If you make regular trips over the Granville Street bridge, you’ve likely noticed a new addition on the West side. The new architectural addition is especially noticeable at night when it’s neon letters reading ‘GEASMT KUNST WERK’ are lit up in bright white. I was intrigued so I did a little digging …
What is GESAMT KUNST WERK?
Turns out that this is actually all one word. A german word to be exact. Gesamtkunstwerk has no direct English translation but means ‘total work of art’; a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms, or strives to do so (thanks wiki!).
What does this mean in Vancouver?
This will be the location of a very mysterious art exhibition opening in spring 2014, seemingly aiming to attain the ‘total work of art’ principal of it’s namesake. Although details are scarce on what the exhibition itself will consist of, it’s a group effort by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) Architecture, Trevor Boddy and Westbank Developments.
BIG has designed the architecture and the exhibition itself, which will also be curated by Boddy. Westbank is producing the exhibition and they also happen to be the developer for the 52-storey ‘beach + howe’ tower which has recently been approved for this location. The exhibition is clearly a means to make use of the building that will ultimately be taken down to make way for future development but I’m glad to see a space like this put to use and in such an interesting way.
The new copper cladding and the white neon lettering is definitely eye-catching and adds a modern edge to the skyline in this area. They’ve caught my interest! Head over to gwerk.ca to see videos of your favourite vancouverites attempting to pronounce Gesamtkunstwerk.
* all images c/o gwerk.ca on instagram. Renderings of beach + howe tower via vancitybuzz.com