Suchergebnisse

Der Band widmet sich dem Potential kreativen Ausdrucks, das die Auseinandersetzung mit städtischer Architektur mittels zeitgenössischer (digitaler) Technologien bietet, und dem gesellschaftlichen Kontext neoliberaler Bereicherungsökonomie und Stadtpolitik, der dieses Potential aufgrund der kommerzialisierten Präsentation von Architektur zu unterminieren droht. Neben wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzungen werden ästhetische Interventionen im Medium der Fotografie, Malerei und Musik vollzogen. The volume is dedicated to the potential of creative expression offered by the engagement with urban architecture by means of contemporary (digital) technologies, and to the social context of neoliberal enrichment economics and urban politics that threatens to undermine this potential due to the commercialized presentation of architecture. In addition to scientific discussions, aesthetic interventions are carried out in the medium of photography, painting and music.

There are three main aspects the Kunst-Dienst (KD), which was founded in Dresden in February 1928, tried to teach until the thirties of the twentieth century: the religious-humanistic understanding of the world; a religious universal aim according to Paul Tillich´s Theory of cultural theologie (Kulturtheologie); the belief in a reform movement run by the Church in accordance with the progress in mastering nature and technology in the world of life, work and art; modern aesthetic approaches of Expressionism, New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) and Deutscher Werkbund, aiming at reforming culture.So the KD with its art-teaching work could partly act as a supporter of an avant-garde. It tried to achieve qualifying and updating of the religious- clerical relation to modern arts and fought for modern architecture and industrial design. As an institution that had been personally, organizationally, economically and politically integrated into the Nazi Regime since 1933, the KD was not only used as an element for the establishment of an apparently attractive variety in the production, distribution and reception of art. Also in its art-teaching work, it can be seen as an example of "different", "right-wing" avant-garde, "useful", "conservative" or even "reactionary" modern art.

Die Arbeit präsentiert die Geschichte der modernen Wirtschaftswerbung in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts und zeigt, dass Werbung trotz kultureller Barrieren die Alltagswelten der Deutschen kolonialisierte und Einfluss auf die "deutsche Kultur" nahm. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass das Konstrukt der "deutschen Kultur" nicht ausschließlich durch die bürgerliche Hochkultur definiert wurde, sondern zunehmend auch durch Einflüsse der Konsumkultur bestimmt war. Die Bilderwelten der Werbung prägten nationale Ikonen, schufen (bspw. durch Leuchtwerbung) modifizierte "Oberflächen" und Raumwahrnehmungen, ebenso wie die Logik der Marktdifferenzierung und des Marketing soziale Interaktionen als auch die politische Kommunikation (Hitler als Marke) zu bestimmen begann. Diese Entwicklung verlief nicht konfliktfrei. Sowohl die Debatten über Werbung als auch die direkte Konfrontation zwischen Kulturkritikern und Werbern verdeutlichen den massiven Zusammenprall zweier Mentalitäten, die den Konflikt von traditionellem zünftigem Denken, hochkultureller Repräsentation sowie einer vermeintlich authentischen Ästhetik des Inhalts auf der einen Seite und einer "Welt des Scheins" und einer Ästhetik der äußeren Form auf der anderen Seite hervortreten ließ. In dieser Debatte spielte eine Frage eine zentrale Rolle: inwieweit Kapitalismus, Marktwirtschaft, Konsum und die Ästhetik der modernen Lebenswelt mit ihrer spezifischen (werblichen) Oberflächenstruktur mit Vorstellungen "des Deutschen" zu vereinbaren waren. ; This dissertation offers a history of modern commercial advertising during the first half of the twentieth century and demonstrates that despite cultural barriers, advertising colonized the everyday world of Germans and began to encroach upon "German culture". The work shows that the construct of "German culture" was not only defined by bourgeois high culture, but rather increasingly by factors from consumer culture. The imagery of advertising shaped national icons, created modified "surfaces" (for example, through illuminated ad media) and perceptions of space. Likewise, the logic of market differentiation and marketing began to determine social interactions as well as political communication (Hitler branding). This development did not progress without conflict: Debates surrounding both advertising as well as the direct confrontation between cultural critics and advertisers make clear that there was a massive collision between two mentalities. This allowed a conflict to emerge between traditional, guild thinking, high cultural representations and a putatively authentic aesthetics of content, on the one hand, and on the other hand, a "world of appearances" and aesthetic of the exterior form. One question in particular played a central role in this debate, namely: the extent to which capitalism, the market economy, consumption and the aesthetics of the modern Lebenswelt with its specific (commercial) texture were in accord with ideas of "Germanness."

