In his ca. 75 CE work The Life of Theseus, the Greek biographer, historian and Delphi priest Plutarch notes that the ship with which Theseus returned to Attica having slain the Minotaur in its labyrinth on Crete, "was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of Demetrius Phalereus, for they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place", meaning that over time the ship of Theseus "became a standing example among the philosophers, for the
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"Exhibiting means selecting, emphasising, demonstrating as a model or an example", wrote Klaus Wille in his 1960 Diploma thesis at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Ulm, continuing that, "the object is information. This information can be used for didactic, commercial or representative purposes. Aimed at individuals as consumers of products and ideas, the exhibition is used to educate, canvass and represent, to influence people, to get them to react in certain ways."1 The exhibition HfG Ulm:
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There are a great many and varied mediums via which to track the (hi)story of a region, the 2021 Bauhaus Lab chose plants; or more accurately, the 2021 Bauhaus Lab chose the (hi)stories of the flora in the region around Dessau as a medium for explorations of the human, social, industrial, political, economic, ecological, et al (hi)stories of the region. A telling of a local (hi)stories which enables access to both global considerations on, and questions concerning, our relationships with the
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The only certainty as 2020 flows into 2021 is the ongoing uncertainty. An uncertainty that is increasingly being understood as an ongoing certainty and thereby turning ever more "plans" into "options". And also causing a great many global architecture and design museums to skip over the first quarter of 2021 as if weren't there, and to move their new exhibition openings to April and beyond. A state of affairs which on the one hand means there are currently fewer lonelier locations than any
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The museums may be closed, travel restricted and leaving your home, when possible, unadvised..... but that's no reason to restrict your cultural uptake, far less neglect the development of your architecture and design understandings. Or put another way, if you can't get to the museum..... let the museum come to you. Five online architecture and design exhibitions and museum collections to explore from your sofa, bed, garden, balcony, wherever..... Vitra Design Museum - Collection Online In
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Systems bring order to chaos, allow relationships to be understood/defined, enable standardisation. And depend on a carefully considered, well designed and constructed connector. In 1939 the German architect Konrad Wachsmann developed a metal connector which subsequently became the central component of the General Panel prefabricated construction system developed by Wachsmann in cooperation with Walter Gropius. In 2018 the Bauhaus Lab reflected on that connector, Konrad Wachsmann and
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Following on from the Collective in 2015, Movement in 2016 and Substance in 2017, the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau's annual theme for 2018 is the Standard; a central component of the teaching at Bauhaus Dessau yet one which is and was freely open to artistic, technological and functional interpretation. And one the Bauhäusler freely interpreted artistically, technologically and functionally The first exhibition in context of the annual theme explores the work of the German architect Carl Fieger,
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Arguably because Passover/Easter is early this year, every, but every, museum is opening a major exhibition in the course of March 2018, in preparation for the unofficial start of the tourist season in April. A situation which leaves us with the daunting possibility of creating 5 such Top 5 lists. And still having some exhibitions left over. Faced with a similar situation back in November 2017 we referred to the abundance of options which lay before us as being akin to "gardens mottled with
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"The handicraft training in the Bauhaus workshops was not an end in itself, but an irreplaceable educational tool. The aim of this training was to create designers who, thanks to their precise knowledge of materials and processes, were able to influence the industrial production of our time." Walter Gropius, 1955* The tensions caused by the practical question of how this influence was to be expressed, and the parallels with the industrial production of our time, are explored in the exhibition
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While it’s hard to feel anything even vaguely resembling joy in a month which sees the UK start its senseless and cowardly, withdrawal from the European Union … life goes on!! Our five top distractions for April 2017 features new design and architecture exhibitions in Berlin, New York, Paris, Dessau and Milan. "Otto Bartning (1883–1959). Architect of Social Modernism" at the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany Born in Karlsruhe in 1883 the architect and theoretician Otto Bartning was, and
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Dessau and Rotterdam may appear unlikely brothers in arms; however, an exploration of the towns' architectural connections helps explain International Modernism. Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau present The Simultaneity of Modernism The Bauhaus School building by Walter Gropius in Dessau is, arguably, the best known and most popular example of International Modernist architecture in Germany The Van Nelle factory by Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt in Rotterdam is, arguably, the best known
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Whereas April showers tend to make you wet, grumpy and late, May showers are much more agreeable - or more precisely, the Eta Aquarids meteor showers are much more agreeable: a celestial showcase which reach their peak in early May and which, and in a wonderful example of the democracy of nature, are visible from anywhere on the planet. For all who prefer to do their star gazing in the comfort of a museum or gallery, and without having to scan the evening sky for Aquarius, here our
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The biggest, and certainly highest budget, new architecture and design exhibition open in May 2015 is without question the World Expo 2015 in Milan which begins on May 1st. Staged under the central theme of "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life" Expo Milan 2015 will feature presentations from some 140 countries in an equal or greater number of pavilions by some of the world's leading architectural practices, and promises to present an unrivalled exploration of future strategies for feeding an
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Although it is probably fair to say that today Bauhaus is best remembered for its architects and designers, art played a central role in the institution's programme. Albeit a central role which today is often over shadowed by the legacy of those artists who taught at Bauhaus. To rectify this situation the Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau are presenting "Bauhaus. The Art of the Student", an exhibition which explores both Bauhaus' importance as an art college and also looks beyond the likes of Lyonel
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What with mince pies to be eaten, Glühwein to get drunk and travel plans to misco-ordinate, December is generally a very quiet month. However despite all other distractions, in December 2013 we still managed to visit the opening the exhibition "Mensch Raum Maschine Stage Experiments at the Bauhaus" at Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau and the far to brief Rethinking The Product – Design “Made in Italy” showcase in Berlin. In addition December 2013 saw the launch of the Vitra Design Museum's book "The
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While we can't be certain that the artist, designer and choreographer Oskar Schlemmer would have completely agreed with the claim that "Life is a cabaret", we do know where he placed cabaret in the great scheme of cultural happenings: a little lower than theatre, but slightly higher than varieté. ""Stage" in general", Schlemmer wrote in 1925, "encompasses all that lies between religious cult and naive public amusement, both are not that what the stage is; the calculated impact on man of
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