STAIRWAY TO NOWHERE BY GOSHKA MACUGA AT KESTNER GESELLSCHAFT, HANOVER MAY 2019
’Stairway to Nowhere’ is a collaboration between Michael Anastassiades and Polish-born, London-based artist Goshka Macuga, designed for her exhibition at the Kestner Gesellschaft gallery in Hanover.
The exhibition focused on the Bauhaus – the influential school of art, architecture and design – to mark its 100th anniversary, with installations, sculptures, textiles and collages by Goshka Macuga on display throughout the building.
’Stairway to Nowhere’ featured String Lights.
Together, Macuga and Anastassiades created a new work specifically for the exhibition: a light installation influenced by Oskar Schlemmer’s Figur und Raumlineatur (1924), in which Schlemmer analysed the duality between the two-dimensional canvas and a three-dimensional theatre space, plus the possibilities of moving within this space. The light installation was also based on String Lights, a design Anastassiades developed for Flos in 2014 – Stairway to Nowhere saw his original design extended to encompass Kestner Gesellschaft’s entire exhibition hall. The focal point of the piece, which gives the impression of a pencil line drawn through the space, are the chairs of the Bauhaus’ three directors: Walter Gropius, Hannes Meyer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.
While today the Bauhaus is often perceived as a coherent entity and brand of clear design, Macuga and Anastassiades sought to artistically demonstrate its changing ideological positioning and political instrumentalisation through their work, from both a historical and present-day perspective.