Este trabajo consiste en la compilación, documentación y descripción de los cascarones de concreto armado en forma de paraboloide hiperbólico que, como concepción estética y estructural, son una parte importante de la expresión arquitectónica del siglo XX ecuatoriano.De los años 30 a los 50, con las obras y contribuciones de Karl Kohn, Otto Glass, Francesco Maccaferri, Giovanni Rota, Guillermo Cubillo, Oscar Etwanick, Guillermo Jones Odriozola, Gilberto Gatto Sobral, Sixto Durán Ballén y Jaime Dávalos, arriba la práctica de la arquitectura moderna al Ecuador con inspiración de la Bauhaus, del racionalismo y del Estilo Internacional.La llegada de la modernidad encontró un óptimo escaparate en la undécima Conferencia Latinoamericana de Cancilleres de 1959, aunque esta no llegó a celebrarse. Para esta se iniciaron y adelantaron importantes obras, algunas de las cuales se componían formalmente por cascarones delgados de hormigón armado.Como antecedente, la obra del arquitecto español Félix Candela realizada durante su exilio mexicano, fácilmente identificable por sus cascarones de doble curvatura, se hizo ampliamente conocida en todo el mundo. Los hypars de Candela fueron emulados en toda Latinoamérica, incluso en Ecuador, y se convirtieron en insignias de la identidad moderna.El Hotel Quito fue una de las obras encargadas para la conferencia de cancilleres. Su diseñador fue el arquitecto estadounidense Charles Forster McKirahan, quien trajo consigo el estilo denominado MiMo o Miami Modern, un estilo caracterizado en parte por el uso del paraboloide hiperbólico, tal como aquel que se encuentra al ingreso del hotel.Los arquitectos Milton Barragán, Agustín Patiño, Mario Arias y Oswaldo Muñoz Mariño en Quito; René Denis, Alamiro González, Xavier Quevedo y René Bravo en Guayaquil; y los ingenieros Luis Monsalve en Cuenca y Juan González en Coca y Esmeraldas, diseñaron hypars para casas, gasolineras, espacios deportivos, culturales, institucionales, educativos, industriales, para el culto e incluso complejos militares. En los años 80, en dos recintos militares ecuatorianos hubo dos réplicas del cascarón que cubre el célebre Restaurante Los Manantiales en Xochimilco—México, del maestro Félix Candela. La primera de ellas se halla en El Coca, en la Amazonía ecuatoriana; la segunda solía estar en Esmeraldas, pero desapareció.Palabras clave: Paraboloide hiperbólico, hypar, cascarón de hormigón armado, arquitectura moderna latinoamericana. AbstractThis article consists of a compilation, documentation and description of the reinforced concrete thin shells shaped as hyperbolic paraboloids that, as an aesthetic and structural conceptions, are an important part of the architectural expression of the Ecuadorian 20th century.From the 1930s to the 1950s, with the works and contributions of Karl Kohn, Otto Glass, Francesco Maccaferri, Giovanni Rota, Guillermo Cubillo, Oscar Etwanick, Guillermo Jones Odriozola, Gilberto Gatto Sobral, Sixto Durán Ballén and Jaime Dávalos, the practice of modern architecture arrived to Ecuador with Bauhaus, rationalism and International Style inspiration. The arrival of Modernity found an optimal showcase at the XI Latin American Conference of Foreign Ministers scheduled for 1959. Although the conference did not take place, important construction works were started and were brought forward. Some of these works were formally composed by reinforced concrete thin shells.As a precedent, the Spanish architect Félix Candela's work during his Mexican exile –easily identifiable by his double-curved thin shells— became widely known throughout the world. Candelas´ hypars were emulated throughout Latin America, including Ecuador, and became an insignia of its modern identity.Hotel Quito was one of the works commissioned for the conference of foreign ministers. Its designer was American architect Charles Forster McKirahan who brought with him a style known as MiMo or Miami Modern, characterized in part by the use of the hyperbolic paraboloid, such as the one that stands before the hotel. Architects Milton Barragán, Agustín Patiño, Mario Arias and Oswaldo Muñoz Mariño in Quito; René Denis, Alamiro González, Xavier Quevedo and René Bravo in Guayaquil; and engineers Luis Monsalve in Cuenca; and Juan González in Coca and Esmeraldas, designed hypars for houses, gas stations, sports, cultural, institutional, educational, industrial spaces, for worship and even for military facilites. In the 1980s, there were two replicas of the famous Los Manantiales Restaurant in Xochimilco — México, by Master Félix Candela, in two Ecuadorian military premises. The first replica is in El Coca at the Ecuadorian Amazon, the second one used to be in Esmeraldas, but it disappeared.Keywords: Hyperbolic paraboloid, hypar, concrete thin shell, modern architecture in Latin America.

