Annual programme 2018
January 1–December 31, 2018

Annual Theme: Standard
A standard is a specification for something’s manufacture, realisation or application. It relies on simplification and repetition. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau after the early years in Weimar, it came to be regarded as a significant contributor to standardisation. But which standards did the school implement as regards culture, society, technology, architecture, artistic production and education? Which are still valid today?

In 2018 in its artistic-scientific programmes the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation will focus on the question of standards, from the historic Bauhaus to contemporary debates. Behind the scenes, this is about something as fundamental as the idea we have of ourselves: For whom or what are our standards meant? How do we discuss this? Does the term ‘standard’ need to be redefined?

The Bauhaus Open Studios 2018 invite universities from Edinburgh, Sydney, Florida, Bergen, Cairo, Haifa and Beirut to the Bauhaus Dessau to pursue new pedagogical experiments with their classes. From February to November they will address current standards in the education sector, with reference to the educators of the historic Bauhaus and contemporary debates. How did the Bauhauslers experiment with standards? Which educational standards apply today in architecture and design? Which production methods set standards for the designers of the future?

The Bauhaus Lab 2018 is engaged in research into the universal wedge connectors that underpin the General Panel System, a building system designed by Walter Gropius and Konrad Wachsmann. From May to August, young designers, architects and curators will investigate the elements and discourses bundled in this universal connector under this year’s title The Universal Connector: Building Systems after the Bauhaus. The exhibition compiled at the Bauhaus based on the findings of the research forms an open system that provides points of reference for the assembly of contemporary housing.

In the Bauhaus Open Stage (January to December 2018) groups of students from universities in Berlin, Bern, Dresden, Hangzhou, Seoul and Tokyo will each develop the Bauhaus stage for one semester, working on performative studies as a movement pedagogy for architects and designers in cooperation with the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. The stage workshop led by Oskar Schlemmer was an integral part of the interconnected artistic training at the historic Bauhaus. To what extent can research-based performative design be updated for the training of architects and designers today?

The Bauhaus Residency enables artists from all over the world to live and work in the Masters’ Houses. Each multi-week residency focuses on an artistic-investigative approach to the annual theme of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. How do standards determine artistic production and perception? What opportunities, but also restrictions, does standardisation present for art production today? This year’s Bauhaus Residency artists will pursue these questions during their time in the Masters’ Houses. Each Bauhaus Residency ends with a work presentation and every artist leaves one work behind in the Gropius House.

Artists 2018
Sebastian Stumpf, Anael Berkovitz, Martyna Marciniak, TM Sisters: Tasha and Monica López De Victoria, Andrea Grützner

The Bauhaus Festivals were legendary. Most notably, they were a place to break free from the norms through art: everything was possible! This is the starting point for the Bauhaus Festival 2018: Yellow-Angled (August 31 and September 1, 2018). The primary colour yellow stands for the expansion and dissolution of boundaries. In this field of tension, modular playful structures will be built up and standards broken down. The result, a Gesamtkunstwerk of contemporary interpretations embracing artistry, theatre, music, installation and performance, will take shape over two evenings.