Potsdam, Potsdam-Mittelmark, Brandenburg an der Havel, Teltow-Fläming: Brandenburg is wild, lonely and a region of fine arts. All around Potsdam, princes, kings and emperors have created a unique world heritage landscape with numerous castles, mansions and gardens. Because here it has always been a bit greener, bluer and simply more relaxed than in Berlin. Further south nature reigns: sheer endless forests, gentle hills and wide meadows, blooming heathland – and lots and lots of water. That is why the southwest of Brandenburg can also be explored very well from the water. Long story short: Brandenburg is good for the soul.
WOCHENENDER – LIEBLINGSORTE FÜR FAMILIEN IN UND UM HAMBURG
Swinging, sliding and adventures! Hamburg is nothing less than a family paradise: there are playgrounds, water, animals everywhere – and lots of places to discover, romp and being creative for children of all ages. The WOCHENENDER with favorite places for families inspires parents and children to discover Hamburg and the surrounding area together. In any weather. Inside and outside. In the middle of the city and beyond the city limits. Plus: The best playgrounds, boat and canoe rentals, cultural spots for children, parks and fields for picking fruit.
WOCHENENDER – BRANDENBURG NORDOSTEN
Uckermark, Barnim, Märkisch-Oderland: Brandenburg was underestimated for a long time. Above all, the wild, wide Uckermark and the neighboring districts northeast of Berlin have everything you need for a small escape from the city: primeval forests, tranquil villages and so many lakes, rivers and streams that you get confused when counting them. Nature was able to keep its place here uninhibited. In addition, you often have them all to yourself. What most people look for – and find – here is peace and quiet. For this edition of WOCHENENDER we hiked through pristine landscapes, paddled across the water and found new favorite places.
WOCHENENDER – HOFLÄDEN UND MANUFAKTUREN UM HAMBURG
What does happiness taste like? Like warm bread, fresh from the oven? Like a juicy apple straight from the tree? Or a tasty cheese from a sheep that you can watch while grazing in the pasture? In this edition of WOCHENENDER about farm shops and manufactories we celebrate pleasure. Which we can find on farms, in farm shops and self-harvest gardens, but also in studios and workshops.
Everywhere we have met people who care about nature, animals and materials, and who work hard every day to make the world a little more beautiful and sustainable. And if you enjoy seeing things grow and emerge, you don’t have to go far. Sometimes the little big happiness is really close.
WOCHENENDER – ST. PETER-ORDING & EIDERSTEDT
For centuries, sand was a reason to leave St. Peter-Ording’s. Today it is a reason to come by. A wide beach, exposed unprotected to wind and tides, criss-crossed by tideways, everything about it rough and stormy and magnificent. In short: St. Peter-Ording is a classic.
It is even more astonishing that the Eiderstedt peninsula, which lies in front of the famous sandbank, has remained almost an insider tip to this day. The wide and open area between Friedrichstadt and St. Peter-Ording is something like the epitome of the German North Sea coast.
WOCHENENDER – DIE ELBE
From Cuxhaven to Wittenberge: Originating in the Czech Giant Mountains, the river Elbe enters the northern German lowlands from the Dresden Elbe valley widening. In the north it takes its way past picturesque towns, awakens the port of Hamburg to roaring life, until it finally flows into the North Sea near Cuxhaven. The Elbe, the white river, as it was once called, is sometimes narrow and gentle, sometimes wide and wild, and it almost always flows through Germany in its natural form.
This edition of WOCHENENDER explores places to the left and right of the river Elbe between Cuxhaven and Wittenberge. Many of them have not yet been discovered.
WOCHENENDER – LÜNEBURGER HEIDE
Harburg, Heidekreis, Lüneburg: On our journey through the Lüneburger Heide – before, during and after flowering – we experienced the region in a deep sleep and full of people. We have seen the leaves and flowers glow in clear sunshine, and have discovered where to make yourself comfortable when it is drizzling.
From Material to Architecture
Published in 1929, From Material to Architecture contains the main features of László Moholy-Nagy’s teaching program at the Bauhaus. With its focus on the preliminary course, this last book of the 14-volumes series explains how students “develop towards practice from day to day.” The educational principle behind it, “Jedermann ist begabt” (everyone is talented), was central to teaching at the Bauhaus from 1919 to its conclusion in 1933.
