TOUT EST TATOU: DADA AS ARTISTIC SUICIDE OR

ALTERNATIVE IDENTITY.

by
Frances Elizabeth Urquhart




A thesis submitted to
The University of Birmingham
for the degree of
MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY (B)






Cultural Inquiry
School of Languages, Culture, Art History and Music
The University of Birmingham
September 2011









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Abstract

Deliberately difficult, intentionally irritating, Dada exploded into the world as a
reaction to the horrors of modernity within war-torn Europe, and is often written off as
nihilistic, destructive, or mad. Despite its frequent association with negativity, Dadas
unrivalled energy and complex relationship to mindsets continue to fascinate,
demonstrable by the movements enduring position as a subject of academic
research, and its constant presence at exhibitions in museums and galleries
worldwide.
This thesis explores Dada in relation to artistic suicide, based on the premise that,
despite its nihilism, the movements ultimate goal was the proposition of a radical
new alternative identity and, further, that Dada constitutes an eternally relevant
redefinition of humanity. This premise is investigated via three themes regarding the
development and projection of identity: self-image, self-awareness, and self-
reflection, through manifestations of Dada expression in relation to twentieth-century
identity-based discourses. Through the analysis of the visual work of Sophie
Taeuber-Arp and Marcel Duchamp, the films of Hans Richter and Man Ray, and
collaborative avant-garde reviews, an assessment of the geographic and temporal
development of the Dada personality will provide the basis for new insights into the
suicidally creative tendencies of Dada as a movement.





To Sophie
Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all those involved in the production of my thesis, and the variety
of roles they have played.
Firstly, the Arts and Humanities Research Council, for having generously funded my
postgraduate study.
Secondly my supervisor Dr Stephen Forcer, for his academic guidance and tireless
patience with my incessant questions.
Lastly, Garfield Benjamin, whose constant encouragement continues to give me the
confidence to present my research, and whose love and companionship gives me
the frame of mind to do so.


Table of Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1

Chapter One: Self-image in the Trans-sensory Assault of Dada Visual Art and
Film ........................................................................................................................... 9
Fragmented Faces and Diaphanous Delay .......................................................... 12
Metonymies of War and Peace ............................................................................ 17

Chapter Two: Self-awareness in the Literary Tumult of the Dada Reviews ...... 27
Self-kleptomania and Self-promotion: the Role of the Reviews .......................... 27
Cabaret Voltaire: for One Issue Only ................................................................... 30
Dada: the Heart of the Little Reviews ................................................................... 35
Littrature: Little Rature? ..................................................................................... 41

Chapter Three: Self-reflection in Dadas Kaleidoscopic Development ............ 46
Zurich: the End in the Beginning .......................................................................... 47
Germany: J a J a to Da Da ..................................................................................... 52
Dada Low and Dada East: Dada Goes Viral ........................................................ 55
NYC: Not Your Cousin ......................................................................................... 57
Paris Dada: the Beginning in the End .................................................................. 60

Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 65

Bibliography .......................................................................................................... 72


Reference to Art Works

Although images have not been included in the body of the thesis, Chapter One
refers to five works, all of which can be found in Dickerman (2005, page numbers
given after individual titles), and are photos from the Washington National Gallery of
Arts Dada exhibition of the same year.
1. Sophie Taeuber
Dada Head, Portrait of Hans Arp (p. 70)
1918

2. Sophie Taeuber
Dada Head (p. 70)
1920 (here referred to as 1920a)

3. Sophie Taeuber
Head, Portrait of Hans Arp (p. 71)
1918/1919

4. Sophie Taeuber
Dada Head (p. 72)
1920 (here referred to as 1920b)

5. Marcel Duchamp
La Marie mise nue par ses clibataires, mme (Large Glass) (p. 300)
1915-23


List of Abbreviations

Because of the frequent reference to the three Dada reviews Cabaret Voltaire, Dada,
and Littrature, for ease of reading these will be abbreviated in references as
follows:
CV =Cabaret Voltaire (single-issue review)
D(#) =Dada (issue number, followed by page number, in parentheses)
L13 =Littrature 13 (only issue used).

