Bauhaus movement turns 90
It’s birthday time for the Bauhaus movement, as 2010 marks 90 years since the establishment of the Bauhaus School in Weimar, Germany, an anniversary that is being celebrated in a variety of ways both in its homeland and abroad. One of the highlights is a large-scale exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Primarily known through its application in architecture during the interwar period, Bauhaus is defined by its simplicity, practicality, function, geometric forms and the use of the period’s new technologies. In Greece, the movement influenced a number of leading architects, while its ideas have been imprinted, to a larger or smaller degree, in many known or lesser-known buildings around the country. Participating actively in the celebrations, the Goethe Institute in Athens is organizing an exhibition of photographs. The show, which opens tomorrow, features 54 images by Hans Engels and texts by architect Axel Tilch. Going on display are buildings designed by craftsmen, professors and students of the Bauhaus movement as well as architects from the firm of Walter Gropius, the movement’s founder. The constructions were carried over a 14-year-period, until the crackdown by the Nazis on the movement in Dessau in 1932 and the final halt of its operations in Berlin a year later. In the presence of the photographer, tomorrow’s opening also includes a presentation by architect Sofia Dona, who will give a presentation on the influence of Bauhaus and German modernism on the architecture of Athens. The exhibition runs to March 29. Goethe Institute, 14-16 Omirou, tel 210.366.1043. For more information, visit www.goethe.de/athen