Moholy-Nagy’s second contribution within the series (he also wrote Painting, Photography, Film, volume 8) searches “for the closest connection between art, science and technology by aiming for the training of finer sensory perception.”
Lukas Ratius—Der Apparat
The most important factor in shaping public perception of the government is arguably the way momentous events are translated into images. Our general impression of how a country is run is largely determined by the personality of its political dignitaries. The media often adopt iconic motifs in their coverage: they like it big and pompous, sometimes even violent and brutal – depending on the current sociopolitical context. Another relevant factor is the collective memory of historical events, mixed up with individual and subjective associations.
Removed from the powerful visual representation of the nation, civil servants and public-sector employees toil away in their unadorned offices, generally hidden from the public eye, working on the ground level in a vast bureaucratic apparatus.
In this book, the photographer Lukas Ratius sheds light on the breadth and complexity of the administrative and political institutions of Saarland, one of Germany’s federal states. Ratius’s photos provide fragmentary insight into the inner workings of the government in a playful and skillful subversion of viewers’ expectations.
Followers of the Flow
Followers of the Flow traces the evolution of the freestyle movement of the 1990s, a movement that does not just refer to sports, but to a mindset which is currently enjoying a renaissance in modern society.
What is the connection between freestyle and creativity? How can the flow experience—a denominator for all freestyle activities—be seen as a creative tool? Why is it essential to try and fail?The manual explores these questions in six beautifully illustrated chapters, giving the reader a “recipe” in the form of a new and ingenious creative method: Freestyle Thinking.
Cubism
The French painter and writer Albert Gleizes is considered an important representative of Cubism and described himself as the founder of this art movement. Although he was never an official member of the Bauhaus, Gleizes nevertheless dedicated his influential essay on Cubism to the art school. In 1928, the editors László Moholy-Nagy and Walter Gropius included this essay as volume 13 in the Bauhaus book series. In addition to his own works, Albert Gleizes also shows artworks by Georges Braque, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso as reference examples and places the Bauhaus and its book series in an international context that impressively captures the interaction of the numerous art movements of the time.
Bauhaus Buildings Dessau
In his third and last contribution within the Bauhausbücher series, the founder and long-standing director of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, gives a comprehensive overview of the Bauhaus in Dessau. In addition to a brief outline of the origins and development of the school, Gropius presents the architectural design of the new Bauhaus building and the associated Masters’ Houses with the help of photographic documentary evidence and planning sketches. In the book, he traces the technical planning development with extreme precision and provides an insight into the design practice of the “Bauhäusler.
The Non-objective World
Kasimir Malevich’s treatise on Suprematism was included in the Bauhausbücher series in 1927, as was Piet Mondrian’s reflections on Russian Constructivism in 1925 (New Design, Bauhausbücher 5). Like Mondrian, who was never an official member of the Bauhaus, Malevich nevertheless has a close connection to the ideas of the school in terms of content. This volume, the eleventh, remains the only book publication in Germany to be produced during the life of the Russian avant-garde artist, and it laid the foundation for his late work: to wrest the mask of life from the true face of art.
Dutch Architecture
“I am not an art historian but an architect: the future is more important to me than the past and I am more inclined to investigate what is to come than to research what had already occured.” Thus begins Oud’s “confession” in volume 10 of the Bauhausbücher series. His writing is a summary of theoretical and practical findings in the field of architecture, specifically using the example of Dutch architecture. He thus looks to the future and reflects on the potential of architecture without forgetting to reveal his relationship with the past.
“What has happened teaches lessons for what is to come” – from these considerations Oud’s examination of Dutch architecture, which is recorded in this volume, derives his ideas.
Point and Line to Plane
Point and Line to Plane, volume 9 of the Bauhausbücher series, can be seen as a continuation of Wassily Kandinsky’s seminal treatise On the Spiritual in Art. Kandinsky’s thesis is that different constellations of point, line and surface have different emotional effects on the viewer. Starting from the point (which represents the most concentrated and minimal graphic form), he understands all painterly forms as being a play of forces and counterforces: of contrasts.