~1~

Introduction
Il ny a quun problme philosophique vraiment srieux: cest le suicide [] Un geste
comme celui-ci se prpare dans le silence du cur au mme titre quune grande
uvre
- Albert Camus (2006: 221-22)
Essayez, si vous pouvez, darrter un homme qui voyage avec son suicide la
boutonnire
- J acques Rigaut (1970: 90)

Deliberately difficult, intentionally irritating, Dada exploded into the world as a
reaction to the horrors of modernity within a European society that was tumbling into
the dystopia of bellicose massacre. A consequence of modernitys foregrounding of
death was that suicidal representation took on a certain ambivalence, as if life itself
were deemed pointless (Brown 2001: 201). It is easy to see how this would in turn
lead to a whole new range of crises of identity, especially within the realms of artistic
expression. In the context of gratuitous slaughter, we find a movement obsessed with
its own death, and easily written off as nihilistic, destructive, or mad. However,
despite its frequent association with negativity, Dadas unrivalled energy and
complex relationship to mindsets continue to fascinate, demonstrable by the
movements enduring presence at exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide,
and its academic legacy and unrelenting widespread influence across the
humanities (S. Foster ed. 1996: xiv).
The case of Erik Satie provides a springboard for the suggestion that Dada
sought to offer something new rather than just do away with the old. Involvement with
Dada was often seen as a black mark on ones artistic record, and by association
with the movement non-Dada artists were often tarred with the same brush.
~2~

Consequently some saw Saties involvement as the whim of an aging composer,

throwing away his established career with this reckless gesture. However, Orledge
tells us that Saties involvement with Relche (1922) was, in fact, the very opposite
of the deliberate artistic suicide it has been claimed to be, and Satie saw it as the
start of a new period (1990: 178). It is this tension that posits Dada as more than
simply aimless destruction, but as a creative nihilistic critique of modern society.
In order to further research Dadas multi-faceted cultural and textural
personality, the present thesis endeavours to explore the movements intricate
relationship to artistic identity and artistic suicide,
1
based on the premise that, despite
its nihilism, the movements ultimate goal was the proposition of a radical new
alternative identity, and further, that Dada constitutes an eternally relevant
redefinition of humanity, in particular in respect to war. This premise will be
investigated via three themes regarding the development and projection of identity:
self-image, self-awareness, and self-reflection, through manifestations of Dada
expression in relation to twentieth-century identity-based discourses. The thesis
takes into account the inherent issues raised by the association of identity-based
discourses with a movement, rather than an individual, but disputes them on the
grounds of its assertion of Dadas personality, and the movements theoretical weight
beyond its historical influence.
Chapter One will address manifestations of self-image in Dada visual art,
focusing on four of Sophie Taeubers Dada Heads (1918-1920) and Marcel
Duchamps Large Glass (1915-1923), and the Dada films Vormittagsspuk (Hans

1
Physical suicide was also a preoccupation for both the Dadas and Surrealists, and J acques Rigaut,
Ren Crevel and J acques Vach each died young at their own hand; Walter Serner and Arthur
Cravan mysteriously disappeared (another form of self-erasure).
~3~

Richter, 1927) and Emak Bakia (Man Ray, 1926). This section will work on the
premise of self-image as the first stage of identity formation: the way an individual (in
this case a movement) perceives his or her physical and mental self, both through
introspective image and the resulting projection of particular attributes. This physical
recognition and adoption of the self will be based on Lacans theory of the mirror
stage, where an infant is able, for the first time, to recognise their own reflection,
conceiving of themselves as other while seeing the mirror image simultaneously as
self and reflection, and representing both an identification and a transformation
(Lacan 1966: 90).
As the two most commonly confirmed starting points for Dada, Zurich- and
New York-based art will be crucial to the assessment of Dadas self-image, and
Taeuber and Duchamp have been chosen partly on the grounds of their association
with these locations. As one of the only native Swiss members of the Zurich branch,
and as the retiring female she was seen to be (Richter 1965: 45, 70), Taeubers
simultaneous centrality and ephemerality will be invaluable to our assessment of
Dadas self-image. Duchamps creation of the Large Glass corresponds exactly to
the duration of New York Dada, and its curious monumentality (Hedges 1983: 111)
literally contains evidence of the period (dust settled on the piece: he fixed it in
place). Taeuber and Duchamp both worked across the arts, thus exploring a broad
range of Dada expression, crucial to a grounded idea of Dadas self-image.
Like Taeuber, the two films have been chosen for their simultaneous
ephemerality and importance. Knowles has underlined Man Rays unique relationship
with the avant-garde, participating in both Dada and Surrealism, but also act[ing] as
a kind of documentor, giving him a certain objective distance (2009: 10), and Emak
~4~

