Lot 640 N

In 1938, Schawinsky brought a second piece to the stage of the Black Mounatin College with “Danse Macabre: A Sociological Study”. The text read during the performance was based on the “Dies Irae” hymn of a medieval Latin mass for the dead (after Thomas von Celano). During the performance, the audience - themselves wrapped in dark cloaks - sat in a circle around the arena-like stage. The music for the dark play was by John Evarts. Schawinsky strongly oriented himself here also to the ideas of the Bauhaus stage with the elimination of any narrative through abstraction of the action. This inclusion of people and places, which exceeded the framework of conventional theatre, for example by positioning some participants outside the actual stage space, resulted quite logically for Schawinsy from the Bauhaus stage's interest in the circus and in exploring the socially determinated construction of subjectivity in a historical context.” (Quoted from Eva Diàz, Bauhaus-Theater am Black Mountain College, in: Gygax/Munder, op.cit., p. 73)

Introduction "From the Bauhaus to Black Mountain College - Photography from a Swiss Private Collection" see lot 631