Kandinsky’s essay can be read as an aesthetic analysis of form and its effect on the viewer. Based on the various effects of linear elements on our mood, Kandinsky attempts to develop an order of form types. Here, he offers an approach to a theory of the effects of form, which makes volume 9 one of the most important writings on art theory of the 20th century and it can still be understood as contemporary today.
New Works from the Bauhaus Workshops
The Bauhaus sought to unite life, craftsmanship, and art under one roof. In this volume, Walter Gropius provides a comprehensive overview of the Bauhaus workshops. He explains the basic principles guiding the teaching, describes contemporary developments in architecture, and illuminates the Bauhaus point of view on household utensils, which was geared toward finding the most suitable form for the respective object. Here, Gropius presents the Bauhaus workshops in Weimar devoted to furniture, metals, textiles, and ceramics, among other subjects.
Principles of Neo-Plastic Art
Theo van Doesburg was a jack of all trades: painter, writer, architect, typographer, and art theorist. In this volume of the Bauhausbücher, he attempts to make elementary concepts in the visual arts generally comprehensible. He was addressing the “modern artist” of his day, who had to deal with both shifting social paradigms and a changing understanding of art and art theory. Van Doesburg describes theory as a necessary consequence of creative practice. Artists, he says, “do not write about art but from within art.”
The Theater of the Bauhaus
Spatial dance, gestural dance, rod dance, Triadic Ballet: Oskar Schlemmer developed his costumed, masked dancer into an “art figure” synthesizing dance, masquerade, and music. The fourth volume of the Bauhausbücher presents the main characteristics of the Bauhaus concept of the stage.
The Bauhaus stage is that of the Weimar period, essentially shaped by Oskar Schlemmer, who had taken over the stage department in 1923. László Moholy-Nagy, who was appointed to the Bauhaus the same year, took an interest in abstract kinetic and luminary phenomena which he examines in his essay “Theatre, Circus, Variété.” Farkas Molnár focused for his part on stage architecture, which he discusses in detail in this volume.
A Bauhaus Experimental House
Adolf Meyer was Walter Gropius’s right-hand man, his planner and close confidant. As early as 1910, they jointly created the Fagus Factory, one of the most important modernist buildings. The experimental single-family home “Haus am Horn” was built for the first Bauhaus exhibition, in the summer of 1923 in Weimar. The house was planned by Georg Muche (design) and the architectural department at the Bauhaus. Adolf Meyer and Walter March were responsible for construction management.
The book about the project was compiled in the summer of 1924 and became the third volume of the Bauhausbücher. Following an essay by Walter Gropius that supplies information on the “Housing Industry,” Georg Muche presents the design of the model building. Adolf Meyer then describes its technical execution, giving details on the companies involved.
Il Teatro è Il Teatro è Il Teatro
A small town is mobilized. The proposal to demolish the historic cine-teatro Le Fontanelle and convert it to a multifunctional center has polarized an entire community. Over several decades of sacrifices the building served as a theater and as a space for both–live theatre and cinema, before being abandoned for thirty years. It hosted different generations’ efforts to create and bring culture to the inland territory of the Madonie and the town of Castelbuono, Sicily.
The artist, Emanuele Sferruzza Moskowicz, with the guidance of Gianfranco Raimondo and the help of the cultural association Glenn Gould, conducted and collected through his art practice listening sessions. He collected listening sessions with twenty-seven people who were part of the building’s history and its surroundings and with those who have been denied the opportunity to do the same.
From a man’s remembrance of his first childhood encounter with movies to a teacher’s memories of Tornatore’s production of “Nuovo Cinema Paradiso.” From the sophisticated religious and folkloric works of the initial performers to the unbreakable will and desire of the new generation to bring the theatre of the absurd to their community. From the story of a man coming back to his town after his successful studies in the north of Italy to be part of its cultural empowerment to the stories of a building denied to the future generation and the ones to come. This inquiry contains an absolute love for culture and for a community that put culture at the center of its identity.
Il Teatro è Il Teatro è Il Teatro is a book that reserves the memory of a building, a building that for almost a century made culture shine for its community, and which apart from memory might be forever lost.