Bakia has been chosen for this interesting position. Equally Richters Vormittagsspuk
has been described as one of the only uncontested Dada films (Elsaesser in Kuenzli
ed. 1996: 15), despite its late arrival on the avant-garde scene. Film as a medium will
be considered because of its unique combination of sound and image that links the
immediacy of Dada image with the momentum of Dada performance. In this respect,
these films have also been chosen because their music is essential to the character
of the work, and they will be analysed along with their accompanying scores as
presented on Dada Cinma (Re:voir 2005). Richters work has been described as a
move away from mimetic representation in order to re-create musical structures
through abstract shapes and forms (Knowles 2009: 39), and Man Ray insisted that
music constituted a fundamental element of the films overall structure, contributing
to the sense of rhythm and visual dynamism, but also guiding the viewers
expectations and emotional responses (ibid.: 88). Additionally, music draws the
viewer into a film, and reduces the need for narrative despite its own abstract nature.
Chapter Two will examine Dadas self-awareness through the reviews Cabaret
Voltaire (1916), Dada (1917-1921) and Littrature (1919-1924). Having explored the
development of Dadas self-image, this chapter will move from Dadas face to its
mind, focusing on the increasingly outward way that Dada saw itself in relation to
others, and the relationship that this has with its provocation of an anticipated
response. We will draw out a developing interaction with other parts of the European
avant-garde, as well as the weaving of individual personalities and national flavours
into a collaborative literary output, heavily influenced by the movements cabaret
beginnings. The analysis of the structure of the review network and the content of the
~5~

reviews will draw on two central concepts. Firstly, the tension in the reviews between
the aspects of Dadas self-promotion against Tzaras theory of the selfcleptomane:
Lhomme qui vole sans penser son intrt, sa volont, est un cleptomane.
Il se vole lui-mme. Il fait disparatre les caractres qui lloignent de la
communaut (1996: 228).

The use of Tzaras own thought will serve to support the idea of a theoretical side to
Dada, and the focus on self-kleptomania and self-promotion will highlight the tension
between stealing the performative element of the Dada Cabaret act and unleashing it
anew in its written, published form. Secondly, J amesons theory of the perpetual
present (in H. Foster ed. 1998: 119) will underline Dadas self-awareness in a
detached, timeless isolation, and as an intensified experience which will allow an
assessment of the Dada gesture as representative of artistic suicide or alternative
identity. Like the art works analysed in the first chapter, these reviews have been
chosen with location in mind, but here adding a temporal aspect. Cabaret Voltaire
and Littrature form both the geographical and temporal bookends of the movement
(Zurich and Paris respectively), with Dada providing an interactive, cross-boundary
expansion. Based on Marcel J ancos assignment of positive and negative speeds of
Dada to its art and literature respectively (see Lippard 1971: 36-7), the analysis of
Dadas identity will take the perspective that self-image is the positive side of
ourselves that we actively project, and self-awareness represents the more negative,
(self-)critical side of Dadas identity.
Chapter Three will draw together Dadas self-image and self-awareness to
explore Dadas self-reflection: the retrospective analysis with which one might assess
ones actions, and thus alter ones behaviour accordingly. The chapter will explore
~6~

the development and influence of the movement, in its fluid geographical and social
identities, and within the short period between its birth in Zurich and its self-
proclaimed death in Paris. Activities in these two cities, along with the New York
centre (which arguably appeared simultaneously and independently) will be taken as
the Dada core, and the wider influence will be judged by these standards. The
analysis of activities in these very different places will allow a contextualisation of
Dadas philosophical, political and social implications. This chapter will take as its
basis ieks (2006) theory that identity is formed by the selfs simultaneous position
from within and without, which will be reflected in Dadas unwillingness to put down
roots, and which helps to explain its wide geographic and temporal dispersion. This
includes the desire for a tabula rasa state that incorporates Dadas self-erasure, in
order to embrace in its absence an alternative to socially imposed identity
constraints.
Important across the thesis will be Dadas insistence on opposition and
negation, especially when considered alongside Derridean diffrance, and Camuss
theories of suicide. An important aspect of opposition in Dada will undoubtedly be
that of war, as the Dadaists did not oppose society per se, rather the society of early
twentieth-century war-torn Europe. Dada saw itself as a total revolution that would
allow a viable new way of life, and yet devoted much of its output to the revolution
process itself. We can then consider Dadas negative identity as the overwhelming
aspect of its personality. Furthermore, the Dadas often spread mistruths about
themselves in order not to be fixed in history in a particular way, instead giving an
impression of fractured identities, showing not only their manifold influence
~7~

throughout art and society, but also an accurate (fore-)taste of the

(post)modern/present approach to theories of self.
As Dada approaches the centenary of its birth, research in the area remains
insufficiently broad, and dominated by historical accounts of the movement and
biographical work on the key adherents. Dickerman presents some of the more
common criticisms of this field of research: the aforementioned historical,
biographical, or anecdotal trend; the pairing of writing on Dada with Surrealism, to the
detriment of Dada; the Francocentric stance that consequently comes to characterise
writing on Dada (2003: 4-6). However, a recent renewed interest in the movement
has opened up the canon to work on its critical and theoretical impact, and this thesis
aims to contribute to the philosophical reassessment of Dada in order to fill gaps left
by dominant critical trends. In this respect the present work is indebted to a number
of key texts. Stephen Fosters edited collection Crisis and the Arts (1996-2005)
presents a major historical reconsideration of the movement, with contributions from
over fifty academics. The division of the series primarily into geographic centres gives
a particularly valuable resource for the thesiss third chapter, though its influence will
be present throughout. More specifically in the realm of identity, Pegrum (2000)
posits Dada between modern and postmodern. The positioning and analysis of Dada
against several critical discourses will inform the present assessment of Dadas
desire to create an alternative approach to identity and its crises but, where Pegrum
considers the way in which modern and postmodern literature has approached Dada,
this thesis will address the way in which Dada saw and interpreted the world, and the
reaction it hoped to incite. It is through the exploration of Dadas self that we can
hope to see beyond its initial provocation of confusion or dismissal, and instead look
~8~

to the new philosophical and theoretical approaches proposed by its worldview and
multifaceted attitude to mindsets and identity.
~9~

Chapter One: Self-image in the Trans-sensory Assault of Dada Visual Art and
Film
The image of the human form is gradually disappearing from the painting of these
times and all objects appear only in fragments. This is one more proof of how ugly
and worn the human countenance has become, and of how all the objects of our
environment have become repulsive to us.
One day they will have to admit that we reacted very politely, even movingly.
- Hugo Ball (1974: 55; 67)

Balls diagnosis of arts relationship to society not only depicts the world in which
Dada grew up, but also gives us an insight into Dadas feeling of self-worth, a crucial
part of the composition of its self-image. The movement was born out of disgust for
that which surrounded it, but manifested a tension between rejection of the world and
a fundamental optimism:
Toujours mi-chemin du dsespoir et de lutopie, la rvolte dada implique une
conception positive de ce que lhomme et la vie devraient tre (Tison-Braun
1977: 7).

This tension contributes to Dadas unique cultural identity, and the idea of Dada as a
re-modelling of the human condition, or an option for consciousness (Pichon in
Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 15), forms the backbone of the present thesis. It is the
constant struggle between positive and negative and the play of destruction and
creation that raises the question of whether Dada constituted an artistic suicide, or
whether its methods aimed at a radical replacement of a failing modern mentality.
Beginning with the representation of Dadas self-image, the first and formative
stage of the movements identity, it seems appropriately Lacanian that Dadas
moment of inception should have occurred within the construct of a mirror, through its
~10~

headquarters at Spiegelgasse 1 (translated literally: 1, Mirror Lane).

