Szeemann's 'Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk' Revisited
Julian Myers' essay 'Totality: A Guided Tour', published in Afterall Journal 20 in 2009, revisits Harald Szeemann's landmark 1983 exhibition 'Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk: Europäische Utopien seit 1800' at Kunsthaus Zürich. The exhibition was the third in a trilogy including 'Jungesellenmaschinen' (1975) and 'Monte Verità' (1978). Szeemann's show explored the European drive toward a total artwork, featuring socialist dreamers like Charles Fourier, avant-gardists such as Marcel Duchamp and John Cage, ritualists like Joseph Beuys, filmmakers Fritz Lang and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, architects Antoni Gaudí and Rudolf Steiner, and outsiders like Henry Dunant and Adolf Wölfli. The exhibition included performances of Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate, Oskar Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet, and Laurie Anderson's America on the Move, plus film screenings of Lang's Metropolis and Syberberg's Hitler: A Film from Germany. Myers argues Szeemann presented these utopian visions as partial and failed, warning that actual synthesis leads to totalitarianism. The essay also reflects on Szeemann's curatorial legacy as an auteur and the exhibition's role in articulating a postmodern condition in Europe.
Key facts
- Essay published in Afterall Journal 20 in 2009
- Exhibition 'Der Hang zum Gesamtkunstwerk' held at Kunsthaus Zürich in 1983
- Curated by Harald Szeemann
- Third in a trilogy including 'Jungesellenmaschinen' (1975) and 'Monte Verità' (1978)
- Featured artists: Fourier, Duchamp, Cage, Beuys, Lang, Syberberg, Gaudí, Steiner, Dunant, Wölfli
- Included performances of Schwitters' Ursonate, Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet, Anderson's America on the Move
- Szeemann argued total artwork leads to totalitarianism if realized
- Exhibition traveled to Düsseldorf, Vienna, and Berlin in 1983-1984
Entities
Artists
- Julian Myers
- Harald Szeemann
- Charles Fourier
- Henry Thoreau
- Erik Satie
- Hugo Ball
- Marcel Duchamp
- El Lissitzky
- Marcel Broodthaers
- John Cage
- Hermann Nitsch
- Joseph Beuys
- Fritz Lang
- Hans-Jürgen Syberberg
- Antoni Gaudí
- Carl Friedrich Thiele
- Rudolf Steiner
- Henry Dunant
- Adolf Wölfli
- Markus Raetz
- Albin Uldry
- Oskar Schlemmer
- King Ludwig II
- Kurt Schwitters
- Kazimir Malevich
- Robert Owen
- Karl Friedrich Schinkel
- Walter Gropius
- Erwin Piscator
- Nikolai Punin
- Hermann Obrist
- Étienne-Louis Boullée
- Alexander Skrjabin
- Fidus
- Johannes Baader
- Anselm Kiefer
- Richard Wagner
- Ludwig Feuerbach
- Karl Marx
- Laurie Anderson
- Robert Wilson
- Verena Eggmann
- Bazon Brock
- Slavoj Žižek
- Johannes Itten
- Piet Mondrian
- Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte
- Thomas Carlyle
- Peter Rumpf
- Roland Barthes
- Robert Walser
- Fredric Jameson
- Peter Osborne
- Walead Beshty
- Tara McDowell
- Brigid Doherty
- Hanne Bergius
- Volker Welter
- Edmund Wilson
- Jean-François Lyotard
- Hans-Joachim Müller
- Florence Derieux
- Tobia Bezzola
- Roman Kurzmeyer
- Johannes Gachnang
Institutions
- Afterall Journal
- Kunsthaus Zürich
- Tanzfabrik Berlin
- Schauspielhaus Zürich
- Volkshaus Zürich
- Opernhaus Zürich
- Kunsthalle Bern
- Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
- Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen
- Museum Moderner Kunst Wien
- Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts Wien
- Schloss Charlottenburg Berlin
- Red Cross
- Soviet Commissariat of Enlightenment
- Frieze Art Fair
- FOCA Los Angeles
- National Gallery of Art Washington
- MIT Press
- JRP/Ringier
- Hatje Cantz Verlag
- Edition Voldemeer
- Springer
- Verlag Sauerländer
- Kegan Paul, Trench, Kübner & Co.
- Wagner Library
Locations
- Zürich
- Switzerland
- Ascona
- Düsseldorf
- Germany
- Vienna
- Austria
- Berlin
- Indiana
- United States
- Santa Coloma de Cervelló
- Spain
- Bayreuth
- Minneapolis
- Cologne
- Rotterdam
- Netherlands
- London
- United Kingdom
- Los Angeles
- Paris
- France
- Washington
Sources
- Afterall —