Bauhaus Festivals Dessau
Total theatre today?
The Bauhauslers experimented with theatre “in total” to translate the complexities of modern life into new forms of staging introducing new concepts of abstract compositions, colours, bodies and media. One hundred years after the founding of the Bauhaus, Festival Stage Total invites international performers, choreographers, artists, architects and designers to plunge into experiments at the historic Bauhaus stage in the Bauhaus Building as well as at the Open Stage in the new Bauhaus Museum Dessau, the Masters’ Houses and the Anhaltisches Theater Dessau. Visitors and participants will be treated to a festival of motion, space, experiments and amusement.
Aspects of the festival
Total abundance – experience machine: Can new technologies increase the intensity of theatre events? How do virtual realities and digital imagery affect our imagination?
Total formality – games of theatrical imagery: Do artists and designers today continue to be inspired by dreams of creating a universal language of imagery incorporating abstract syntheses of sound, words and colour on stage?
Total space gymnastics – physical exercises for designers: Are Oskar Schlemmer’s Bauhaus dances, in which he combined geometrically abstract codes of space with corporeal expression, still valuable exercises for architects and product designers today?
Total get-together – celebration as performance: The Bauhauslers liked to stage and celebrate themselves as an avant-garde community, so in that vein, what and how should we celebrate eccentrically and totally today?
Total education – playful practice with the Bauhaus stage: Bauhaus liaisons, artists and pedagogues asked pupils in Dessau-Roßlau which aspects of the historical Bauhaus stage experiments are of interest to them, and then together they developed performances, interventions in public space and a video dance project.
Total talk – festival forum: Each day of the festival, a dialogue at the Open Stage will address the question “How far have the total and holistic perspectives of the historical Bauhaus stage perspectives inspired and motivated the festival projects?”
Stage Total is the third of three Bauhaus Festivals in Dessau held in celebration of the centenary of the Bauhaus’ founding. The Festivals School Fundamental, Architecture Radical and Stage Total explore the pedagogical, architectural and performative concepts of the Bauhaus from contemporary perspectives in many different ways.
For a detailed festival program and tickets, click here.
Artistic directors
Torsten Blume, Burghard Duhm and Silke Wallstein
Partners
Anhaltisches Theater Dessau, Arte Deutschland, Atemzug e.V., BAG Spiel & Theater, European Centre for the Arts Hellerau, Filmtank, Hedwig Dances, Interactive Media Foundation, Landesmusikrat Sachsen-Anhalt, Museum August Kestner Hannover, Musikschule “Kurt Weill” e.V., Nico and the Navigators, Stadt Dessau-Roßlau, Tristan Production | Management | Event
Academic partners
Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Camberwell College of Arts – University of the Arts London, China Academy of Art – Hangzhou, Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork Institute of Technology, Codarts Rotterdam, DIE ETAGE – Schule für die darstellenden und bildenden Künste e.V., DOCH School of Dance and Circus, Stockholm University of the Arts, Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts – Fac. III – Media and Design, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Design, Kuwasawa Design School, Palucca University of Dance Dresden, Technische Universität Dresden, weißensee kunsthochschule berlin
Donors
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation , café-bistro im Bauhaus, Chicago Community Foundation, designshop bauhaus dessau, Domero Hotels, Heima Menü, High Concept Labs, Hotel Sieben Säulen, Dessau, Karl-Heinz Heise Stiftung, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, MCS Sachsen-Anhalt, MidAtlantic Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Stadtwerke Dessau, 3Arts and donors to 3AP
The Bauhaus Dessau Foundation is a non-profit foundation under public law. It is institutionally funded by the German Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the State of Saxony-Anhalt, and the City of Dessau-Roßlau. The Festival Stage Total is generously funded by:
