Since the Bauhaus centennial in 2019, academic and popular interest in what is often hailed as the world’s most famous design school has flourished. Arguably, the institution’s plight at the hands of right-wing municipal governments and later of the ruling Nazi party generated interest in several aspects of the Bauhäuslers’ practice identified as progressive. Their internationalism, the struggle against tradition and convention, as well as their gender-bending practices have all received renewed attention in recent years. The exhibition Bauhaus Ecologies held at the Bauhaus Museum Dessau (4 April – 2 November 2025) advances this line of inquiry by investigating the school’s engagement with what is now broadly defined as ecological thinking. Curated by Regina Bittner and Vera Lauf of the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau, Bauhaus Ecologies showcases some of the latest academic research into the Bauhäuslers’ engagement with natural form and back-to-the-land practices, which assimilates well to contemporary notions of environmentalism. By the organizers’ own estimations, the exhibition “explores approaches to ecological thinking in modern design.” As this statement implies, the display favours a genealogical over a historical lens, by showcasing several areas of artistic practice that prefigure contemporary trends in bio-design and sustainability. While this curatorial approach highlights the Bauhaus’ much-lauded prescience and contemporary relevance, it is less effective in charting the school’s relation to the cultural, scientific, and political ambivalences of the emerging environmental discourses of the early twentieth century.
„Mimesis or Ecology? Alexandra Masgras and Linn Burchert on Bauhaus Ecologies at the Bauhaus Museum Dessau“ weiterlesen