2
Within the
confines of neutral Switzerland, fledgling Dada came into being through the reflection
of images of the war that surrounded it. Dada formed the proverbial glass house and
the Dadas liked to throw stones. Like J amesons thoughts on the postmodern
Bonaventura Hotel,
3
Dada reflected the distorted images of Europe, but within the
belligerent climate these images were already a warped version of humanity. If we
compare Dadas early steps to Lacans mirror-stage, then we see a child not so much
rejoicing in its image
4
but rather seeking to shatter the mirror itself. As Huelsenbeck
describes, Dada attempts to destroy the foundations of art, and this it accomplishes
by tearing all the slogans of ethics, culture and inwardness, to replace the aesthetic
construction of the self with a more primitive relation to the reality of the environment
(in Harrison and Wood eds. 2003: 258). Armed with its shards, Dada is able to
perform its multivalent revolt against all that is wrong in the world, but simultaneously
reflect that which delights it. In this way, Dadas identity developed as both a self to
be viewed and as an eye in its own right, just as Lacans mirror-stage provides a
phonetic crossover with the I/eye (je/yeux) a word game that would appeal to both
parties. Dadas montaged face draws from the world around it, making it impossible
to dismiss without also considering a serious evaluation of oneself. It represents a
reassignment of values within identity both as a concept in itself and its formation
within the arts, beginning as a pilot project in aesthetic anarchy (Lippard 1971: 4),
experimenting not only with the destruction of but also the re-combinations of
aesthetics, and extending within its lifetime to a radical redefinition of the self. Dada

2
For more on mirrors and prisms in relation to Dada, see Pichon (in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 1-
35).
3
[W]hen you seek to look at the hotels outer walls you cannot see the hotel itself but only the
distorted images of everything that surrounds it (J ameson 1991: 42).
4
Lassomption jubilatoire de son image spculaire (Lacan 1966: 2).
~11~

represents an assault on all of the senses, and often in combinations that evoke the
Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, a short-circuiting reminiscent of an externalisation of
the synaesthetes private realm. This chapter will specifically focus on the non-written
arts, in an effort to identify Dadas self-image through its purest, most abstract
engagement with the world, and a reflection of its love of immediacy.
Sartres theory of the structure of emotion informs the assertion that Dada
embraces the crossover of the senses and the arts to create a new self, profoundly
rearranging our perception of the world as a means of coping with it:
Lorsque les chemins tracs deviennent trop difficiles ou lorsque nous ne voyons
pas de chemin, nous ne pouvons plus demeurer dans un monde si urgent et si
difficile. [] Alors nous essayons de changer le monde (1948: 33).

In this way Dada removing itself from the world simultaneously proffers a nihilistic
rejection of society but also an inherent longing for tabula rasa. This latter can be
seen in the avant-garde obsession with linconnue de la Seine, whose death mask
provides a blank canvas on which to project the self-image of ones choice. The
Dadas were intrigued by masks, and explored this medium extensively, and
Taeubers Dada Heads have been selected for the combination of their smooth, solid
surfaces, and the way in which they ideally lend themselves to the application of the
Dada face, where the face and the mask have become one (Riese Hubert in
Sawelson-Gorse ed. 1999: 536). They also reflect Dadas love of montage, but
instead of creating abstraction from reality fragments (Brger 1984: 72) Taeuber
applies abstract components onto a concrete surface, juxtaposing colours to build
faces. However, each of these approaches to montage uses the fragmentation of
reality to propose an alternative to the real world, while reflective of the cracks in its
~12~

