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Rethinking the Gesamtkunstwerk

Every artist seeks his limits and tries to push them: limits of physical possibilities, mastery, creativity and inspiration. Art should therefore be pre-eminently free and unlimited. But although it is not always conceived as a limit, an artist is always within his own context. A framework of traditions, of certain creative processes, of own vocabulary ... A framework that often guarantees that the mastery of art is maintained.

However, artists are not stuck on their island. They often visit each other to work together in a process: a Gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art where all art disciplines together shape one idea. It is an appealing utopia, but not evident in reality: within a process of creating and performance, it often becomes an obstacle that the framework of a painter fundamentally differs from that of a drummer or a dancer, and that interfaces are not always immediately visible. "Collaboration" can then be unintentionally reduced to a "sum of parts", instead of being a joint process where all artists can use their expertise and individuality to make "1 + 1 = 3". How can an artist open the boundaries of his frame and enter that of another, without sacrificing craftsmanship, but becoming a better artist? What does this change in your own frame, and where is the overlap?

This research project researches good practices and existing theories, and outlines different contexts and artistic projects in order to explore possibilities, dramaturgical codes and transferable and translatable skills and methods.