bauhaus & film (3)

New Building – Suicidal Objectivity (April 6, with an introduction by Kathrin Peters) "Out of sheer protest against the Art Nouveau and timbered magnificence of his parent's mansion, he furnished his spaces with an all but suicidal objectivity…" Getrud Busse wrote of her husband, the documentarist Wilfried Basse. The 1920s architecture that became known under the term of "New Building" shaped the debates on modern architecture for a long period of time. We reconstruct a historical film program of the same name that took place on January 31, 1932. In DIE NEUE WOHNUNG (CH 1930), Hans Richter literally disassembles the "front parlor" with the help of intertitles and short scenes staged with actors. He contrasts the useless porcelain figures on the Vertiko and other Art Nouveau decoration with modern, objectively sober and purposeful living-room and kitchen furnishing. Here, (with the help of stop and go motion recordings) everything seems to work on its own, the foldable pieces of furniture are moved out of the way as if by magic. Ella Bergman-Michel's WO WOHNEN ALTE LEUTE? (D 1931) is committed to an alternative housing project in Frankfurt/Main: a home for the elderly with functional, light-flooded architecture. The extensive use of glass allows the camera to capture deeply staggered vistas, while the pans, which always end in the sky, evoke the well-known triad: "Light – Air – Sun". The folding doors of the common rooms that can be pushed aside – shown in animated graphics – demonstrate the multi-functionality of the spaces to further the conviviality of the people living there. Wilfried Basse's ABBRUCH UND AUFBAU. EINE REPORTAGE VOM BAUPLATZ (D 1932) was created based on a two-year, long-term observation in the center of Berlin. Between Inselbrücke and Wallstrasse, the Arbeiterbank, a huge old building is torn down and s a modern complex of large buildings is built up again. Old and new working methods encounter each other: demolition is carried out with harnessed horses and jackhammers. Even the metro tubes traversing the port basin have to be excavated. The new buildings gradually rise.