own composition. Dada foresaw its end when it began, and proceeded with this
nothing to lose mentality to wreak havoc but also to create a new option for identity
from its ashes, leaving a lasting impact from its short yet intense lifetime.
Fragmented Faces and Diaphanous Delay
Taeubers Dada Heads are a series of coloured sculptures in turned wood, of
which four will be considered: Dada Head, Portrait of Hans Arp (1918); Dada Head
(1920a); Head, Portrait of Hans Arp (1918/1919) and Dada Head (1920b). As a
group they lack obvious traditional gender markers and, despite their titles, on first
glance bear more resemblance to a set of unorthodox hat stands (Riese Hubert in
Sawelson-Gorse ed. 1999: 536). Only one (1920a) breaks with the sets fluid
androgyny, exhibiting a sign of femininity through its wires and beads as
accessories (Hemus 2009: 57). It is through this unique femininity, along with its
resemblance to the first Portrait of Jean Arp (Taeubers husband), that we may
consider this Head to represent a portrait of Taeuber herself. Portrait of Jean Arp
(1918) is the closest to anatomically accurate positioning of facial features, which in
comparison with the others could be a comment on the re-arrangeability of the war-
time body and the hybrid identity obtained by re-combining with non-human
appendages (cf. Biro 2009). Yet it still lacks ears. Is the Dada head deaf to the world
around it, or is it just blocking it out, a silent scream in the vacuum of explosive
Europe? The lack of mouths likewise links to the confinement of emotions, and
seems to be, like Munchs Scream (1893), no longer an aural event, but rather
something synaesthetically felt and recognized in nature and communicated as a
vague unlocated sensation moving through the entire body (Heller 1973: 87).
~13~

Munchs character can at least open its mouth; the mouths of the Dada Heads are
sealed, mute, in silent alterity (Pegrum 2000: 115).
Taeubers expressionistic use of geometric shapes and contrasting colours
presents fragments that are subdued in colour, yet gain boldness from juxtaposition
and lack of blending or shading. J ust as in Expressionist paintings, such as the bold
works of Kandinsky, colour in particular [is] highly intense and non-naturalistic (Tate
Glossary [website] 2005). Riese Hubert suggests that the geometric features of the
Dada heads point to a liberation from reality which, in addition to their humorous
stylistic qualities, can be considered a pertinent Dada feature (in Sawelson-Gorse
ed. 1999: 535). The systematic disposal of sense, rules and tradition that Dada
unleashed on the world is evident here. In shape, they clearly represent heads, but
the faces, the anatomical region which we use to measure identities against one
another (Peterson ed. 2001: 286), are unlike any conventional presentation of the
human visage. The frowning features of the two heads titled Portrait of Hans Arp
emphasise the inherent rebellion in Dada thought. Lacking lids, their fixed open eyes
boldly stare directly at the viewer in static provocation, inviting more questions than
they answer. The fact that they are bodiless reminds us of the mutils de guerre and
the feeling of being violently cut off that must have been prevalent in wartime Zurich.
The element of decapitation is reminiscent of Aragons statement that [a]t the heart
of our projects there was always the gleam of the guillotine (in Baker 2001: 53). The
heads also lack hair, perhaps a Freudian reference to castration, though shorter hair
was fashionable as a sign of independence among women at the time (Taeuber,
Hch and Hennings themselves all wore bobs), and it does seem truly Dada to
remove it entirely when we consider the constant desire for tabula rasa. Not only are
~14~

the heads separated from their bodies, but the faces themselves are also
fragmented. They are divided into shapes, varyingly symmetrical, but always
disrupted: a constant reminder of the wartime gueules casses. They are displaced
and distorted, but somehow held together in gory fixity.
All four Dada heads wear collars. For most this is a structural consideration:
they would fall over without this base to balance the weight and size of the head.
However, one (1918) has the base part way up the stem, meaning that this collar is
more independent from what would be its shirt. It also means that the constructions
head is partially consumed by this collar and, while the others in the set give the
impression of decapitation, this one seems more like it is being strangled, especially
in conjunction with the dizzying displacement of its bulging eyes. This is arguably the
most abstract of the wooden heads, as it is also lacking the long protruding nose. It
is the tallest of the selected heads, its face entirely composed of eyes, the largest
of which, in blue (lack of oxygenated blood to the head?), is cut through by an angry
line of black, resembling a frowning eyebrow. This can be seen as a similarity with
the first portrait of Arp (1918), which has two eyebrows that frown right down to the
middle of the nose.
Taeubers contributions to Dada, along with those of Sonia Delaunay, in their
style of shapes and colours, and particularly their designs for clothing, show a
blending of art and life that like Dada performances helped break down earlier
notions about clothing as a cover for the body, replacing them with an image of the
body as a fluid screen, capable of reflecting back a present constantly undergoing
redefinition and transformation (Chadwick 1996: 257). In some ways Duchamps
Large Glass (1915-1923) simultaneously contradicts and further expresses the notion
~15~

