Bauhaus, uma história de pedagogias perdidas?

Abstract

The present study is linked to the History Graduate Program, at the University of Caxias do Sul (UCS). This bibliographic study aims to understand the pedagogical meaning adopted for the Bauhaus School Preliminary Course, or operate between 1919 and 1932, leaving marks for its strong influence, even after more than 100 years. By the way, the ease of its products is recognized, as a brand, but first of all, it is adequate to remember that it was a school, and its concepts, methods and pedagogies adopted are not recognized in the same dimension of its design products. Based on this, it is worth asking: does your general approach and pedagogy still make sense today? Is it a really story of lost pedagogies? Therefore, this dissertation investigates paths in the understanding of the conceptual structure in its initial phase, in its preliminary training course, in Vorlehre, which marks its paths of innovation. To understand the meaning of the pedagogical object that is the focus of this study, the approach to the theme makes a historical occurrence in the period of German history, which precedes the creation of the school, or critical period of the Post-First World War, in the political, economic scenario and social, culminating in the creation of the Weimar Republic in the same year the school was constituted. It goes into the history of the school with its periods, its locations, its ups and downs, and political pressures that it suffered and that culminated in its definitive closure after two closings had already happened in its course. In this way, the conceptual aspects that support its two most important manifestos are addressed, an initial pedagogy of the course, as well as its preliminary training course, the Vorlehre, which presents its program of paths that enables the aspects of the break with the classical thought and the possibility of understanding what modern man would be, entitled Total Man, according to Gropius. The first director of the Bauhaus School, the initial conceptualizer and most skilled conflict manager that the school had, Walter Gropius; as well as the builder of the preliminary, innovative, experimental and controversial course, Johannes Itten, form the main characters investigated in this study. They contain two roles that were fundamental for the school, a successful management of differences, combined with the concept of innovation based on a deep humanistic perception. Itten’s pedagogy represents here the teacher who takes a more investigative approach to the methodology of understanding the being before doing. Weaving possible bonds with our doing, connections with authors of contemporary thought are presented, in the search for understanding this modern thought project that remains as a promise that is not complete, such as: (a) where is our fear of being and willingness to disappear and not to identify oneself that accompanies us throughout the historical process and that prevents us from moving towards constructive processes that throw us into destructive paths?; (b) yesterday’s conflicting utopias and dystopias are many of the same that we have seen repeated today; and (c) where can the possibilities of contact with being reside today, and where are there any loopholes for the future? Concepts that appeared at the Bauhaus a century ago and can still be current today. Today we live in a complex world in which we need to open all possibilities of investigation to the paths of knowledge. Open, systemic thinking has never been more urgent. We have an urgency in this action, as they did at the time of the school in focus. As products of this research, in addition to the dissertation approach, I developed two works in the academic environment with aspects of the knowledge of Bauhaus: one of them of presentation to the student universe of the school’s history and concepts; and another to teachers involving practices of approximation and perception of their affections, experienced through affective and psychomotor practices. A simplified experience in action based on Vorlehre’s theoretical basis.