Bauhaus Lab 2016:
Desk in exile.
The transatlantic journey of Bauhaus furnishings
9 May until 5 August 2016
Exhibition 5 August until 4 December 2016
In 2016 the participants of the Lab pursued the transatlantic journey of an iconic piece of furniture: the desk of the founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius. Made from weighty cherry wood as part of an ensemble for the first Bauhaus exhibition in 1923, it is therefore less than well-suited to travel. Nonetheless, after the desk was first moved to the director’s room in Dessau, it then followed its owner abroad on two occasions: first to the Lawn Road Flats in London and then to the USA, where it is still found today.
The Bauhaus Lab traced this journey and made the iconic desk itself a player in an ever-changing field of locations and social environments. Based on this research the participants of the Lab developed curatorial formats that present proposals for the exhibition and communication of such object-related narratives of exile.
