern Bauhaus comforts have been entangled in regional power supply networks and resource flows. Through archival research, on-site excursions, and field studies, the participants will explore these varied infrastructures of an anthropocentric environment.
The programme will culminate in an exhibition at the Bauhaus Building where these neglected foundations of this particular modernity are reassessed. What happens, for example, if lighting fixtures by Marianne Brandt, freed from their status as iconic artefacts of design history, are considered as part of an open assemblage of infrastructural and environmental entanglements? How do they relate to environmental damage, to former coal-mining landscapes and deindustrialized places? The Bauhaus Lab develops curatorial approaches that make these relational structures visible. In doing so, they create alternative narratives of Bauhaus modernism that reach into the present.
About Bauhaus Lab
Bauhaus Lab is a three-month research programme for scholars and practitioners in the fields of architecture, design, and curating. Participation is free, and all participants will be provided with workspaces in the Bauhaus Building. Furthermore, participants receive a contribution toward their housing expenses, and a modest per diem. The programme includes field trips to various sites in the Anhalt region; the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation covers travel and accommodation expenses incurred during these excursions. Participants are expected to be present on site during the entire period of the programme, to contribute to the collective research, and to meet regularly with the programme organizers for follow-up and feedback. The programme is conducted in English.
Open Call
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation welcomes applications for the programme.
To apply, please send a CV, a portfolio, and a letter of interest (in English) to Dr Regina Bittner, head of the programme, by 28 February 2021: lab@bauhaus-dessau.de. All application documents should be merged into one single PDF file no larger than 5 MB.
Questions regarding the application and selection process, as well as the programme itself, can also be directed to this address. Up to eight participants will be selected by an international jury. Successful candidates will be notified by 8 March 2021.
We specifically encourage people with profiles hitherto marginalized in Western academic and cultural institutions to apply. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation will endeavour to assist with visa formalities for applicants from outside the Schengen Area.
Throughout the duration of the programme, the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation will do its utmost to ensure that all participants can enjoy safe working conditions, applying hygiene measures in strict accordance to the official anti-Covid regulations in effect during the summer period. The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation also reserves the right to modify or postpone the programme, depending on how the pandemic unfolds both locally and globally. Any such decision will be taken with the well-being of participants as the prime concern and will be communicated in an appropriate time frame prior to the start of the programme.
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a non-profit foundation under public law. It is institutionally funded by:
