bauhaus
imaginista
●Edition 1: Corresponding With
4 August 2018

bauhaus imaginista. Corresponding With, Japan

  • The National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto
  • Goethe-Institut Tokyo

Bis heute stellt sich die Frage, ob es notwendig ist, das Verhältnis von Kunst und Gesellschaft neu zu überdenken. Diesen Anspruch, Kunst und Alltag durch eine neue Pädagogik zu radikalisieren, war bereits im 20. Jahrhundert ein internationales Anliegen, das sich ebenso in Gropius’ Manifest aus dem Jahr 1919 und im Bauhaus-Lehrplan wie auch in der Ausrichtung der Werkstätten und in den angewandten Lehrmethoden wiederfindet. Eine Rückorientierung auf traditionelle Handwerksformen wie sie das Bauhaus propagierte, verfolgten so auch die Schule Kala Bhavana (Institut für Bildende Künste) in Santiniketan, Indien, von 1919 bis 1939 und das Seikatsu Kōsei Kenkyushō (Kollektiv für Lebensgestaltung) in Tokio, Japan, von 1931 bis 1939.

Nandalal Bose, Anleitung zur Wandmalerei, Anfang der 1930er Jahre, Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan, India, © Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan.

Die Ausstellung Corresponding With im Museum of Modern Art Kyoto zeichnet erstmals konkrete Beziehungen und Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen diesen Schulen, aber auch die jeweiligen Unterschiede ihrer pädagogischen Modelle nach. Nimmt man die asiatischen Schulen mit in den Blick, so erscheint die Bauhaus-Pädagogik als eine Position in einer Reihe von europäischen und außereuropäischen kunstpädagogischen Ansätzen.

Kala Bhavana wurde 1919 von dem Dichter Rabindranath Tagore gegründet und stützte sich auf künstlerische Mittel aus der indischen Vergangenheit sowie aus der britischen Kunsthandwerkerbewegung. Es blickte auf alte indische Waldschulen (Tapovans), regionale Handwerkstraditionen, die Höhlenmalereien von Ellora und marginal auch auf andere asiatischen Kulturen ebenso wie auf die kontinentaleuropäische Avantgarde. Corresponding With zeigt Postkarten von Nandalal Bose, dem Künstler, der den Lehrplan der Schule entwickelte, sowie pädagogische Schriften, die die Philosophie der Schule verdeutlichen. In Anlehnung an ein Leitbild, das das Kunsthandwerkskontinuum als gemeinnützig betrachtete, stellten wir seltene Beispiele des Textil-, Keramik- und Möbeldesigns sowie der Wandmalerei vor.

Der Architekt und Herausgeber Renshichirō Kawakita gilt als Schlüsselfigur für die Diskussion pädagogischer Bauhausprinzipien in Japan. In den 1920er- und 30er-Jahren stand er im engen Austausch mit den ehemaligen Bauhausstudenten Iwao und Michiko Yamawaki und Takehiko Mizutani, die an seinem 1931 in Tokio gegründeten Kunstinstitut Seikatsu Kōsei Kenkyushō unterrichteten. Gemeinsam mit Mizutani hatte Kawakita bereits eine experimentelle Ausstellung entwickelt, die Gestaltungsprinzipien und Vorkurspraxis des Bauhaus mit der Bewegung des japanischen Modernismus sowie lokalem Handwerkswissen verband. Für bauhaus imaginista re-inszeniert der Künstler Luca Frei diese historische Ausstellung als skulpturale Installation.

Diese transnationale kunstpädagogische Bewegung des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts war Ausgangspunkt für ein Symposium im Goethe-Institut Tokio, zu dem Designer*innen, Künstler*innen und Wissenschaftler*innen aus Japan, Indien und Deutschland der Frage nachgingen, inwieweit diese Schulen auf ihre jeweiligen Gesellschaften nachwirkten.

Luca Frei, Design for pillows, 2017, Gouache, Bleistift und Collage auf Schaumstoffkern, Foto: Karl Isakson.

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