The journalists attended the event on behalf of a variety of national media, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, art-Magazin, tageszeitung, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, ARTMAPP art magazine, and Tagesspiegel.
The University’s president, Prof. Winfried Speitkamp, welcomed the guests to the Hotel Dorint on Friday afternoon and answered questions about the University’s 100 Years of Bauhaus celebrations. The trip programme then kicked off with a viewing of several Bauhaus items currently in storage at the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. They are due to be displayed in the exhibition entitled »Das Bauhaus kommt aus Weimar« (»Bauhaus comes from Weimar«), which will open at the Bauhaus Museum in April 2019. Dr. Anke Blümm, scientific assistant at the Bauhaus Museum, presented the works, which included the famous Bauhaus cradle by Peter Keler.
On Saturday, the group visited the construction site of the new Bauhaus Museum on Jorge Semprún-Platz. They were accompanied by Dr. Ulrike Bestgen, who is Head of Department at the Klassik Stiftung. In addition to the permanent exhibition on the Weimar Bauhaus, temporary exhibitions presenting contemporary works produced at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar are planned in the future.
The guests had previously visited the Neues Museum to gain an insight on the exhibition’s conception, which will look at modernism in Weimar in around 1900 with a special focus on the early 20thcentury work of Henry van de Velde and Harry Graf Kessler in Weimar. Another highlight of the press trip was a visit to the new modernist district to the north of the town centre where a museum on forced labour during the National Socialist era will open in 2020 in a space currently occupied by the Thuringian Administration State Office.
On Saturday afternoon, the tour also offered the journalists for art and architecture a Bauhaus walk through the founding buildings of Bauhaus. The Main Building at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Van de Velde Building were visited during the walk led by Thomas Apel, as were temporary experimental buildings on the University campus. The journalists were also given explanations on the redesign of the outdoor facilities, the Bauhaus.Semester and the University’s comprehensive anniversary programme.
Another highlight was the visit to the Modernist Archive on Saturday afternoon. The archive’s director, Dr. Christiane Wolf, granted rare insights into the archive’s collections, such as original invitations for themed Bauhaus celebrations. Work from Oskar Schlemmer’s preliminary courses and two valuable Bauhaus albums were also shown and attracted many questions from the interested journalists.
The programme concluded with a short visit to the Galerie Eigenheim Weimar / Berlin, with whom the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar will cooperate with on several exhibition projects in 2019. Contemporary works from the University, its students, teachers, and alumni will be made accessible to a wider audience at the gallery’s Berlin venue in exhibitions developed and curated by students during the Bauhaus.Semester.
The press trip was initiated and organised by the Communications Departments of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, and weimar GmbH. The project was financed by the State Chancellery of the Free State of Thuringia. The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar would like to thank all of those involved for their commitment to implementing and facilitating the programme for the press trip.