"PHOTOGRAPHS : BAUHAUS TEL AVIV - JERUSALEM" par Günther FÖRG. Editions Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit. 2002. in-8 broché, couverture souple cartonnée rempliée, illustrée en noir & blanc. 208 pages. Texte trilingue anglais / allemand / hébreu, illustré de 182 reproductions photographiques noir & blanc, pleine page. Ouvrage réalisé dans le l'exposition éponyme au Stiffung Weimarer Klassik, Schillermuseum Weimar du 15 Décembre 2001  au 14 Avril 2002 et au Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Novembre-Décembre 2002.

 

"Günther Förg's artistic oeuvre encompasses paintings, graphic and sculptural works as well as a great body of architectural photographs relating to such buildings as Villa Malaparte or House Wittgenstein. With district reference to these existing sequences, a new series about Bauhaus architecture in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv was shot in 2001. The buildings were designed in the 1930s and 40s largely by architects who had emigrated from Europe. Their intention was to implement the social, technical and aesthetic principles postulated by Bauhaus which had been closed down by the Nazis in 1933. Arieh Sharon, Sam Barkai, Genia Averbouch, Ze'ev Haller, Pinchas Hütt, Richard Kauffmann, Erich Mendelsohn and others foremost endeavoured to build affordable housing for teh present wave of immigration - working-class housing developments, villas, studios. More than 1500 of these buildings still lend a distinct character to the cityscape of Tel Aviv today, the largest ensemble of this particular style world-wide. Günther Förg's photographic research using a 35mm camera and zoom lens presents the uncompromisingly modern architecture in an unembellished way, sometimes delapidated, often featuring careless renovations or additions - as monuments that have stubbornly defied the course of time, representing the unbroken spirit of a new era and the social utopias of their time".

 

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