100 years ago, the Bauhaus was founded in Weimar. The development of the avant-garde school, like the development of modernism as a whole, was accompanied by many changes in different places. If one maps the Bauhaus and its global network, Stuttgart is one of the cities that was influential for many Bauhäusler and, in turn, influenced by them.
As a place of active production of knowledge, we have invited Dani Gal, Michaela Melián, Martin Schmidl, and Boris Sieverts to investigate site-specifically and therein exemplarily persons, ideas, and strands of impact and reception of the Bauhaus and modernism in and from Stuttgart. How can we continue to think about the ambitions of the Bauhaus and the universalism of modernism and make justified criticism of them productive?
A key event for this project is the exhibition "The Dwelling" (1927), with the construction of the Weissenhofsiedlung under the direction of Mies van der Rohe. The event was closely linked to the Bauhaus and is considered a globally received milestone of Neues Bauen.
Another starting point for the exhibition "Weissenhof City" was our collection with its globally significant holdings of works by Oskar Schlemmer as well as works and documents by other Bauhaus artists. We also own the art-theoretical estate of Adolf Hölzel, who gave us his ideas.
From today's perspective, Dani Gal, Michaela Melián, Martin Schmidl and Boris Sieverts deal with places and buildings, archives and documents, history(s) and myths. The spectrum of their contributions ranges from videos to installations to "journeys" through Stuttgart's urban space. In addition, the exhibition "Weissenhof City" was accompanied by a multifaceted program in which the focus was on joint reflection.