Residency in the Masters’ Houses

It all started with him. Walter Gropius had the complex of Masters’ Houses built in 1925-26, with flat roofs, large studios and a terrace running all the way around, made of concrete, steel and lots of glass. One exemplary single villa he designed for himself as Director, and three semi-detached houses for his Bauhaus masters.

In the colony in the Kiefernwald the artists lived next door to each other as close neighbours. Wassily Kandinsky (on the right with his wife Nina) next to Paul Klee. Georg Muche (on the left with his wife El) next to Oskar Schlemmer. Lyonel Feininger next to László Moholy-Nagy.

This model estate of modern architecture was for living and working in, for teaching, exhibiting and partying. Illustrious guests came from all over the world to get to know this hotspot of the international avant-garde. They included the collector Salomon R. Guggenheim, the artist Georg Grosz, the composer Béla Bartók, the dancer Gret Palucca and many others. It was seldom as quiet as it is here in this picture.

This model of living for a new age came to an abrupt end in 1932, when the Bauhaus school in Dessau was closed down under the Nazis and the Bauhaus members were forced out of the Masters’ Houses. During the war the houses of Gropius and Moholy-Nagy were destroyed by bombs. They were “reconstructed in soft focus”, that is, not as they had originally been, by Bruno Fioretti Marquez Architects in 2011-14. The other Masters’ Houses were elaborately restored from 1993 to 2002. Since 1996 the complex of Masters’ Houses has been part of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

In the Muche and Schlemmer Houses the artists-in-residence can explore the ideas and people that made up the unique avant-garde school and over a period of several weeks develop their own standpoints for the future.

In the Gropius House the artists display their work to the public at the end of their stay.

The results are as diverse as the historic Bauhaus itself, making synergetic references to painting, design, textile design, music, theatre, performance, photography and architecture.

"Leaving my work here in this place just feels logical and right.”

For her video installation she filmed herself as a synchronized swimmer and linked the theme of standards with that of rules and regulations in sport.

To capture the exceptional acoustics, Groot built a sound machine.

“The Moholy-Nagy House is very interesting in its structure. It has three interlinked levels. That is like in music. A movement is played, a second movement is introduced and at some point the first is repeated. The two come together and there are endless possibilities for combining the parts of the music. The space’s sound is wonderful – really 3D.”

Alexander Hadjiev worked with multi-media:

“Over the last few years I have seen how racism is on the increase. Young people react negatively to people who leave their homelands and to the exploration of foreign cultures. That’s why I made videos of people who have left their countries in my Bauhaus residency. It was important for me for them to tell their stories in their own native languages.”

For his presentation he then mixed these live with his music.

In her project on systems of language and memory the artist taught herself to weave on the loom and produced conductive woven pieces that can transmit sound and light information.

Canepa used wooden boards in various forms and colours, with each platform being allocated its own movement which the dancers can carry out.

In the Masters’ Houses, where he felt fairly isolated, he observed the way the light fell in waves through the studio window and how this play of the light changed during the course of the day. He documented this transient atmosphere thus,