Making of ADI-FAD 100 years of the Bauhaus
The ADI-FAD (FAD Association of Industrial Design), the Associació per a l’Estudi del Moble (Association for the Study of Furniture) and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation commemorate the centenary of the Bauhaus with a making-of where they analyze the relationship between the Bauhaus and Spanish referents.
The event was initiated with an introduction to the Bauhaus by Xema Vidal. Vidal briefly explained the « idea » of the Bauhaus. Vidal’s pedagogical knowledge made the postulates of modernity very understandable, noting that the most remarkable feature of the Bauhaus is « the idea. » A school with few years of existence that transcends throughout the years and which influence lasts to our days.
Tallers Ribas and the company ROLACO were the manufacturers that produced furniture under the influence and also with the license of the Bauhaus. Ricardo Ribas and Pedro Feduchi were the speakers who respectively took us on a historical journey of the business trajectories in the cities of Barcelona and Madrid. From the beginning, the two capitals pointed towards Europe’s modernity, and these two companies were crucial in the dissemination, production, and sale of the aesthetic values claimed by the contemporary architecture of the 30s.
Antoni Mañach and Nina Masó talked about the GATCPAC lamp, reissued by Santa & Cole.
Mañach, philosopher and a professor at the ESDI school, developed a modern version of the Bauhaus thought, mixing concepts about the theory of artistic revolutions and its apparently contradictory authors, generating intense chaos that highlighted the idea of the action of design based on raging thoughts and sensible production (the head and the feet). Nina Masó, Santa & Cole’s publisher, shed some light on the GATCPAC lamp re-editing process that Santa & Cole incorporated into its catalog in 1995. The reissuing process was inspired by an original lamp owned by Raimon Torres, son of Josep Torres Clavé; outstanding member of the GATCPAC.
Oriol Pibernat and Gabriel Moragas talked about the GATCPAC chair, reissued by Mobles 114 under the name of Cadira Torres Clavé 1934 (Torres Clavé 1934 Armchair).
Oriol Pibernat, historian and a professor at the Eina school, provided GATCPAC’s historical context and talked about how its members moved away from Bauhaus modernity trends and its designs with chromed steel tubes, adapting to their own geography: The Mediterranean. Pibernat defended the will of GATCPAC members to sign collective authorship of the furniture they designed. Both a stance and a political and social claim that they carried out as a collective in the fields of architecture and design. Gabriel Moragas set out the background and different versions of the GATCPAC chair and explained how they decided to reissue the armchair that was renamed after Torres Clavé when it was added to the Classic Collection by Mobles 114. It has been proved that although GATCPAC defended collective authorship of its designs, the armchair was designed by Josep Torres Clavé, inspired by Ibiza’s famous cadirals (armchairs).
Fotografía: Anna Mas
