Villa Tugendhat - the legendary villa in the mirror of time

From 1928–1930 textile industrialist Fritz Tugendhat, from Brno Czechoslovakia and his wife Grete commissioned the construction of a residential house by a co-founder of modern architecture, Maria Ludwig Michael Mies (1886–1969) from Germany, who later named himself Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. This house became a world-renowned artwork.

It was in 1992, at the large dining table at the Villa Tugendhat, that Vaclav Klaus and Vladimir Meciar signed the contract for the division of Czechoslovakia into two independent states; the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Jewish couple Fritz and Grete Tugendhat had to flee from the Nazis in 1937-38 and emigrated to Venezuela via Switzerland. Their villa in Brno was taken over by the Nazi-Gestapo during the occupation and by the Red Army in 1945.

In 1962 the villa was used as a physiotherapy resort, then declared a listed historic building and restored in 1985. The museum has been a museum since 1994 and was added to the UNESCO world heritage list in 2001. Today the villa’s innovative construction is starting to show further signs of decay. The Tugendhat Villa was never returned to the family.

Mies designed both the building, as well as almost all of the details and interior objects. He did this using high quality building materials and modern technology, which began to emerge at the start of the 20th century. Mies also designed all of the furniture himself. The air conditioning system, which was very rare at the time, provided both the heating as well as cooling of the house in the summer.

Mies van der Rohe is attributed with the infamous ‘less is more’ saying. He was a co-founder of the ‘Der Ring’ architects union, was the Director of the Bauhaus art school in Dessau and Berlin from 1930-1933, moved to the USA in 1938 and directed the Architecture Department at the Institute of Technology "The New Bauhaus" in Chicago from 1938 to 1958. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe died in 1969, Chicago.

In his work with this architectural icon, Dirk Brömmel (*1968) has taken a less classic approach to architecture photography. His special approach connects the building’s past and its previous occupants with the remaining, current situation.

Using original images from the Tugendhat family photo alum, Dirk Brömmel went on a search for the depicted places once he was at the house. He used a sandwich technique to layer old photographs over his new ones, creating fascinating documents which play on reality and time.


Dirk Brömmel - Villa Tugendhat
until 14 March 2010
Städtische Galerie im Theater
Schloßlände 1, 85049 Ingoldstadt
www.mkk-ingolstadt.de
Opening hours: Tue - Sun 11:00 – 18:00