The Isokon building, Lawn Road Flats, in Belsize Park on Hampstead's lower slopes, is a remarkable building. The first modernist building in Britain to use reinforced concrete and architecture, its construction demanded new building techniques. But the building was as remarkable for those who took up residence there as for the application of revolutionary building techniques. There were 32 Flats in all, and they became a haunt of some of the most prominent Soviet agents working against Britain in the 1930s and 40s, among them Arnold Deutsch, the controller of the group of Cambridge spies who came to be known as the "Magnificent Five" after the Western movie The Magnificent Seven; the photographer Edith Tudor-Hart; and Melita Norwood, the longest-serving Soviet spy in British espionage history. However, it wasn't only spies who were attracted to the Lawn Road Flats, the Bauhaus exiles Walter Gropius, László Moholy-Nagy and Marcel Breuer; the pre-historian Gordon Vere Childe; and the poet (and Bletchley Park intelligence officer) Charles Brasch all made their way there. A number of British artists, sculptors and writers were also drawn to the Flats, among them the sculptor and painter Henry Moore; the novelist Nicholas Monsarrat; and the crime writer Agatha Christie, who wrote her only spy novel N or M? in the Flats. The Isokon building boasted its own restaurant and dining club, where many of the Flats' most famous residents rubbed shoulders with some of the most dangerous communist spies ever to operate in Britain. Agatha Christie often said that she invented her characters from what she observed going on around her. With the Kuczynskis - probably the most successful family of spies in the history of espionage - in residence, she would have had plenty of material. DAVID BURKE is a historian of intelligence and international relations and author of The Spy Who Came In From the Co-op: Melita Norwood and the Ending of Cold War Espionage (The Boydell Press, 2009)

AbstractPyongyang has been described as a center of evil that threatens the world with nuclear weapons. The city is perceived as both aggressive and controlled. This study explains those particularities of Pyongyang utilizing Wagner, Rudolf (2000) ("The moral center and the engine of change. A tale of two Chinese cities". In:Peking Shanghai Shenzhen. Städte des 21. Jahrhunderts. Beijing Shanghai Shenzhen. Cities of the 21st Century. Vöckler, K and Luckow, D (eds.). Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, Edition Bauhaus, vol. 7, 452–459) theory of the Northeast Asian city as a moral center under the ongoing Korean War (although a ceasefire has been called, the war has not officially ended). This study starts by drawing similarities between Pyongyang and Hanyang, the capital of the Joseon Dynasty, which was established as a moral center according to the Rites of the Zhou Dynasty. I also look at the influence that the Korean War had on Pyongyang and find that Pyongyang was constructed to express the North Koreans socialist Juche ideology (self-reliance, subjecthood), while Hanyang expressed Confucian ideology. Pyongyang is more than just a moral center; it is "the Holy Land of Revolution" according to the "Administration Act of the Capital City Pyongyang", where the war still takes place to defend the Juche Ideology and its supreme leader. The Korean War justifies the control in North Korea. The country utilizes the five-family control system inherited from the Joseon Dynasty. Its origin is legalism during the Warring States period (770−221 BC) in China. Control in Pyongyang has been strengthened because of the need for military operations in the unfinished Korean War, compared to Hanyang. Having relaxed political tensions in 2019, North Korea offers a vision for the future of Pyongyang as a "socialist fairyland" (seongyeong仙境), which is related to Korea's own Taoism (sinseon sasang神仙思想). Developing Pyongyang with the Juche ideology from a Confucian tradition in the war, the city now reveals a unique means of cultural entanglement.

The article presents preliminary results and qualitative analysis obtained from the doctoral research provisory entitled "How do Brazilian 'battlers' reside?", which is in progress at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus Univer-sity Weimar. It critically discusses the contradictions of the production of residences in Brazil made by an emerging so-cial group, lately called the Brazilian new middle class. For the last ten years, a number of government policies have provoked a general improvement of the purchasing power of the poor. Between those who completely depend on the government to survive and the upper middle class, there is a wide (about 100 million people) and economically stable lower middle group, which has found its own ways of dealing with its demand for housing. The conventional models of planning, building and buying are not suitable for their technical, financial and personal needs. Therefore, they are con-currently planners, constructors and residents, building and renovating their own properties themselves, but still with very limited education and technical knowledge and restricted access to good building materials and constructive ele-ments, formal technicians, architects or engineers. On the one hand, the result is an informal and more or less autono-mous self-production, with all sorts of technical problems and very interesting and creative spatial solutions to every-day domestic situations. On the other hand, the repercussions for urban space are questionable: although basic infrastructure conditions have improved, building densities are high and green areas are few. Lower middle class neigh-bourhoods present a restricted collective everyday life. They look like storage spaces for manpower; people who live to work in order to be able to consume—and build—what they could not before. One question is, to what extent the lat-est economic rise of Brazil has really resulted in social development for lower middle income families in the private sphere regarding their residences, and in the collective sphere, regarding the neighbourhoods they inhabit and the ur-ban space in general.

