After Modern Brightness | 2025
Exhibition Research, Curation and Production
This exhibition investigates Marianne Brandt’s ME 94 lamp as a technical object, materialised as a result of complex intersections of scientific and technological developments, the rise of corporate capitalism, cultural and aesthetic changes propelled by mass production and consumption, and large-scale, environmental transformations in connection with the electrification of Germany and the entire world.
A century later, much has changed but the consequences of industrialisation, the tentacles of modernity, continue to influence us today. We might take electricity and the comforts of modern life for granted, however, black-outs reveal how material dependencies persist. The electrical grid has become so enmeshed with our lives that we rarely think about the power outlets, conduits, electricity poles and transmission towers that surround us. This exhibition showcases the grid and the work that sustains it by focusing on key localities where electrical light is produced, distributed, and used. Not only the ME 94 lamp but also the cultural and socio-technical contexts through which it emerges are a product of design. From the ventilation holes on Brandt's lamp to the externalised environmental costs of energy production, this exhibition directs attention to the hidden narratives of modern brightness.
A tightly networked local geography reverberates throughout the exhibition. Sites such as Dessau, Zschornewitz, Berlin, Chemnitz, and Weißwasser are connected through flows of extraction, production, and consumption. On the other hand, localities such as the mine, the street, and the laboratory are almost archetypal to histories of electricity. The stories told here are also true for many places elsewhere.
The scenography of this exhibition is designed to be circular. Its elements come from the depths of the storage of the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and will be used again once the show comes to a close. Unused solar panels allude to our ever growing energy needs and the shift to renewables but also leave a reminder that even renewables have a material cost. Today, we need a similar but different systemic approach, one that is regenerative and not dependent on systems of extraction.
What does it mean to relate to modern brightness today? A letter by Marianne Brandt, written after the devastation of the Second World War, poses a haunting question: "How far are You pushing it, Human?" The health risks of continuous artificial light exposure are widespread and well-documented, for humans and for other species. Nonetheless, our relationship to artificial illumination has become more intimate than ever before. The contradictions at the heart of modern brightness persist: promises of progress and improved living conditions shadowed by unintended consequences that continue to shape us and our environments. Could there be a future of designed light that counters the disruptions to biorhythms, ecosystems and life cycles caused by omnipotent brightness?
Credits:
Exhibition produced as part of Bauhaus Lab 2025 at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation.
Exhibition Design, Research and Curation: Alina Paias, Benton Ching, Dominik Hoehn, Jorge Marinho, Lily Chishan Wong, Sofia Boarino, Sofía Nercasseau, and Valena Ammon.
Scenography: Jorge Marinho & Valena Ammon.
Graphic Design: Marcus Procida
Photos: Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau / Foto: Meyer, Thomas, 2025 / OSTKREUZ
Special Thanks to Regina Bittner and Philipp Sack
