“I always wanted to have a modern spacious house of clear and simple shapes.”
In January this year, 45 years have passed since the legendary lecture by Grete Tugendhat in the Brno House of Arts. It took place in the context of an exceptional exhibition of the works of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, which took place in Brno House of Art at the turn of 1968–1969.
Both events were commemorated by the Study and Documentation Centre at the Villa Tugendhat in December last year through a little “Retro-exhibition” on the technical floor of the villa and through a publication, prepared by the Villa Tugendhat Endowment Fund in cooperation with the Brno City Museum.
On Friday, 17 January 1969 the Brno House of Arts organized a lecture evening as part of the exhibition of Mies’ work, called “Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Creator of the Villa Tugendhat”. The main guest of the evening was Greta Tugendhat with a lecture focusing on the circumstances and the construction period of the villa. First she wrote the text of the lecture in German, then she translated it into Czech and also presented it in Czech.
Dagmar Černoušková and Jindřich Chatrný will recall the personalities and aspirations of Grete Tugendhat and especially of architect František Kalivoda in the second half of the 1960’s, which should have lead to the restoration and rehabilitation of the famous building. After 45 years, the whole lecture presented by Grete Tugendhat will again be heard, rendered by actress Marie Durnová.
Dagmar Černoušková, Study and Documentation Centre – Villa Tugendhat
Jindřich Chatrný, Brno City Museum, Head of the Department of Architecture History
Marie Durnová, member of the National Theatre in Brno
The lecture will be held on Wednesday 12 March 2014 at 5 pm on the technical floor of Villa Tugendhat (a tour of the villa is not included in the lecture).
Entrance fee is CZK 100; students and seniors CZK 50.
Lecture poster for downloading here.