VWW: WIENER BAUHAUS - 1920s CONTEXT

There is a bittersweet sense in making a Vienna Bauhaus exhibition and tour, since so many of the best buildings from that movement were created in Tel Aviv by central Europeans, exiled by antisemitism.

So Eugene proposes an alternative approach, seeking out the atmosphere in Vienna in 1924, ranging from music to food, media, intellectual scene in cafes, interior design, politics, the look, feel and smell of the city, the big debates, the different groups represented in the city, and of course its architecture.

There was an optimism, in re-building after the war, and of course Rotes Wien, but also great poverty and tension between left and right, between Vienna and Austria, and challenges in education, health, mobility and nutrition. What traces of one hundred years ago can we find in the city now?

There are many misunderstandings about the Bauhaus movement and moment, and we will debate all of these on the streets of Margareten, in dialogue as a group.

This walk was conceived with Wien Museum, our excellent, critical, humorous city museum - as part of their 2023 retrospective of Wiener Bauhaus. We have combined with this mighty institution for ten years now, starting with the first ever Tischgespräche in April 2012, followed by five tours: Russian Wien, all of Otto Wagner on his birthday (12 hour tour), Ten Gemeindebauten from ten Decades (for the 100 years of Rotes Wien expo, in Floridsdorf), Gumpendorferstrasse's psychogeography & creative networks, and last summer, the best spots for people-watching in Vienna, as part of the Street Photography exhibition.

Here ORF Topos collects film images of the city in 1923: Straßenszenen aus dem alten Wien - Vor 100 Jahren (orf.at)

The Wien Museum exhibition explored our local adaptation of Bauhaus, until 26 May 2023.