The article presents preliminary results and qualitative analysis obtained from the doctoral research provisory entitled "How do Brazilian 'battlers' reside?", which is in progress at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus Univer-sity Weimar. It critically discusses the contradictions of the production of residences in Brazil made by an emerging so-cial group, lately called the Brazilian new middle class. For the last ten years, a number of government policies have provoked a general improvement of the purchasing power of the poor. Between those who completely depend on the government to survive and the upper middle class, there is a wide (about 100 million people) and economically stable lower middle group, which has found its own ways of dealing with its demand for housing. The conventional models of planning, building and buying are not suitable for their technical, financial and personal needs. Therefore, they are con-currently planners, constructors and residents, building and renovating their own properties themselves, but still with very limited education and technical knowledge and restricted access to good building materials and constructive ele-ments, formal technicians, architects or engineers. On the one hand, the result is an informal and more or less autono-mous self-production, with all sorts of technical problems and very interesting and creative spatial solutions to every-day domestic situations. On the other hand, the repercussions for urban space are questionable: although basic infrastructure conditions have improved, building densities are high and green areas are few. Lower middle class neigh-bourhoods present a restricted collective everyday life. They look like storage spaces for manpower; people who live to work in order to be able to consume—and build—what they could not before. One question is, to what extent the lat-est economic rise of Brazil has really resulted in social development for lower middle income families in the private sphere regarding their residences, and in the collective sphere, regarding the neighbourhoods they inhabit and the ur-ban space in general.

The article presents preliminary results and qualitative analysis obtained from the doctoral research provisory entitled "How do Brazilian 'battlers' reside?", which is in progress at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus University Weimar. It critically discusses the contradictions of the production of residences in Brazil made by an emerging social group, lately called the Brazilian new middle class. For the last ten years, a number of government policies have provoked a general improvement of the purchasing power of the poor. Between those who completely depend on the government to survive and the upper middle class, there is a wide (about 100 million people) and economically stable lower middle group, which has found its own ways of dealing with its demand for housing. The conventional models of planning, building and buying are not suitable for their technical, financial and personal needs. Therefore, they are concurrently planners, constructors and residents, building and renovating their own properties themselves, but still with very limited education and technical knowledge and restricted access to good building materials and constructive elements, formal technicians, architects or engineers. On the one hand, the result is an informal and more or less autonomous self-production, with all sorts of technical problems and very interesting and creative spatial solutions to everyday domestic situations. On the other hand, the repercussions for urban space are questionable: although basic infrastructure conditions have improved, building densities are high and green areas are few. Lower middle class neighbourhoods present a restricted collective everyday life. They look like storage spaces for manpower; people who live to work in order to be able to consume—and build—what they could not before. One question is, to what extent the latest economic rise of Brazil has really resulted in social development for lower middle income families in the private sphere regarding their residences, and in the collective sphere, regarding the neighbourhoods they inhabit and the urban space in general.

The article presents preliminary results and qualitative analysis obtained from the doctoral research provisory entitled "How do Brazilian 'battlers' reside?", which is in progress at the Institute for European Urban Studies, Bauhaus University Weimar. It critically discusses the contradictions of the production of residences in Brazil made by an emerging social group, lately called the Brazilian new middle class. For the last ten years, a number of government policies have provoked a general improvement of the purchasing power of the poor. Between those who completely depend on the government to survive and the upper middle class, there is a wide (about 100 million people) and economically stable lower middle group, which has found its own ways of dealing with its demand for housing. The conventional models of planning, building and buying are not suitable for their technical, financial and personal needs. Therefore, they are concurrently planners, constructors and residents, building and renovating their own properties themselves, but still with very limited education and technical knowledge and restricted access to good building materials and constructive elements, formal technicians, architects or engineers. On the one hand, the result is an informal and more or less autonomous self-production, with all sorts of technical problems and very interesting and creative spatial solutions to everyday domestic situations. On the other hand, the repercussions for urban space are questionable: although basic infrastructure conditions have improved, building densities are high and green areas are few. Lower middle class neighbourhoods present a restricted collective everyday life. They look like storage spaces for manpower; people who live to work in order to be able to consume -and build- what they could not before. One question is, to what extent the latest economic rise of Brazil has really resulted in social development for lower middle income families in the private sphere regarding their residences, and in the collective sphere, regarding the neighbourhoods they inhabit and the urban space in general.

