Bauhaus Taschenbuch 24:
Handle with Care: Unpacking a Bulky Table
What happens to an everyday object when it becomces part of a museum collection?
The change of status and environment is accompanied by a process of categorization within the institutional framework of the museum. As a result, we encounter such an object in a museum labelled to indicate the author, the title, the year, the material and the provenance. the Bauhaus Lab 2019 – in the year of the centenary of the Bauhaus – takes the approach of collecting and presenting Bauhaus objects in museums as its point of departure.
The table the Bauhaus designer and émigré Marcel Breuer designed for the Isokon Furniture Company in London in 1936 which is part of the Bauhaus collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum serves as a case study for the postgraduate research and curatorial program. While art and design historiography focuses on the stylistic classification of objects, the Bauhaus Lab participants suggest an alternative approach: they investigate the material stories, social practices, commodification and ownership phases from personal belonging to museum collection. The Lab critically analyses the various social lives embodied in the object.
Edited by:
Bauhaus Dessau FoundationTexts by: Lisa Andreani, Regina Bittner, Roxanna Brands, Marianne Czwojdrak, Hanan Kataw, Simon Mitchell, Louise Rietvink, Gabriela Szałanska, Mara Trübenbach
Graphic design:
Anne Meyer based on a concept by HORT, BerlinLayout:
176pages, numerous black and white and coloured illustrations, softcoverLanguages: English
Spector Books, Leipzig
2019ISBN EN 978-3-95905-355-6
€ 9,90 book trade
€ 7,90 Designshop Bauhaus Dessau