of the fluid screen. Detached from the body, though still metaphorically
representative of it, the Glass is ultimately fluid in its transparency, but retains a
screen-like quality through its fixity.
Though the full name, La marie mise nu par ses clibataires, mme, refers
to a longstanding cultural tradition (marriage), the Glass is abstract and technical,
and filled with hypothetical kinetic objects and communicative, depiction-making
machines (Dicker 2010: 272). The piece as a whole works to represent love as
reduced to a mechanical procedure, where even the machines do not fulfil logical
purposes. Duchamps mechanistic process could be seen as a retreat into
functionality, a withdrawal from the straightjacket of avant-garde painting
(Dickerman 2005: 281), but also the nature of the fractured identity of Dada. The
piece, like New York Dada, began with Americas involvement in the war (ibid.: 278),
and it certainly incorporates destructive devices reminiscent of using the means at
hand, the ruins of the prewar world so efficiently executed by slaughter and rebellion
(Lippard 1971: 9). The fact that Duchamp incorporated (accidental) damage to the
work into the final result is characteristic of both Dadas resilience and its passion for
chance. The glass was cracked, but is not broken. It is as if the shards of the Zurich
mirror are brought together, producing something new from within the despair of
destruction.
The glass is reminiscent of a mobile: a montage of hanging objects designed
to placate. The colours are muted and because the objects are set in glass they
seem to float, frozen in mid-air, Duchamps delay in glass (Wohl in Kuenzli and
Naumann 1989: 169). The glass preserves the pieces in an eerie immobility, always
turning in upon its own gaze in indefinite reflection (Tucker 2010: 19), and always out
~16~

of reach. Despite the fact that the Green Box of Duchamps notes on the Glass
indicate that the brides stripping is voluntary, there remains a linguistic connotation
of force: the choice of the word stripped, in both English and French, retains an
involuntary aspect. In English, the etymology takes us to rob or plunder; in French,
mettre nu can mean to expose, or to strip when referring to a wire. So despite
her willing, she is still rendered passive, the stripping is done by multiple persons,
and we are constantly reminded of the mechanical nature of the process: the brides
final dehumanisation. The glass can be viewed from both sides, and is thus robbed of
any privacy, as well as being both hemmed in by and permeated by metal strips
which simultaneously protect and control the fragility of the glass. At the same time,
Duchamps Glass as representative of Dada creates a filter: the glass is not blank,
and you can randomly and constantly change the background by simply moving it
(Tucker 2010: 21). This delay of seeing (ibid.) is reflected in Dadas continuing
influence both as a readily applicable theory and a readymade but flexible identity.
How are we to compare the painstakingly detailed construction of the Glass to
the spectacular ratio of effort to effect of the readymades (Elsaesser in Kuenzli ed.
1996: 22), particularly Duchamps own, arguably the ultimate Dada rebellion against
art? These very different processes initially seem contradictory, but both show
Duchamps use of familiar objects only to render them incorrigible, which can be
seen to link to his rules for the creation of readymades: de-contextualisation, titling,
limiting the frequency of the act and, the most esoteric of all, the necessity of a
rendez-vous the meeting of the artist and the object (in Mundy ed. 2008: 126).
The co-existence of rules and perceived absence of effort, displayed through shock
(the readymades) or visual overload (the Large Glass) is suggestive of an underlying
~17~

creative nihilism in Dada, by embracing the moment of true nothingness in the shock
before a reaction, and not only channelling it into a creative process, but framing it in
its raw state. This framing of shock is particularly well explored in Dada film. Whereas
the Glass represents a mobile screen serving to filter fixed content, the films screen
is fixed and the content is mobile. We can see this as the complementary facet in
Dadas self-image: the alternation between an entity to be seen and a seeing being in
its own right.