Дом Наркомфина наиболее известное произведение архитектора М.Я. Гинзбурга. Построенный в 1928-1930 гг. экспериментальный жилой комплекс вобрал в себя результаты серьезного научного анализа социальных и бытовых процессов того времени. Это позволило определить оптимальные площади помещений и целесообразные взаимосвязи между ними. Комплексы, подобные дому Наркомфина, рассматривались как основополагающие элементы нового быта. Делались попытки совмещения в одной постройке комфортных условий проживания, запоминающегося силуэта здания и выразительных интерьеров квартир. ; Soviet architecture between 1917-1932 gave us the examples of genuine artistic and engineering design chef-d'oeuvres. The rationalism and constructivism were two main inseparable groups of modernist Soviet architecture. In 1922 leaders of rationalism Nikolay Ladovskiy, Vladimir Krinskiy and Arthur Loleit founded ASNOVA (Association of New Architects). In 1925 Moisei Ginzburg, Alexander Vesnin, Viktor Vesnin and Ivan Leonidov founded OSA (Association of Contemporary Architects). Both of these organizations created well-known architecture of Soviet avant-garde. Russian civil engineers and architects maintained close comprehensive relations with their western colleagues. "Iron Curtain" became nonviolated border twenty years later. For the whole period of time since October (until 1932), Communist party demanded the collaboration between Soviet, European and American architects. Russian constructivists and Le Corbusier had very close and intensive relations between each other. OSA maintained regular contacts with Bauhaus (especially with Walther Gropius and Hannes Meyer). Their common principles and patterns enriched the architecture of the 20th century round the world. The Constructivist Narkomfin Communal House (Moisei Ginzburg and Ignati Milinis, 1930) from 1931 enhances the dynamism of the building's innovative construction and utopian idealism. While Ginzburg had great success in the mid-1920s, he, along with the experimental architecture of the period, had fallen out of favor by the mid-1930s. Unlike the other examples of the lost vanguard, Narkomfin House isn't ossified in both form and function. However, here the clean lines of the avant-garde are buried and muddled beneath the everyday needs of human inhabitants and the neglect of time. Despite of the foresaid, it remains an enduring symbol of this first epoch of Soviet history.

Deutschland, 1918. Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs, Revolution, Sieg der Demokratie. Zugleich beginnt ein Siegeszug befreiter Lebensweisen. Alles soll von Grund auf anders werden: die "Neue Frau", der "Neue Mann", "Neues Wohnen", "Neues Denken". Als es Mitte der Zwanziger auch wirtschaftlich aufwärtsgeht, wird Deutschland ein anderes Land. Frauen erobern die Rennpisten und Tennisplätze, gehen abends alleine aus, schneiden sich die Haare kurz. Unisex kommt in Mode, Androgynes und Experimentelles. Jähner erzählt von der Erfindung der Freizeit, von Boxhallen und Tanzpalästen, und von den Hotspots der Neuen Zeit, vom Warenhaus als Glücksversprechen oder der Straße als Ort erbitterter Kämpfe. So vieles wirkt heute verblüffend modern. Die Vorliebe für Ironie, das Gradlinige und Direkte. Aber auch die Angst vor der "Entwertung aller Werte", der Herrschaft des Billigen. Ein großer Teil der Deutschen fand sich im Aufbruch nicht wieder. Als das Geld knapper wurde und die Zukunft düsterer, offenbarte sich die tiefe Spaltung der Gesellschaft und die Unfähigkeit, sie auszuhalten. Harald Jähner liefert eine Gesamtschau dieser so pulsierenden, reichen Zeit - und zeichnet das Bild eines zerrissenen Landes voll gewaltiger und erschreckender Energien. Es ist uns irritierend ähnlich und - hoffentlich - doch ganz anders

Nicht erst seit der Covid-19-Pandemie hat der Krisenbegriff Hochkonjunktur. Auch in Debatten rund um den Klimawandel, die Weltwirtschaft und die Frage nach der (In-)Stabilität politischer Systeme ist die Krise ein zentrales Schlagwort. Wissenschaftlich-technisches Wissen wird dabei gerne als Lösungsstrategie hervorgehoben. Zugleich ist Wissen aber selbst in höchstem Maße krisenanfällig. Die Beiträger*innen des Bandes untersuchen aus der Perspektive der Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung die komplexe Verbindung zwischen Wissenschaft und Krise. Vor dem Hintergrund aktueller und vergangener Entwicklungen diskutieren sie u.a. Praktiken, Utopien, Definitionen und Defizite.

