Idea, concept, and artistic direction: Sally Below, Moritz Henning, Christian Hiller, and Eduard Kögel
2019 / 2020
Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism shed light on the history, significance and future of socially relevant design ideas of postcolonial modernism in the region and addresses them in the context of the Bauhaus centenary 2019 in Germany. With partners in four cities – Jakarta, Phnom Penh, Singapore and Yangon – Encounters explored the impact of modernism at the crossroads between early globalisation, local conditions, political upheaval and the search for an independent identity, starting with the period of upheaval that accompanied the transition to independence after colonial times. Exhibitions, conferences, film screenings and architectural tours unfolded a rich programme in each of the four cities.
Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism was part of the programme bauhaus100, celebrating the centenary of Germany’s famous art and architecture school, and was funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Encounters with Southeast Asian Modernism will continue as a project for exchange on architecture and urban development between Germany, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Top: Guided tour to Yangon’s modern architecture, at the Buddhist Library. Image: Bus driver
Project kick-off in Berlin
Folding Concrete, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Occupying Modernism, Jakarta, Indonesia
Visualization of the National History: From, by and for whom? Jakarta, Indonesia
Synthesis of Myanmar Modernity, Yangon, Myanmar
Housing Modernities, Singapore
