A major exhibition at Vitra Design Museum will for the first time present a comprehensive overview of design at the Bauhaus. Opening on 26 September in Weil am Rhein, the exhibition The Bauhaus #itsalldesign, sponsored by Hugo Boss, will encompass a variety of rare exhibits from the fields of design, architecture, art, film and photography. Some of the works seen in the exhibition, which comes from the collection of the Vitra Design Museum as well as significant pieces from private collections and exhibitions houses worldwide, will have never been exhibited before. Simultaneously, the exhibition will put the design of the Bauhaus in juxtaposition with current debates and tendencies in design, in the works of contemporary designers, artists and architects, questioning and highlighting the present day relevance of this legendary design- and cultural institution. Easily no other design institution left as much of a mark on the 20th century as Bauhaus. Founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 in Weimar, the mission of 'Staatliches Bauhaus' was to educate a new type of designer. Its students were expected to acquire artisanal and artistic foundational education, as well as knowledge of the human psyche, perception, ergonomics and technology – a body of knowledge that is still synonymous with design education. And yet, Bauhaus also gave its designers a comprehensive creative and cultural mandate: they were not merely to fabricate objects for daily use, but to take an active role in the transformation of society towards spiritual enlightenment, better health, greater democracy and equality, and greater intellectual and political freedom. The mandate that Bauhaus sketched out for design – as a multi-dimensional, all-encompassing laboratory of modernism – is today returning with a new vigour. Keywords such as social design, open design, design thinking, are emerging in the context of a renewed discussion of how designers can situate their work in social context, and how their work always already shapes society. This major exhibition will be divided into four sections: illustrating the historical and social context of the Bauhaus; examining iconic but lesser known objects from the Bauhaus, as well as the history of their origins at the junction of art, craft and technology; and a major part of the exhibition will investigate the spatial design at Bauhaus, including their deliberations on minimum dwellings and spatial models, and looking into the work of many associated architects and set designers. The final section will consider Bauhaus communication design: typography, exhibitions, experimental film art and photography. Historical works by Bauhaus artists and designers such as Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, Lyonel Feininger, Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, and others, will be confronted with works by contemporary designers, such as the digitally produced furniture by Minale Maeda and Front, Van Bo Le-Mentzel's Hartz IV Furniture, and manifestos by Hella Jongerius and Opendesk. Interviews with figures such as Lord Norman Foster, Enzo Mari, Sauerbruch Hutton and Boss Womenswear Artistic Director Jason Wu, and hommages to Bauhaus by Mike Meiré, Studio Miro, Dokter and Misses, and other designers, will highlight the broad spectrum of influence that Bauhaus continues to exert. These range from automotive design at Mercedes-Benz, to the furniture series Pipe (2009) by Konstantin Grcic for Muji and Thonet, inspired by Marcel Breuer's tubular furniture, and to the Hugo Boss womenswear by Jason Wu. "No other cultural institution is integrated so closely with the HUGO BOSS identity than Bauhaus. As a symbol of clarity, stringency and precision, it also plays a pivotal and inspiring role for our collections," explained Dr. Hjördis Kettenbach, Head of Cultural Affairs at HUGO BOSS. The juxtaposition of old and new should hopefully yield a more nuanced picture of the essential principles of design at Bauhaus, doing away with the cliché of a primary-coloured, minimalistic, cool and geometric modernist design. The great interest that Bauhaus designers, teachers and artisans showed for social interconnections, experiments and processes, a concept of open design, enlightened use of tradition, and critical debate, is all too rarely appreciated in all its nuance. »The Bauhaus #itsalldesign« is accompanied by a publication with over 400 pages, which contains an extensive illustrated catalogue section as well as essays by renowned authors and designers. 'The Bauhaus #itsalldesign' exhibition will run from 26 September 2015 until 28 February 2016 at Vitra Design Museum. For more #allesistdesign at Vitra Design Museum, click on the slideshow.
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