Die Aktivitäten der Galerien für Gegenwartskunst und Werkstätten des Staatlichen Kunsthan­dels der DDR zwischen seiner Gründung 1974 und der Auflösung bzw. kurzzeitigen Über­nahme durch die Art Union GmbH im Jahr 1990 stehen im Mittelpunkt der Dissertation. Die Gründung des Unternehmens, das nach außen mit der Wortmarke "Staatlicher Kunsthandel der DDR' landesweit kommuniziert wurde und intern als "VEH Kunst und Antiquitäten' fir­mierte, lässt sich auf zwei Hauptmotivationen zurückführen. Einerseits stellte dieser staatlich initiierte Betrieb die von dem Maler Bernhard Heisig 19721 eingeforderte Verwirklichung der von Erich Honecker 1971 propagierten Losung "Weite und Vielfalt' dar, andererseits richtete sich der DDR-Staat mit dem Staatlichen Kunsthandel ein Instrumentarium für die Beschaf­fung von Geldmitteln und sogenannten Devisen' ein, denn die Kunst und das Kunsthandwerk aus der DDR waren sowohl bei der Bevölkerung als auch international sowie im westlichen Ausland begehrt und stellten sich im Laufe des Bestehens dieses Betriebes als kommerziell erfolgreiches Handelsgut heraus. Als einflussreicher Stellvertreter der Künstlerschaft in der DDR verlangte Heisig vehement die Schaffung einer Einrichtung, die es einem breiten Spektrum der in der DDR arbeitenden und im Verband Bildender Künstler (VBK) organisierten Künstler ermöglichte, Präsentatio­nen und Verkäufe von Gegenwartskunstkunst und Kunsthandwerk sowohl im Binnenmarkt als auch im westlichen Ausland zu organisieren. Die Dissertation untersucht auf der Grundlage von originalen Quellen die These, dass der Staatliche Kunsthandel in Kenntnis der Bedürfnisse einer privaten kunstinteressierten Käufer­schaft handelte, vornehmlich wirtschaftliche Ziele zu erfüllen versuchte und dass eine (kultur-)politische oder ideologische Einflussnahme auf Ausstellungsprogramme oder gar künstlerische Positionen zugunsten der Erreichung dieser wirtschaftlichen Ziele nicht nach­zuweisen sind - bis auf wenige, in der Dissertation beschriebene Ausnahmen, wie beispiels­weise die Galerie Arkade in Berlin und ihrem Leiter Klaus Werner sowie der Galerie am Sachsenplatz in Leipzig mit den Galeristen Gisela und Hans-Peter Schulz. und mit den Funktionsweisen von Galerien mit Gegenwartskunst im westlichen Ausland Pa­rallelen aufweisen, wie das beispielhaft in der Arbeit des Galeristen Hans-Peter Schulz und 􀀌einer Ausstellungsserie mit Künstlern des Staatlichen Bauhauses dargestellt wird. Allein aus diesem Grund ist die hohe Diversität der im Staatlichen Kunsthandel ausgestellten und ge­handelten Kunst und Kunsthandwerk und die vielen Beteiligungen von Künstlern zu begrün­den, die fernab jeder staatlichen Beauftragung oder kulturideologischer Sendung arbeiteten und produzierten. Auf der Basis einer Auswertung von zeitgenössischen Originalquellen wie Ausstellungskatalogen, internen Veröffentlichungen des Betriebes, Pressestimmen, Korres­pondenzen, Editionsprogrammen und überliefertem Quellenmaterial des Staatlichen Kunst­handels aus öffentlichen wie privaten Archiven sowie die Einbeziehung von Zeitzeugenaus­sagen wird in der Dissertation die Struktur des Staatlichen Kunsthandels, seiner Konzepte und Aktionen rekonstruiert. Dabei wurde versucht, konkrete Fragen im zeitspezifischen kulturel­len und politischen Kontext in der DDR zu beantworten: 1.) Welchen ideologischen und kommerziellen Vorgaben unterlagen die Galerien? 2.) Welche Ausstellungen erfüllten diese Vorgaben und welche vernachlässigten diese bzw. ignorierten bewusst jegliche kulturpoliti­sche Einmischung? 3.) Welche Künstler, Stile, Gattungen konnten sich in den Galerien für Gegenwartskunst behaupten? 4.) Welche Freiräume oder Einschränkungen hatten die Galerie­leiterinnen und -leiter bei der Auswahl der Künstler? 5.) Konnte der Staatliche Kunsthandel erfolgreich arbeiten, trotz oder wegen seiner Anbindung an das Ministerium für Kultur und den Verband Bildender Künstler? 6.) Welche Rolle spielte das Ministerium für Außenhandel und die Kunst und Antiquitäten GmbH beim Exportgeschäft in das westliche Ausland und konnte der Staatliche Kunsthandel auch international wirtschaftlich erfolgreich arbeiten? Das letzte Kapitel der Dissertation schließt mit dem Versuch, die aus den Quellen herausgearbeite­te Rekonstruktion der Aktivitäten des Staatlichen Kunsthandels mit dem "westlichen Leitbild' der Distribution von Gegenwartskunst durch Galerien zu vergleichen und die Frage zu beant­worten, ob es den Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern des Staatliches Kunsthandels gelungen war, einen sozialistischen Kunsthandel nach kapitalistischem Vorbild umzusetzen und damit einen Kunstmarkt in der DDR zu etablieren.

