“100 years of Bauhaus” celebration in Hong Kong

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus  100 years of bahaus

 

A hundred years ago, German architect Walter Gropius founded an art and design school in the small town of Weimar in Germany. The Bauhaus, subsequently became one of the most influential art and design educational institutions of the 20th century. Although the short-lived school only operated from 1919 to 1933, its influence and impact on art, design, craft and architecture can still be seen 100 years later.

On the occasion of Bauhaus’ centennial celebration, the Goethe-Institut in Hong Kong, collaborated with various local partners to present “100 Years of Bauhaus – Rethinking the World“, a special programme consisted of exhibitions, films, lectures, symposium, and creative workshops etc.

At Goethe-Institut in Wan Chai, I visted the “Picturing Bauhaus: Erich Consemüller’s Photography of the World’s most famous Design School” exhibition featuring historical photographs of life and work at Bauhaus from the Klassik Stiftung Weimar institute.

 

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus

 

Photographer Erich Consemüller (1902–1957) originally trained as a carpenter before moving to Weimar to enrol in the Bauhaus School, where he studied from 1922–1927. Consemüller was commisioned by Walter Gropius to photo-document the building, his fellow students and their design work, and around 300 photographs were thus taken from 1926 to 27.

Aside from the photographs, some ensembles of the Bauhaus furniture made by the Frankenberg-based furniture company Thonet were also on display. Founded in 1819 (a hundred years before the Bauhaus) by Michael Thonet, the company pioneered bentwood furniture using veneers, and later a cheaper solid-wood alternative. The company produced furniture designed by the Bauhaus architects Mart Stam, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe; these designsthe tubular steel chairs and tables – later became modernist classics, and are still in production today.

 

100 years of bahaus  100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus

 

My personal favourite, though, is the avant-garde costumes designed by German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer, Oskar Schlemmer for his own ballet production, Triadic Ballet (Triadisches Ballett) , first performed in Stuttgart in 1922. Schlemmer described his playful costumes as “artistic metaphysical mathematics” and a “party in form and color.”

 

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus  100 years of bahaus

 

A clip of the ballet was shown at the exhibition, while visitors were encouraged to try on the costumes and play with the props. I managed to find a reconstruction of the ballet on YouTube, which is still inspiring, unique and mesmorising to watch even after 100 years (see below)!

 

Triadisches Ballett von Oskar Schlemmer – Bauhaus posted by Aitor Merino Martínez

 

Besides the Goethe-Institut, the exhibition was also on view at HKU and City U. I only managed to go to the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG), which displayed more of Erich Consemüller’s photography works on the Bauhaus school, its interiors and works of the students.

In German, the word ‘bau’ means building and ‘haus’ means house. The teaching programme developed by Walter Gropius in 1922 placed ‘building’ at the centre of all the activities. Hence the school building played a significant role in this context.

Another influential aspect of Bauhaus was its teaching method, which replaced the traditional pupil-teacher relationship with the idea of a community of artists working together across different disciplinaries. Gropius aimed to create “a new guild of craftsmen”, and the school followed the ‘apprentices and masters’ structure similar to the traditional model that trained craftsmen and artisans.

 

hong kong university art gallery

hong kong university art gallery

hong kong university art gallery

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus  100 years of bahaus

100 years of bahaus

 

Although I have never been to the Bauhaus building in in Dessau (it is on my list), I have visited the Bauhaus Archive/Museum für Gestaltung (Museum of Design) in Berlin twice. The small but intriguing-looking museum was designed by Walter Gropius but was not completed until after his death. It has a good collection of furniture, products, art work, photography, architectural drawings and models, jewellery, and textiles featuring many famous names, such as Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Marcel Breuer, Vassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Anni Albers, Oskar Schlemmer, László Moholy-Nagy and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe etc. Besides the permanent collection, there are also temporary exhibitions and a design shop, so I highly recommend a visit to this museum if you are a fan of Bauhaus.

 

Bruno Taut’s only architecture in Japan: Kyu Hyuga Bettei

atami

 

After traveling through the Kansai and Chubu regions during the first half of the trip, I finally reached the Kanto region, where I spent time the rest of stay in Tokyo and Kanagawa. From Tokyo, I took a train to the well-known hot spring seaside resort, Atami, which is less than an hour from the city.

My first stop was a lesser-known but important cultural property, Kyu Hyuga Bettei; it is in fact the only architecture designed by the prolific German Bauhaus architect, Bruno Taut (1880-1938). I did not know of the villa’s existence until I was doing some research on where to visit in Atami, and I had to book a slot via an online form through Atami City Hall prior to my visit (N.B. the villa is only open in the weekends and public holidays). It was lucky that I made the trip because the villa is now going through a major restoration works, and it will not reopen to the public until 2022.

 

atami  atami

atami

 

Hidden up on the cliff of Kasugacho not far from Atami train station, Kyu-Hyuga-Bettei is a 2-storey villa that belonged to a successful businessman Rihee Hyuga (1874-1939). The building was built between 1934-6 by Japanese architect, Jin Watanabe (1887-1973), known for the Wako Building in Ginza and the The National Museum of Art in Ueno.

The villa was built on a slope with the main entrance on the top floor, and a garden overlooking the Sagami Bay. In 1936, Hyuga commissioned Bruno Taut (who had to flee Germany due to the Nazis) to design the basement of the villa. The project was a collaboration between Taut and architects Tetsuro Yoshida, Kahei Sasaki, and Mihara Yoshiyuki (Taut’s only Japanese student).

 

Kyu Hyuga Bettei

Kyu Hyuga Bettei

 

On the day of my visit, I was the only non-Japanese visitor and was only given some English information on paper, while the Japanese enjoyed a more detailed guided tour. Nonetheless, it was still worth the visit as the annex is a true masterpiece that combines nature, Japanese and Western elements together harmoniously. Consisted of three rooms (no photography is allowed inside the building), Taut named the rooms: Beethoven, Mozart and Bach.

The first room (Beethoven) is a bright parlour surrounded by bamboo and paulownia; the second is a western room (Mozart) featuring red walls, a rasied platform with stairs and views of the ocean; and the last room is a Japanese twelve-mat tatami room (Bach), with a raised four-and-a-half-mat raised platform, and a five-and-a-half-mat room behind it.

The furniture and furnishings in the rooms are detailed and beautifully designed, and as I walked through the rooms, I could feel a sense of tranquility. Unfortunately, Hyuga only enjoyed this annex for a few years (he died here in 1939), but to die in such a tranquil setting perhaps was not a bad way to go.

 

Kyu Hyuga Bettei

 

Taut also died two years after he left Japan to accept a Professor position in Istanbul. Hence, this villa was the only architecture that he built in Japan during his short stay there. It is one of a kind, and it epitomises the best qualities of Japanese and Modernist architecture. Hopefully, the restoration works will enchance the beauty of the villa and let this masterful design shine even more.

 

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