A peek in the new Bauhaus Museum in Dessau

Described as a "soaring concrete block enveloped in glass" in the heart of Dessau, the new museum houses the world's second-largest Bauhaus collection. After the school opened in Weimar in 1919, it moved to Dessau in 1925. Once the Nazi party took control of the city council, it was then closed in 1932 and moved on to Berlin for the last year of its existence.

From September 8, visitors can discover in Dessau the new exhibition "Versuchstätte Bauhaus. The Collection," which looks into how the school of arts and design experimented in different fields, from ceramics to furniture. Among the exhibits is this reconstruction of László Moholy-Nagy's "Light-Space Modulator" from 1930, one of the earliest electrically powered kinetic sculptures.

Unusual forms and colors come together in the "Triadic Ballet" developed by Oskar Schlemmer. The experimental ballet of the Bauhaus master, which premiered in 1922, explored the relationship between abstracted human forms and space. It was created together with dancers Albert Burger and Elsa Hötzel and was often performed at the Bauhaus school. The costumes were recreated for the Dessau museum.

Konrad Püschel, a Bauhaus student in Dessau, followed his teacher Hannes Meyer to the Soviet Union after he was dismissed as Bauhaus director by the Nazis. Püschel later worked as an architect, city planner and university teacher in East Germany, the USSR and in North Korea. Up until he died in 1997, he was the last surviving Bauhaus designer. Here is a model of his "Constructivist Space Balls."

Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius set up the school's first ceramic workshop in Weimar. At first, simple utility ceramics were produced, but soon Bauhaus designers developed templates for serial industrial production. In Dessau, the ceramic workshop was discontinued, but the new museum nevertheless allows visitors to literally grasp some of these designs.

Even though they are not the focus of the exhibition, the most iconic Bauhaus designs are also on show. Alongside paintings and sketches by Bauhaus artists, the famous tubular steel chairs are set on a pedestal in the new museum.

Contemporary art is also given space in the new museum. Here is a look through the sliding glass panels of conceptual artist Lucy Raven, in a work inspired by the color theory of the Bauhaus school. "Lichtspielhaus" is what the artist calls her installation — a word for "cinema" which also literally translates as "light-play-house."