GESAMTKUNSTWERK: EPHEMERAL UTOPIA TO TOTAL CONTROL Richard Wagner’s idea of Gesamtkunstwerk had strong social and utopian connotations10. In “The art work of the future” Wagner describes his ideal opera as a Gesamtkunstwerk. The opera would combine different forms of art and media like music, text, architecture, painting and dance to create one aesthetic experience. The opera would redefine the relationship between audience and performer, as one community that together created an aesthetic experience. Wagner thought the ideal opera should be free of charge to attract the best possible audience. Everyone rich or poor with an interest in the arts would be able to join. They would all work together to create the best possible result11. The Gesamtkunstwerk had to be ephemeral, achieved by creating the perfect setting together with everyone involved. After serving its purpose the whole setting could be broken down again. Wagner saw his ideal artwork as a fleeting aesthetic that had to be pursued collectively by audience and artists. Therefore it would be silly to preserve the structures that once made this moment possible12.
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After Wagner, the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk went out of fashion until it got picked up almost a hundred years later by the Bauhaus movement. They turned Gesamtkunstwerk from a utopian Romantic concept into something more pragmatic and architectural. As an architectural concept, Gesamtkunstwerk meant creating the cohesive aesthetic experience of a building through the combination of different disciplines, e.g. architecture, landscape architecture, interior design, sounds and lighting design and the designation of function. Wagners notion of working with everyone involved was largely dismissed. For the Bauhaus movement, Gesamtkunstwerk meant the architect’s total control over all disciplines involved13. Ephemerality was dismissed as well, the vision of the architect had to be upheld. All the parts of the Gesamtkunstwerk were to be maintained and preserved indefinitely for the design to function as intended14.
