Bauhaus: the Imperative of Transparency

The notorious Bauhaus School was founded by the architect Walter Gropius in 1919 in the German city of Weimar. The school of fine arts, architecture and crafts operated only until 1933 in Weimar, Dessau and Berlin but was attended by students from all over the world. What is more, the reputation of this famous experiment is today as alive as ever.

Bauhaus: the Imperative of Transparency will critically question the interconnection of transparency and the ideas of the famous school in the fields of architecture, art and education, and in society in general. It will also elaborate on the influence of the Bauhaus in Slovenia and within the broader region, which was brought by Bauhaus students from the region of the ex-Yugoslavia.  

Transparency was introduced systematically by the Masters at the Bauhaus, namely by Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer built the first large glass façade on a modern building – the Fagus Factory (1911). Subsequently, Gropius built the biggest curtain glass wall of the time in the main Bauhaus building in Dessau (1926), which became a revolutionary prototype in architecture worldwide. This building advocated for abstraction, technology and transparency, wherein transparency turned out to be a new vital element of architecture. It manifested the openness of modern mankind. Mies van der Rohe also established within his architecture (e.g. Seagram building, Farnsworth House, Chicago Lake Shore Drive) one of the most influential prototypes of “transparent” buildings that changed architecture radically and globally. 

The quest for transparency in architecture in the 20th century, where the Bauhaus played such a decisive role, was however also the result of fundamental social changes of the modern period. 

What is transparency? Do we still want to be transparent today? What is the legacy of the Bauhaus, especially in the field of transparency, that we are living today? The symposium and the documentaries of the Bauhaus: The Imperative of Transparency will seek answers to those questions. 

The event will be held in English. The documentary films are in German with English subtitles. Entry is free of charge.

Monday, 2 December 2019, 4–8 PM, Moderna galerija
Bauhaus and Architecture | Documentaries 

4.00–5.45 Bauhaus – Model and Myth
documentary (1998/2009), Kerstin Stutterheim, Niels Bolbrinker, 104 min

6.00–7.45 Haus Tugendhat
documentary (2013), Dieter Reifarth, 112 min

Tuesday, 3 December 2019, 4–8 PM
Bauhaus: The Legacy of Transparency | symposium  

4.00–5.45 Bauhaus and Transparency | lectures  
Jörg H. Gleiter: Transparency: The Evolution of the Principles of Modern Architecture
Sven Olov Wallenstein: Dialectics of Transparency
Discussion

6.00–7.00 Bauhaus and Its Influence in Slovenia and Beyond | lectures  
Vesna Meštrić: Bauhaus as a Model for Education
Bogo Zupančič: The Echoes of the Bauhaus School, the B Course

7.00–8.00 Bauhaus and Transparency | round table
Speakers: Jörg H. Gleiter, Sven-Olov Wallenstein, Bogo Zupančič and Vesna Meštrić, moderated by Mateja Kurir.

More information on the event
 

Organization and support:  Goethe-Institute Ljubljana

Partners: Moderna galerija, MG + and Igor Zabel Association for Culture and Theory