Notes on the Formation of
an Imaginist Bauhaus
What was the Bauhaus?
The Bauhaus was an answer to the question: What kind of “education” do artists need
in order to take their place in the machine age?
How was the Bauhaus idea implemented?
It was implemented with a “school” in Germany, first at Weimar, then at Dessau.
Founded in 1919 by the architect Walter Gropius, it was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933.
What is the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus?
It is the answer to the question where and how to find a justified place for artists in
the machine age. This answer demonstrates that the education carried out by the old
Bauhaus was mistaken.
How has the idea of an International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus been
implemented?
The Movement was founded in Switzerland in 1953 as a tendency aimed at forming a united
organization capable of promoting an integral revolutionary cultural approach. In 1954 the
experience of the Albissola gathering demonstrated that experimental artists must get hold
of industrial means and subject them to their own nonutilitarian ends. In 1955 an
imaginist laboratory was founded at Alba. Conclusion of the Albissola experience: complete
inflationary devaluation of modern values of decoration (cf. ceramics produced by
children). In 1956 the Alba Congress dialectically defined unitary urbanism. In 1957 the
Movement is promulgating the watchword of psychogeographical action.
What we want
We want the same economic and practical means and possibilities that are already at the
disposal of scientific research, of whose momentous results everyone is aware.
Artistic research is identical to “human science,” which for us means
“concerned” science, not purely historical science. This research should be
carried out by artists with the assistance of scientists.
The first institute ever formed for this purpose is the experimental laboratory for
free artistic research founded 29 September 1955 at Alba. This type of laboratory is not an
instructional institution; it simply offers new possibilities for artistic
experimentation.
The leaders of the old Bauhaus were great masters with exceptional talents, but they
were poor teachers. The students’ works were only pious imitations of their masters. The
real influence of the latter was indirect, by force of example: Ruskin on Van de Velde,
Van de Velde on Gropius.
This is not at all a criticism, it is simply a recognition of reality, from which the
following conclusions may be drawn: The direct transfer of artistic gifts is impossible;
artistic adaptation takes place through a series of contradictory phases: Shock —
Wonder — Imitation — Rejection — Experimentation — Possession.
None of these phases can be avoided, though they need not all be gone through by any
one individual.
Our practical conclusion is the following: We are abandoning all efforts at pedagogical
action and moving toward experimental activity.
ASGER JORN
1957
“Notes sur la formation d’une Bauhaus imaginiste” and three other texts were originally published together under the title Against Functionalism (1957), then included in Pour la Forme: ébauche d’une méthodologie des arts, a large collection of Jorn's writings published by the Situationist International (Paris, June 1958; reprinted by Éditions Allia, 2001). This translation by Ken Knabb is from the Situationist International Anthology (Revised and Expanded Edition, PM Press, 2024). No copyright.