I Max Bill is an intense giornata of a big fresco. An analysis of the main social, artistic and cultural events throughout the twentieth century is needed in order to trace his career through his masterpieces and architectures. Some of the faces of this hypothetical mural painting are, among others, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Kandinskij, Klee, Mondrian, Vatongerloo, Ignazio Silone, while the backcloth is given by artistic avant-gardes, Bauhaus, International Exhibitions, CIAM, war events, reconstruction, Milan Triennali, Venice Biennali, the School of Ulm. Architect, even though more known as painter, sculptor, designer and graphic artist, Max Bill attends the Bauhaus as a student in the years 1927-1929, and from this experience derives the main features of a rational, objective, constructive and non figurative art. His research is devoted to give his art a scientific methodology: each work proceeds from the analysis of a problem to the logical and always verifiable solution of the same problem. By means of composition elements (such as rhythm, seriality, theme and its variation, harmony and dissonance), he faces, with consistent results, themes apparently very distant from each other as the project for the H.f.G. or the design for a font. Mathematics are a constant reference frame as field of certainties, order, objectivity: 'for Bill mathematics are never confined to a simple function: they represent a climate of spiritual certainties, and also the theme of non attempted in its purest state, objectivity of the sign and of the geometrical place, and at the same time restlessness of the infinity: Limited and Unlimited '. In almost sixty years of activity, experiencing all artistic fields, Max Bill works, projects, designs, holds conferences and exhibitions in Europe, Asia and Americas, confronting himself with the most influencing personalities of the twentieth century. In such a vast scenery, the need to limit the investigation field combined with the necessity to address and analyse the unpublished and original aspect of Bill's relations with Italy. The original contribution of the present research regards this particular 'geographic delimitation'; in particular, beyond the deep cultural exchanges between Bill and a series of Milanese architects, most of all with Rogers, two main projects have been addressed: the realtà nuova at Milan Triennale in 1947, and the Contemporary Art Museum in Florence in 1980. It is important to note that these projects have not been previously investigated, and the former never appears in the sources either. These works, together with the most well-known ones, such as the projects for the VI and IX Triennale, and the Swiss pavilion for the Biennale, add important details to the reference frame of the relations which took place between Zurich and Milan. Most of the occasions for exchanges took part in between the Thirties and the Fifties, years during which Bill underwent a significant period of artistic growth. He meets the Swiss progressive architects and the Paris artists from the Abstraction-Création movement, enters the CIAM, collaborates with Le Corbusier to the third volume of his Complete Works, and in Milan he works and gets confronted with the events related to post-war reconstruction. In these years Bill defines his own working methodology, attaining an artistic maturity in his work. The present research investigates the mentioned time period, despite some necessary exceptions. II The official Max Bill bibliography is naturally wide, including spreading works along with ones more devoted to analytical investigation, mainly written in German and often translated into French and English (Max Bill himself published his works in three languages). Few works have been published in Italian and, excluding the catalogue of the Parma exhibition from 1977, they cannot be considered comprehensive. Many publications are exhibition catalogues, some of which include essays written by Max Bill himself, some others bring Bill's comments in a educational-pedagogical approach, to accompany the observer towards a full understanding of the composition processes of his art works. Bill also left a great amount of theoretical speculations to encourage a critical reading of his works in the form of books edited or written by him, and essays published in 'Werk', magazine of the Swiss Werkbund, and other international reviews, among which Domus and Casabella. These three reviews have been important tools of analysis, since they include tracks of some of Max Bill's architectural works. The architectural aspect is less investigated than the plastic and pictorial ones in all the main reference manuals on the subject: Benevolo, Tafuri and Dal Co, Frampton, Allenspach consider Max Bill as an artist proceeding in his work from Bauhaus in the Ulm experience . A first filing of his works was published in 2004 in the monographic issue of the Spanish magazine 2G, together with critical essays by Karin Gimmi, Stanislaus von Moos, Arthur Rüegg and Hans Frei, and in 'Konkrete Architektur?', again by Hans Frei. Moreover, the monographic essay on the Atelier Haus building by Arthur Rüegg from 1997, and the DPA 17 issue of the Catalonia Polytechnic with contributions of Carlos Martì, Bruno Reichlin and Ton Salvadò, the latter publication concentrating on