Workshop of Modernism

The idea: to use the reflec­tive and translu­cent effects of light — a favorite theme of the Bauhaus — to draw our atten­tion away from the build­ing, which is usu­al­ly the focus of atten­tion, and toward the exhibits. The intro­duc­to­ry room fea­tures an inter­ac­tive mod­el of the build­ing designed by Gropius — a struc­ture that was ground­break­ing in its time — and pro­vides a brief overview of the Bauhaus’s teach­ing con­cepts and its lead­ing fig­ures. From there, one enters the main room. This is divid­ed into two exhi­bi­tion areas by a cen­tral white wall, the only archi­tec­tur­al ele­ment to have been restored to its orig­i­nal state. One sec­tion is dom­i­nat­ed by an eleven-meter-long filmic chronol­o­gy that guides us through 14 years of the Bauhaus in 40 min­utes with beau­ti­ful­ly com­posed sequences of graph­ics and pho­tographs. A fold­ed dis­play case con­tain­ing paper goods also serves as seat­ing for vis­i­tors. The third exhi­bi­tion area presents a sequence of dis­play cas­es that draw a clear line through the space and through the work of the Bauhaus. The unique archi­tec­tur­al and light­ing design of this mod­ule cre­ates count­less lumi­nous reflec­tions, with­in which the Bauhaus objects are embed­ded. Flanked by two win­dows, the space allows for a lin­ear and chrono­log­i­cal overview, from the ​“stage” — the Bauhaus’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive work — through an open­ing, to the adja­cent con­tem­po­rary café. The sceno­graph­ic use of col­or, in con­trast to the Bauhaus’s black-and-white stereo­type, reflects the Bauhaus mem­bers’ imme­di­ate delight in col­or exper­i­men­ta­tion, which was revealed through the build­ing’s restora­tion and the removal of post-Bauhaus lay­ers of paint.