Happenings und Design – Visionen der Einheit von Kunst und Leben
Happenings and Design – Vision of the unity of art and life

Summary/Abstract: This article analyses the relationship between art and design in the context of the rethinking of art and artistic practice in the early 1970s in Estonia. The focus is on the alteration of the originally critical practice of pop art: the engagement with the (Soviet) environment and material culture changed, while looking for alternatives, into a totalitarian gesture of aestheticization. The anti-authoritarian and ironic artist changed into an authoritarian designer of this world. The ambitious effort to unite art and life was part of the ideology of happenings and was carried out on the pages of the magazine Kunst ja Kodu ('Art and Home'). The author reflects on the claim to Gesamtkunstwerk present in this practice, connecting it with Art Nouveau ideals, as well as with the ideas of William Morris.

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