Itten – Nothing works without color
Live Cinema
Klassik Stiftung / Bauhaus-Museum Weimar (6. April 2019)
Bauhaus 100 Eröffnungsfestival / Akademie der Künste Berlin (19. January 2019)
Kunstfest Weimar / Lichthaus (21. August 2018)
Galerie Kortil, Rijeka / Goethe-Institut Croatia (2019)
Trailer
70 minutes ~ Live cinema – Animation with music and speakers
Live drawing with music, speakers and objects about early Bauhaus teacher Johannes Itten
Synopsis
As one of the most vibrant figures, Swiss painter Johannes Itten significantly influenced the structure and direction of the early Bauhaus in Weimar. In 1923, he left the Bauhaus to join the Mazdaznan Temple Community. From 1926, Johannes Itten ran his own school in Berlin. In a film created live before the eyes and ears of the audience, director Katrin Rothe embarks on a search that delves into the life of the Bauhaus teacher. Simultaneously, it explores the study period of the artist in the East and West, where she encountered Itten's color theory in various ways.
Katrin Rothe flips through the sparkling biography of the artist Johannes Itten, moving both forward and backward, creating a musically fantastical sequence of images from the turbulent early days of the Bauhaus. From the drawing table and the artist's books and notes, wondrous colors, shapes, and figures emerge live and directly onto the canvas. Special encounters are composed: the barely 30-year-old teacher meets the artist as an old man reflecting on his time in Weimar; the abstract forms of geometry and architecture encounter a sea of rhythmically swaying colors, and the free and casual exercises of the Bauhaus students meet Itten's strict interest in life and salvation concepts from Asia.
They reveal a colorful Bauhaus, or as Itten himself wrote: "Nothing goes without color!"
Cast & Credits
Concept, Direction & Live Projection: Katrin Rothe
Dramaturgy: Janek Müller
Speakers: Olaf Helbing and Stephanie Stremler
Live Drawing: Tonina Matamalas or Lydia Günther
Music: Thomas Mävers and Olaf Helbing
Artistic Assistance: Knut Rothe
Production: Kunstfest Weimar
Press
Press pictures here. (13.8mb)
Monopol: January 2019 (german)
"The director Katrin Rothe first encountered Itten's pedagogy shortly
before the fall of the Berlin Wall, during her studies at the School
of Applied Arts in Sonneberg, southern Thuringia. "I was supposed to
become a toy designer," she reported, "and in our preliminary course,
it was always emphasized: when drawing a circle, pay attention not
only to the circle but also to the relaxed straight posture and
breathing. The line should come from the center of the body. Sonneberg
is not far from Weimar, and it seemed that Itten's teachings were
still being actively continued there. After German reunification, she
studied experimental film design, and she repeatedly encountered
Itten's color theory, "three times in total, in different cities and
social systems. This sparked my desire to animate color."
Thüringische Landeszeitung: "Kunstfest Weimar widmet sich einem Esoterik-Überflieger des
Bauhauses" (german)
"The premiere at the Lichthaus-Kino was completely full, sold out
long before August 21. Following the screening, there was an audience
discussion with Katrin Rothe and Janek Müller, and the projection
table could be admired."