This workshop considered the use and context of these objects in their original setting, the historical circumstance of indigenous people at the time these collections were being made, and how this research relates to a discussion of indigenous culture today?
A group of artists, designers, curators and art historians including indigenous scholars examined this history in relation to form and technique as well as ethics. This working group made site visits to museums archives and studios in New York, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum and the Lenore Tawney Foundation, to examine and discuss materials ranging from Mesoamerican artefacts to the work of the mid-century artists and designers who found inspiration in these collections. This study tour was followed by a public seminar at the New York Goethe-Institute.
bauhaus imaginista is realized by the Bauhaus Cooperation Berlin Dessau Weimar, the Goethe-Institut and Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW).
The symposium in New York is curated by Marion von Osten and Grant Watson in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut New York and the researchers Elissa Auther(NYC) and Erin Alexa Freedman (NYC).