
»bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded«, initiated and curated by Teresa Retzer, makes the majority of the exhibition films freely available online and also expands the exhibition through expert discussions that are transmitted via the ZKM livestream. The Bauhaus films can be found below.
The show takes up the idea of a »Totaltheater – total theater,« which Bauhaus director Walter Gropius designed in 1926/1927 for Erwin Piscator: »I have not only envisaged the possibility of film projection upon the whole cyclorama of my three-fold stage by means of movable projectors,« wrote Gropius, »but I can also set the entire audience inside a film, as it were, by projecting on walls and ceilings.« In large format projections more than sixty films by Bauhaus authors will be presented in parallel to make the immersive virtual environment experienceable. Films of various lengths run in loops at forty media stations and continually spawn new interrelationships. Thematically and formally the films fall into four categories, and in the exhibition, they are shown: Abstract Films, Political and Experimental Film Essays, Architectural Films, Extended Forms of Films (light projections, film clips for the theater, film performances, film scores).
Persecution by the Nazis, emigration, and war destroyed parts of the Bauhaus film corpus with the effect that the ongoing development of the modern film in Germany came to a halt. Some Bauhaus authors could only realize the films they had conceived in their years at the Bauhaus after the war – partly because their projects needed color film and that had not yet been introduced. The light projections, dance and object theater, which were always presented live in the 1920s, can be viewed on recordings from the post-war period.
The show highlights particularly the important role of the seven Bauhaus women who made films. Two of them coauthored seminal German avant-garde films but up to now they have remained uncredited. In symbiotic living and working communities these women – amongst them Ellen Auerbach, Ella Bergmann-Michel, Ré Soupault (geb. Erna Niemeyer) und Lore Leudesdorff – brought the new formal language of the Bauhaus to the classic works of Absolute film.
Bauhaus professor László Moholy-Nagy advocated establishing a »central experimental film section« at the school. As one of the most important image theorists of the twentieth century and one of the leading innovators at the Bauhaus he placed film and photography at the center of his thinking about »Neues Sehen – New Vision.« However, he was not successful in securing the necessary funding from industry for this venture. In spite of this, new research has shown that more than 28 Bauhaus authors did actually worked on film and light projections.
Films in the online exhibition »bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded«
Peter Weibel on the digital exhibition »bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded«
Films in the online exhibition »bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded«
Unfortunately, for legal reasons not all the films in the »bauhaus.film.expanded« exhibition can be made available online. Thanks to the generosity of some of the lenders, the majority of the films will be available online for the duration of the exhibition until 23 August 2020.
- Credits
- Markus Heltschl (Curator)
- Thomas Tode (Curator)
- Peter Weibel (Curator)
- Organization / Institution
- ZKM | Center for Art and Media
Accompanying program
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- Wed, October 07, 20207 pm
- Intermediality II – Is there a beyond of the media?
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Talk
Online
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- Wed, September 30, 20207 pm
- Intermediality I
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Talk
Online
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- Sun, August 23, 20205.30 pm
- Reform der menschlichen Beziehungen
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Film Screening
Kinemathek Karlsruhe
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- Sun, August 23, 20203 pm
- Das Neue Bauen – Effizienzfieber
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Film Screening
Kinemathek Karlsruhe
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- Wed, July 29, 20206 pm
- The radio and the beginning of mass media & the »Absolute Radio Art«
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Talk
Online
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- Wed, July 22, 20206 pm
- Virtuelle Ausstellungstour: bauhaus.film.expanded
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Guided Tour
Online
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- Sun, May 17, 20206 pm
- Neues Sehen [New Vision]
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Talk
Online
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- Sun, May 17, 202011 am
- Online Workshop: Instant Movie Making
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Workshop
Online
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- Thu, May 14, 20206 pm
- The screening and preservation of historical (Bauhaus) films
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Talk
Online
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- Sun, May 10, 20206 pm
- Film music, silent and sound films
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Talk
Online
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- Fri, May 08, 20204 pm
- Cancelled – Transgressions - Church at the ZKM
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Guided Tour
Lichthof 1+2, 2.OG
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- Thu, May 07, 20206 pm
- Abstract Films: bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded
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Talk
Online
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- Sun, May 03, 20206 pm
- Ella Bergmann-Michel
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Talk
Online
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- Thu, April 30, 20206 pm
- Architectural Films: bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded
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Talk
Online
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- Sun, April 26, 20206 pm
- Symphonie Diagonale Revisited
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Talk
Online
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- Fri, April 24, 20204 pm
- Online Workshop: Instant Movie Making
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Workshop
Online
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- Thu, April 23, 20206 pm
- Political and Experimental Film Essays: bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded
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Talk
Online
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- Sun, April 19, 20206 pm
- Ellen Auerbach. Bauhaus Artist from Karlsruhe I & II
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Talk
Online
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- Thu, April 16, 20207 pm
- Digital Opening: bauhaus.film.digitally.expanded
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Opening
Online
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- Fri, March 20, 20204 pm
- Online guided tour of »bauhaus.film.expanded«
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Guided Tour
Online
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- Sun, February 16, 20206 pm
- Dynamik der Großstadt – zum Ursprung der Großstadtsinfonien
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Film Screening
Vortragssaal
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- Sun, February 16, 20204 pm
- Guided tour with curators
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Guided Tour
Lichthof 1+2, 1.OG
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- Sat, February 15, 20206 pm
- Konkrete Geräusche und Musik der Maschinen
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Film Screening
Vortragssaal
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- Sat, February 15, 20204 pm
- Guided tour with curators
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Guided Tour
Lichthof 1+2, 1.OG
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- Sat, February 08, 20203 pm
- Guided tour with curators
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Guided Tour
Lichthof 1+2, 1.OG
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- Thu, February 06, 20206 pm
- medialounge at six
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Lecture
Vortragssaal
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- Sat, January 18, 20207.30 pm
- ARTE Film Night – 100 Years of Bauhaus
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Film Screening
Medientheater
Film Artists
- Ellen Auerbach // Artist
- Ella Bergmann-Michel // Artist
- Gerhard Bohner // Artist
- Heinrich Brocksieper // Artist
- Utz Brocksieper // Artist
- Peter Böhm // Artist
- Marc Chagall // Artist
- Horacio Coppola // Artist
- Hans Cürlis // Artist
- Viking Eggeling
- Alfred Ehrhardt
- Werner Graeff
- Margarete Hasting
- Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack
- Heide-Marie Härtel
- Show all