In the Bauhaus Manifesto, written on the occasion of founding the great avant-garde school BAUHAUS, Walter Gropius wrote: “the only difference between craftsmen and artists is that the artists are exalted craftsmen.

In other words what differentiated an artist from a craftsmen (both being craftsmen) is that the artist is EXALTED.

What is exaltation ?

The word “exaltation” comes from the Latin word exaltare: raise aloft.

To raise aloft… what would that mean ?

In our clinically oriented world, we would probably use the word “manic,” to express the counterpart of depression.

Plus, the almost religious overtones Gropius had in his manifesto, exemplified by the fact that the word “heaven” is used twice, are definitely missing in today’s world…

What would exalt us today ? A new car ? Shading away a few pounds and burning some fat on our belly ? Getting a promotion ? Becoming a millionaire ? Buying a new refrigerator or the newest gadget ?

What makes us exalted today ?

Usually, sad to say, material things, sadly pedestrian.

But can we reduce the horizon of life to the myriad of frivolities promoted with incessant vigor by a Capitalism that likes to sell, sell, sell, elevating the verb “to have” to the highest altitude and prestige in our lives ?

We propose a break and a resistance.

We propose a return to innocence, to purity, to intense feelings that refuse to be conditioned by lucrative finalities.

Thus, we invite you to imagine THE HOUSE OF EXALTATION in idealistic terms (whatever they are), to celebrate, thus, the Bauhaus Centennial this year.

Don’t you feel / think that we might be in great need of a dire idealism that is most often missing ? Steven Holl said it beautifully: “Remain idealistic. The soul needs the ideal more than the real.”

It is this idealism that warms of the soul and make us fly. Yes, fly.

We invite you to have wings. To invent architectural scenarios that would embrace something worth dying for, that is, living for.

Let’s say a vigorous NO to refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, bank accounts, credit cards, astounding “insurances” or fantastic trips to “exotic lands…” Let’s find GENUINE EXALTATION that is based on a real warming up of the heart, that very human heart that is assaulted by depression and stress, so very often, these days.

Let’s imagine a great HOUSE OF EXALTATION, a HOUSE that would envision that Cosmos of Hope without which it is very hard to live.

Please send us your work until July 1st, and please register before the deadline on our website. Please send us your work on a maximum two sheets format A0 vertically oriented. If you have any questions, please be kind and write to us.