Interview: Jasmin Jouhar
News from Central Germany: "dieDAS," the Saaleck Design Academy, has begun its work on the premises of the former Saaleck Workshops in Naumburg, with the first cohort of a fellowship program. Tatjana Sprick and Arne Cornelius Wasmuth explain in an interview how things are progressing at this idyllic yet burdened location – the history of the Saaleck Workshops is closely linked to the Nazi racial ideologist and architect Paul Schultze-Naumburg. Sprick, dieDAS Director of Programs and Development, is responsible for the academy's program. Founding Director Wasmuth, together with art collector Egidio Marzona, is the driving force behind the academy's founding and the upcoming renovation of the listed building complex.
The first fellows and the dieDAS team
Dear Tatjana Sprick, dear Arne Cornelius Wasmuth, what is "dieDAS," the Saaleck Design Academy?
ACW "dieDAS" is a new academy in Central Germany, in the Burgenlandkreis district. It supports international, emerging talents in the fields of design, crafts, and architecture, primarily through scholarships. The first fellowship program this year included American Sasson Rafailov, Syrian Talin Hazbar, and two Germans, Basse Stittgen from the Netherlands and Svenja Keune from Sweden.
TS The academy addresses the central questions that concern us today in the world of design. How do we want to live together in the future? What materials, what objects do we need? Where do they come from? How do we use them? What happens to them when we no longer need them? We also ask our fellows these questions. The results can be very conceptual or socially critical. Design with attitude!
ACW Interested parties apply for a fellowship with their own projects. They can use the location as a retreat, a laboratory, or an incubator to develop their ideas further. In addition, we connect them with contacts in business and with mentors who discuss and develop their projects with them. Our fellows will also always work on a joint project that anchors them in the region.
Can you give an example of this?
TS This year was still quite experimental – due to the pandemic, the fellows could only spend one week in Saaleck and not a month, as planned. During this week, they researched materials in the region from which new design products could be developed.
Tatjana Sprick is dieDAS Director of Programs and Development and responsible for the academy's program.
ACW Saale-Unstrut is a traditional wine-growing region. We received waste from viticulture from the local winegrowers' association in Freyburg, with which the fellows experimented in our workshop. They cast, dried in the oven, and produced a form of paper. And they gave us a very symbolic gift: from the staves of a discarded barrique barrel, they built a swing that will remain in Saaleck. Symbolic because the swing moves back and forth. This is how we want to work: with a look back at the history of this special place and with a look forward to the future.
Who is behind the Design Academy?
ACW The Marzona Foundation Neue Saalecker Werkstätten. The foundation was established by Egidio Marzona and two other board members, one of whom is me. The foundation acquired the historical complex in Saaleck and is responsible for its renovation and revitalization – thanks also to generous funding from the federal and state governments totaling ten million euros and support from private sponsors. In the academy team, Tatjana Sprick is in charge, leading the program and development department. We have also appointed an artistic director, the designer and researcher Maurizio Montalti from Amsterdam. And at the moment, we are in the process of setting up an advisory board for the academy, which will be involved in the selection process of the fellows in the future. We have already secured Sarah Whiting, Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the architectural theorist Jean-Louis Cohen, and the curator and author Glenn Adamson.
You mentioned that the first fellowship was shorter than planned.
TS When the renovation is completed, the fellowship program is to last four months, from mid-May to mid-September. Four months is a good amount of time to make progress and develop something. And at the same time, it's a realistic amount of time for young talents to detach themselves from their regular lives. We will also have a cottage on the premises for young families, so that partners and children can be brought along.
Founding Director Arne Cornelius Wasmuth, along with art collector Egidio Marzona, is the driving force behind the academy's founding.
ACW Nevertheless, in that one week, we managed to establish all the elements that we envision as part of the long-term program. For example, we had Formafantasma digitally connected as mentors for a discussion. The philosopher Alex Marashian visited us and discussed with the fellows. They were incredibly compact, almost overwhelming days for the fellows. Their feedback was unanimously enthusiastic, despite the short stay.
Saaleck is a historically heavily burdened place. Its builder, the architect and Nazi racial ideologist Paul Schultze-Naumburg, met like-minded people here. Adolf Hitler himself and other Nazi leaders were frequent guests. Why are you setting up a design academy precisely here?
ACW I discovered the place in 2015 when I was on my way to a conference on Paul Schultze-Naumburg at the Bauhaus University in Weimar. I was impressed by its location in this quintessentially German landscape, with numerous castles and picturesque hills directly on the Saale. In 2017, I learned that the complex was for sale. Art collector Egidio Marzona, a modest, very clever man with incredible expertise in modernism, immediately pledged his support. Together, we decided to create new impulses precisely in a place like this. We want to take the past seriously and convey it, but we don't want to be intimidated by it; instead, we want to look to the future with courage and conviction.
TS Paul Schultze-Naumburg belongs to modernism; he was a co-founder of the Deutscher Werkbund, he was a contemporary of Gropius and at the same time his antipode. The dark side of modernism, so to speak.
The historic Saaleck Workshops are a historically charged place. The builder Paul Schultze-Naumburg identified with Nazi racial ideologies. The founders of dieDAS also want to do justice to this legacy.
How do you plan to address this history?
TS There will be a documentation center about the history of the site. We are currently developing a conceptual framework with the Center for Research on Antisemitism at TU Berlin. We also completed a project with the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design. Students from the Interior Design department examined the surfaces of the historical complex. They investigated how these surfaces can help us to engage with and communicate the narratives of the past.
ACW Tatjana had the wonderful idea of using the very long outer walls as an exhibition space to engage passers-by and tourists and provide them with initial information about the history of the place.
Recently, the Marzona Foundation organized a competition for a master plan. The jury chose the submission by Danish architect Dorte Mandrup, who will also build the Exile Museum in Berlin.
ACW The central question of the competition was how to materially and conceptually add a new temporal layer to the site. Dorte Mandrup proposed careful, yet decisive, overlays of the historical substance. Interventions that are sensitive yet clear. Much is to be left as it is. Here and there, reversible units are to be installed in the buildings, like large pieces of furniture.
TS Dorte Mandrup is currently working on the master plan; it should be ready by the end of the year. The planning phase for the renovation will then begin next year. Everything should be finished by 2025.
Will the grounds then be publicly accessible?
TS Partially. The documentation center is located at the entrance and can be opened to visitors. The main buildings will only be accessible by appointment. It is intended to be a retreat for our fellows, a place of contemplation, reflection, and focused work.
What have been the reactions from the region, local politicians, and the population?
ACW The mayor of Naumburg and the district administrator of Burgenlandkreis are both very supportive. This year, for the first time, we invited people to an open day, and that is to happen regularly in the future. Observing all hygiene regulations, we were able to open the entire site at the end of August. And even though it poured with rain, over 300 people came, from all age groups. That was a small sensation for us. We were truly touched by how great the interest is. We want to build on that with our own outreach program. When the fellowship program eventually lasts a full four months, there will still be eight months a year during which other things can happen on the grounds. We are thinking of workshops, we want to work with schools. This area is currently developing.