Oktoberfest 1984–2019 by Volker Derlath
For 35 years, Munich photographer Volker Derlath has hardly missed a Wiesn day. With his camera, right in the middle of the action, he is capturing intimate moments, touching scenes, moments full of violence and comedy. The “folk festival of all folk festivals” reminds him, with its incomparable coarseness of folk amusements, of the Middle Ages, he says. The Wiesn is a kind of utopia where visitors can live out what has long since been domesticated in their everyday lives and swept under the rug of civilization.
The Munich Oktoberfest, also known as the Wiesn, is considered the largest folk festival in the world: two exhilarating weeks with beer, chicken, rides and partying people from all over the world. But like last year, this year’s festival has been canceled due to a pandemic. Sad news for the worldwide fan community. With Oktoberfest we would like to remember a time when people could still unconditionally drink, flirt, and celebrate together.
“So entsteht dann Fotokunst aus einem Ausnahmezustand, der – genau betrachtet – das allzu Normale nur in eine andere Form packt.”
SUEDDEUTSCHE.DE, Franz Kotteder
Awarded with Deutscher Fotobuchpreis (Special Mention).
CAPS LOCK – How capitalism took hold of graphic design, and how to escape from it
Capitalism could not exist without the coins, banknotes, documents, information graphics, interfaces, branding, and advertisements made by graphic designers. Even anti-consumerist strategies such as social design and speculative design are appropriated to serve economic growth. It seems design is locked in a cycle of exploitation and extraction, furthering inequality and environmental collapse.
CAPS LOCK uses clear language and visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked. The book features designed objects, and also examines how the study, work, and professional practice of designers supports the market economy. Six radical design cooperatives are featured that resist capitalist thinking in their own way, hoping to inspire a more socially aware graphic design.
Ruben Pater (b. 1977, NL) is trained as a graphic designer. For a decade he worked in graphic design and advertising studios. Afterwards he decided to start his own practice. Informed by his experience, Untold Stories produces critical work between graphic design, journalism, and activism. He is tutor at the BA Graphic Design and the MA Non Linear Narrative of the Royal Academy of Art in the Hague. His first book The Politics of Design (BIS publishers, 2016) has been an inspirational source book for design students, tutors, and visual communicators worldwide.
Juni 2021, Valiz
100 Poster Battle
Sober: A poster should invite, communicate, inform, convince, and also provoke. If a viewer feels addressed, a poster is able to influence his or her decisions through text and images.
Emotional: 100 Poster Battle—one poster a day, for a hundred days, the span of a semester. Inspired by daily events from politics and current affairs. With the aim to try out different techniques, beyond the limits of conventional tools.
In the end, 100 days of poster design reads like a diary. 2020/21 was marked by the pandemic and its consequences for culture, society, and education, the scary tweets of Trump and the upcoming US-elections, BLM, LGBTQ, Söder and Laschet in the power struggle, pro-democracy demos in Thailand, climate goals 2030, and fun-facts like the height of Mt. Everest which has shrunk by 86 cm, the eruption of the Sakurajima volcano in Japan, Elon Musk has become the richest man in the world as well as the boom of sextoys …
Instant Nudes
Over the years the collection of intimate instant photos of the makers of PHOTODARIUM Private, a tear-off calendar, has been growing. They now present a curated selection in the beautifully produced book Instant Nudes. Dreamy, suggestive, exiting, or simply aesthetic: nude photography has many sides.
In the photo book Instant Nudes the work of eleven photographers who use instant images to capture erotic moments is presented. Some of the photographs are revealing, some more discreet. What they all have in common is their reverence for a beautiful body. Because of its authenticity, the medium of the instant photo is the antithesis of digital photography. Instant photos enhance the erotic-voyeuristic moment through their intimacy, uniqueness and materiality, often not perfect and therefore all the more authentic, provocative and yet differentiated.
In their everyday working lives, models are projection screens for social ideas of beauty. They are staged by the photographers and a whole staff of stylists and hair & make-up artists. It is different with the photography of Nudes at home, in the intimacy of their private surroundings. The calendar PHOTODARIUM Private has been published for five years now. The tear-off calendar shows uncensored instant pictures with an artistic approach to nudity. Day after day a new erotic, naked, or cheeky instant image is revealed.
A modern and young look at eroticism beyond pornographic clichés—by photographers and individuals from all over the world. Emancipated and honest.