Neues Bauen International - an architecture exhibition by the Goethe-Institute Manila
Neues Bauen International
presented by IfA (Institute for Cultural Relations) in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and the DLSU-College of St. Benilde
The architecture exhibition Neues Bauen International, which runs from May 21 to June 28 at the 8/F De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts, gives audiences a unique overview of the icons of early modern architecture - from Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, J.J.P. Oud through to Frank Lloyd Wright. It is based on an exhibition in Stuttgart from 1927 which toured then through 17 European cities. German curator Prof. Karin Kirsch selected buildings and architects whose approach seem to be pointing to the future even more today than they did back then.
The move towards architectural Modernism started in the 1920’s in Germany as a protest against the imitation of historical styles that had predominated until the end of the First World War. The newly founded republic wanted to show the political break with the past in its architecture as well, using a new formal language and new building types and spatial concepts.
“Neues Bauen International” presents a 20th century invention at the beginning of the 21st century, and is something that can be found - with certain deviations - in cities on almost all continents. “Neues Bauen” (German for “New Building”) developed into an international movement, a joint effort by European and Russian architects that made an impact on the United States, Latin America, and even Asia.
This major touring exhibition has already been shown in several European and Asian cities before arriving in the Philippines. The Manila exhibit, however, will be different from the previous legs. It will not just showcase models and photographs from Germany. The School of Design and Arts’ new museum, mcad, the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design, will be including a special Philippine component in the exhibit, an expression of its institutional interest in collaborative international exhibitions.
Prior to the opening, mcad will be hosting a series of meetings with noteworthy commentators on Philippine architecture and design, and recording their different ideas about various local responses to the diffusion of the bauhaus aesthetic. Their comments will be reproduced, and will surround the exhibition brought in from Germany. Curatorially, an interweaving between local and foreign would have been achieved -- giving the exhibition a groundedness in the Philippines.
mcad, through this intervention, expresses three important aspects of its programming. First, curatorial collaboration with foreign institutions does not have to be conceptualized expensively. Second, such collaboration can focus, not on foreign "influences" on local developments, but on local context re-shaping the foreign ideas. Third, cross-cultural and cross-border partnerships must take the form of dialogue.
In addition, a lecture series on architecture is also planned for the duration of the exhibit.
Neues Bauen International opens on May 21 at 6 pm. The opening will feature a talk by Prof. Karin Kirsch, curator of the exhibit, and a dance performance by Donna Miranda. The exhibit is initiated by ifa - Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations - in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut and the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde School of Design and Arts. The exhibit runs until June 28.