2024
A project on the cantilever chairs of Marcel Breuer, Mart Stam and Mies van der Rohe

www.smow.com/blog/2024/12/mehr-als-echt-more-than-real-by-jun-yang-at-stiftung-bauhaus-dessau/

The overwhelming number of Bauhaus furniture designs are produced by three companies today: Knoll International, Tecta, and Thonet. Bauhaus furniture is sought after. In addition to the originals, there are faithfully reproduced objects and licensed reissues. There is also a large market for unauthorized copies.

The work of the artist Jun Yang starts with the latter: He furnishes the Bauhaus Building with famous Bauhaus furniture of very different origin. Their construction, use of materials, and quality of production reflect a wide spectrum of interpretation. With his work Yang is initiating a discourse how to approach the legacy of the Bauhaus, its continued existence, but also transfers from industrially produced furniture to the design icon, the copy, and the fetish as well as from the legally punishable pirate copy to the work of art. Last but not least, Yang raises questions about rights of use and exploitation, about who has and who doesn’t have which rights.

In addition to the original, faithfully produced objects, the licensed re-editions and very free interpretations, exciting design developments by Kerstin Bruchhäuser and Katrin Greiling for Tecta will also be on display. In close collaboration with Tecta, the Bauhaus Museum’s café will also be furnished with red B40 chairs and foldable D4 armchairs, famous tubular steel furniture by Marcel Breuer. Films will provide an insight into the production process at Tecta and show how much the company has remained a manufactory to this day. (Bauhaus Dessau Foundation)