a few Bill's themes and architectures. An urge to studying and going in depth in Max Bill's works was marked in 2008 by the centenary of his birth and by a recent rediscovery of Bill as initiator of the 'minimalist' tradition in Swiss architecture. Bill's heirs are both very active in promoting exhibitions, researching and publishing. Jakob Bill, Max Bill's son and painter himself, recently published a work on Bill's experience in Bauhaus, and earlier on he had published an in-depth study on 'Endless Ribbons' sculptures. Angela Thomas Schmid, Bill's wife and art historian, published in end 2008 the first volume of a biography on Max Bill and, together with the film maker Eric Schmid, produced a documentary film which was also presented at the last Locarno Film Festival. Both biography and documentary concentrate on Max Bill's political involvement, from antifascism and 1968 protest movements to Bill experiences as Zurich Municipality councilman and member of the Swiss Confederation Parliament. In the present research, the bibliography includes also direct sources, such as interviews and original materials in the form of letters correspondence and graphic works together with related essays, kept in the max+binia+jakob bill stiftung archive in Zurich. III The results of the present research are organized into four main chapters, each of them subdivided into four parts. The first chapter concentrates on the research field, reasons, tools and methodologies employed, whereas the second one consists of a short biographical note organized by topics, introducing the subject of the research. The third chapter, which includes unpublished events, traces the historical and cultural frame with particular reference to the relations between Max Bill and the Italian scene, especially Milan and the architects Rogers and Baldessari around the Fifties, searching the themes and the keys for interpretation of Bill's architectures and investigating the critical debate on the reviews and the plastic survey through sculpture. The fourth and last chapter examines four main architectures chosen on a geographical basis, all devoted to exhibition spaces, investigating Max Bill's composition process related to the pictorial field. Paintings has surely been easier and faster to investigate and verify than the building field. A doctoral thesis discussed in Lausanne in 1977 investigating Max Bill's plastic and pictorial works, provided a series of devices which were corrected and adapted for the definition of the interpretation grid for the composition structures of Bill's main architectures. Four different tools are employed in the investigation of each work: a context analysis related to chapter three results; a specific theoretical essay by Max Bill briefly explaining his main theses, even though not directly linked to the very same work of art considered; the interpretation grid for the composition themes derived from a related pictorial work; the architecture drawing and digital three-dimensional model. The double analysis of the architectural and pictorial fields is functional to underlining the relation among the different elements of the composition process; the two fields, however, cannot be compared and they stay, in Max Bill's works as in the present research, interdependent though self-sufficient. IV An important aspect of Max Bill production is self-referentiality: talking of Max Bill, also through Max Bill, as a need for coherence instead of a method limitation. Ernesto Nathan Rogers describes Bill as the last humanist, and his horizon is the known world but, as the 'Concrete Art' of which he is one of the main representatives, his production justifies itself: Max Bill not only found a method, but he autonomously re-wrote the 'rules of the game', derived timeless theoretical principles and verified them through a rich and interdisciplinary artistic production. The most recurrent words in the present research work are synthesis, unity, space and logic. These terms are part of Max Bill's vocabulary and can be referred to his works. Similarly, graphic settings or analytical schemes in this research text referring to or commenting Bill's architectural projects were drawn up keeping in mind the concise precision of his architectural design. As for Mies van der Rohe, it has been written that Max Bill took art to 'zero degree' reaching in this way a high complexity. His works are a synthesis of art: they conceptually encompass all previous and –considered their developments- most of contemporary pictures. Contents and message are generally explicitly declared in the title or in Bill's essays on his artistic works and architectural projects: the beneficiary is invited to go through and re-build the process of synthesis generating the shape. In the course of the interview with the Milan artist Getulio Alviani, he tells how he would not write more than a page for an essay on Josef Albers: everything was already evident 'on the surface' and any additional sentence would be redundant. Two years after that interview, these pages attempt to decompose and single out the elements and processes connected with some of Max Bill's works which, for their own origin, already contain all possible explanations and interpretations. The formal reduction in favour of contents maximization is, perhaps, Max Bill's main lesson.