Kumu Documentary: Bauhaus Forever
Dir Nico Weber
Germany and the Netherlands 2026, 96 min
In German and English, with English subtitles
The screening is part of the public programme for the exhibition The Whole World Is Bauhaus at the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design (until 4 October), and is presented with the support of the Goethe Institute.
Introduction by the art historian Kai Lobjakas
A film on the afterlife of Bauhaus with the place and its transformation as the main character.
The film focuses on the Berlin-based Bauhaus-Archiv, which manages and preserves the largest and most valuable collection of the legendary Bauhaus school and has been a construction site for nearly ten years. As a result of the expansion process that began in 2018, the museum has remained in a state of limbo.
Next to the original building, an extension designed by Staab Architekten is taking shape: a continuation of the earlier structure, whose construction has been repeatedly delayed due to a series of unfortunate circumstances. The iconic building designed by Walter Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus, and completed only after his departure, remains closed; the museum’s completion and the opening of its exhibitions have been postponed until 2027.
Nico Weber’s seven-chapter narrative—at times tragic—explores ideals, process, experimentation, slowness and the many ideas of Bauhaus that remain universal to this day.
This film-format essay explores the legacy of Bauhaus and its ideas that remain universal, with the place and its transformation as the central focus. It is about a building that does not yet exist and ideas that endure.
We thank: Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design and the Goethe Institute
