The Idea of the “Gesamtkunstwerk” in the 20th Century

The debate about the term Gesamtkunstwerk, accompanied by controversy over the purpose and self-conception of such an art form, has intensified since 1960. The viewpoints come from a variety of schools of thought and conceptions, ranging from “total theater” through “action art”, “performance art”, “audiovisual experiments” and “multimedia art” to the renewal of the societal organism in the sense of Josef Beuys’ “social sculpture”. Here the term Gesamtkunstwerk has very little to do with a “synthesis of the arts”; rather, it refers to a transformation and expansion of creative action into the social, anthropological sphere that undertakes to shape society as the Gesamtkunstwerk through artistic means. The extent to which the aforementioned manifestations in the context of broadly conceived art terms can be fruitfully used in artistically oriented education, including music and dance education, will be a central theme of this course.

Required reading

SZEEMANN, Harald and SCHEEL, Walter (eds.): Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk.
Aarau and Frankfurt a.M. 1983