KLANGWELT DES BAUHAUSES I-II

Experimental nature films from the Bauhaus with free improvisation and conversation.

More commonly regarded as a cool, functionalist and minimalist movement, the aesthetics of the Weimar Bauhaus and their leading lights took inspiration not only from mathematics and physics: biology, ecology and psychology were also significant influences on the newly emerging movement. Compact housing designs saved space and had a reduced impact on the countryside. Ecologists at the time marvelled at the airy, bright, clean Bauhaus architecture, because for them it represented a healthy atmosphere that promoted the well-being of the inhabitants. This was a time when people still had to contend with air pollution and diseases such TB and asthma. The survival of humanity as a species was at stake. That is even more true today. Under the heading ‘The Early Bauhaus as an Environmental Movement’, Kunstfest Weimar will present four interdisciplinary events devoted to films by the Bauhaus filmmaker Alfred Ehrhardt. In addition to a full-length lecture by film historian Thomas Tode (see Discourse section), three concerts by the “ensemble klangwerk at the bauhaus Weimar” will offer lively perspectives on the oeuvre of this little-known film visionary.

Sound World of the Bauhaus I and II:

Abstraction – Archaism – Basic Form.

Alfred Ehrhardt – the Bauhaus filmmaker – was a composer in shapes and images. His experimental cultural and documentary films are living processes made visible with which the “ensemble klangwerk am bauhaus” now creates inspiring links with the acoustic present. The short films by this formal genius Alfred Ehrhardt, which can be heard here both with their original scores and with the ensemble’s contemporary settings, are the subject of a lecture by Bauhaus film specialist Thomas Tode, presenting an introduction to the art of visual narrative and shedding light on how the art of film operated at the Bauhaus. The sound world of the Bauhaus: sensual, full of meaning and ripe for rediscovery.