From 18 March 2026, the THEATER DER KLAENGE will be represented in an exciting exhibitions with a video compilation of "The Mechanical Ballet" - and on a very special stage at that.
The New Museum in New York is opening "New Humans: Memories of the Future," the New Museum in New York is not only opening a major international group exhibition, but also inaugurating its new extension – designed by architects Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu (OMA). More than 200 artists, authors, scientists and filmmakers are represented - including names such as Francis Bacon, Hannah Höch, H. R. Giger and Salvador Dalí.
A work with history - and two lives
Behind our contribution lies a story that dates back to Weimar in 1923. At that time, Bauhaus students Kurt Schmidt, F. W. Bogler and Georg Teltscher developed a radically new stage experiment: "The Mechanical Ballet" - a departure from the human body as a means of expression towards geometric shapes, abstract figures and mechanical movement. Dancers disappeared behind costumes made of circles, triangles and rectangles; movement became kinetic sculpture. It was one of the Bauhaus's boldest responses to industrialised modernity - and at the same time a serious question: what remains of the human being when the machine dictates its rhythm?
In 1987 - the year the ensemble was founded - "The Mechanical Ballet" became the THEATER DER KLÄNGE's first major artistic exploration of the legacy of the Bauhaus stage. The adaptation translated the historical experiment into the present: with contemporary music, expanded movement language and a view of a world that in 1987 had long since been permeated by new fears of automation and body images. What was once avant-garde was re-examined – not as a reconstruction, but as a conversation across time.
The fact that this work is now on display at the New Museum in New York, almost forty years later and in the anniversary year of TdK, as part of an exhibition that spans the arc from industrialisation to artificial intelligence, gives it a new, almost inevitable relevance.
Opening: 18 March 2026 (free admission on the opening weekend of 21/22 March) - New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York - Tickets & info: see link below
We would be delighted if you could spread the word - and if you happen to be in New York in March, be sure to go! |
