ABOUT

Introduction

Dada is my name and my name is Dada. This is my Dada. This blog is dedicated to Dada, a Dada masterpiece made up of little dada pieces. Each Dada extremely valuable – a unique art piece that should be treated with respect and care, unrespect and uncare. Each piece celebrates Dada and Anti-Dada – like it’s 1799 and 2199, take your pick! The pieces will be short and frequent, like life. Dada is freedom!

What is Dada?

Some say Dada was born in the early twentieth century but it could have been born well before then: or is forever. Some say Dada was a reaction to the horror of the First World War. Some say a reaction to the traditional art world and conservative mores of the early twentieth century.

Whatever the case, it has been well documented that a group of poets and artists, lead by German writer Hugo Ball, came together in Zurich at a night spot called the Cabaret Voltaire in 1916 and put on the first official ‘Dada’ performance. This consisted of reciting the Dada manifesto along with presenting other unconventional sounds, art, poems, actions/non-actions and peculiarities. These performances continued for some time on a frequent basis until World War One ceased in 1918 and the ‘original’ Dada members dispersed back to their home countries.

Nevertheless, the Dada movement lived on in places such as New York, Berlin, Cologne, Paris, The Netherlands and Georgia. While some say Dada died out long ago, others say Dada has always been alive and well, and is everywhere and nowhere! Dada is here!

Origin of the Word

No one knows the precise origin or creator of the word ‘Dada’, which gives it much freedom and mystery. Hans Richter, a man associated with the movement from its early days and author of the book Dada: Art and Anti-Art, wrote this about the ambivalence of the word and what people thought about it:

“When I came to Zurich in the middle of August 1916, the word already existed and no one cared in the least how, or by whom, it had been invented.”

There are many theories about how, why, and by whom the word Dada was selected:

It was picked by stabbing a knife at random into a dictionary; It was selected by Tristan Tzara, one of the forerunners of the movement; it was selected by Hugo Ball, the leader and founder of Dada; It means ‘hobbyhorse’ in French so that was chosen because it is associated with nothing in particular along with being a child’s word; it was chosen because it resembles child’s babble; it’s a nonsense word; it came from the frequent uttering of da da (‘yes yes’) in conversations between the Romanian artists’ Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco; it means ‘anti-art’; it means ‘dada will kick you in the behind’…  

“Dada invited, or rather defied, the world to misunderstand it, and fostered every kind of confusion” (Hans Richter – ‘Dada: Art and Anti-Art)

Freedom: DADA DADA DADA, the howl of clashing colors, the intertwining of all contradictions, grotesqueries, trivialities: LIFE. (Tristan Tzara, "Dada Manifesto," 1918)