Metonymies of War and Peace
Dada films, though short, present some of the important aspects of self-image
that this thesis seeks to bring out. Over Vormittagsspuks (1927) six minutes of
action, everyday objects perform a flurry of rebellion against their functions and
owners, and in so doing show us the struggles of the Dada mind against the
everyday world. Emak Bakia (1926) is almost three times as long but, in terms of
contemporary film, still short, and reflects Man Rays preference for short films so as
not to induce boredom:
J e pourrais prendre nimporte quel film de deux heures et le rduire douze
minutes au montage, je suis sr que a suffirait (Man Ray in Bourgeade 2002:
50).

What are we to make, then, of the brevity of the Dada movement? Was it a deliberate
move, including its self-proclaimed death, so as to leave while it still had the worlds
attention?
Both films include such a plethora of special effects that they take on more
importance than the linear logic and content of each but, in trying to destroy
~18~

traditional narrative constructs, unwittingly leave behind vestiges of structure. The

very act of putting frames in sequence suggests a deliberate temporal and spatial
arrangement which will inevitably lead to a presumption of authorial intent. Aiken
outlines Man Rays intention that Emak Bakia should be a sequence of dream-like
states replacing traditional narrative (1983: 240). However, even dreams have
structures and themes, which here betray authorial intent and elements of cause and
effect, including an explanatory intertitle which reads la raison pour cette
extravagance. Themes key to Dada self-image include some more outwardly
associated with the time of their creation, such as: war; fragmentation of the body
and clothes; the machine aesthetic; dream and reality; false image. Others are less
overtly linked to Dada animals, birds, flowers and crockery yet remain visually
important aspects of the films, and thus more subtly reflective of Dadas identity and
personality.
War was an integral part of the Dada mindset, their horror of armed conflict
fuelling much of their artwork, manifestos and critiques. A consequence of this was
thematic emphasis on destruction and fragmentation, after an initial passion for the
exciting modernism of machinery. This is reflected in the lives of the individual
Dadas, some of whom such as Ball (cf. Robertson 2006: 23) - were initially
supportive of the war but who, on seeing live combat, were horrified by the
degradation of humanity. A certain amount of physical, not to mention mental, duress
was endured, which is evident in Dadas reactive stance:
Not all scars were visible: the war left terrible psychic wounds in its stead (also
a dadaist motif) as soldiers were affected not only by having witnessed
atrocities and having violence inflicted on them, but also by having inflicted it on
others (Dickerman 2005: 4).

~19~

The reference to war is immediately evident in Vormittagsspuk. Guns appear

within minutes, sometimes accompanied by targets, but also dance, creating a
tension between negative reaction and light-hearted play, and reflecting perhaps the
contrast between the Futurist delight in war and technology, and Dadas cynical
response to the horror of mass killing. On several occasions the film gives the
impression of robotic marching, a gesture which is exaggerated when performed by
multiple actors. Men who follow each other, disappearing behind a lamppost never to
come out the other side, are reminiscent of the aimless massacre of thousands of
soldiers in battle. They also crawl in rank, and one marches up and up a ladder with
no apparent goal, clearly in reference to the laborious and debasing nature of trench
warfare. All of these actions have a futile quality to them when replayed ad infinitum,
not only breaking down narrative structure but also driving the action to the point of
madness.
5
A direct reference is made to fighting in a fisticuffs scene, though the
participants end up laughing, despite their broken teeth, implying at least a satirical
mimicry of military violence. References to combat even extend to the music, which
always maintains a highly structured march rhythm, not only in terms of metre,
through strict tempo and the use of simple-time beat divisions, but also through the
choice of percussive instrumentation.
War references in Emak Bakia are more subtle. The scene that takes place in
and around a car involves a multiplicity of uniform objects, giving an eerie reference
to the mass mobilisation of able-bodied Europeans. This is explored by the use of a
herd of sheep, and through the multiple pairs of disembodied legs that get out of the

5
We can see a parallel here to Lgers Ballet mcanique (1924), where the artist claimed the following
aim: I wanted to amaze the audience first, then make them uneasy, and then push the adventure to
the point of exasperation (in Kuenzli ed. 1996: 4).
~20~

car and gradually become more blurred as we lose count of the mass of limbs. The
sheep are juxtaposed with an image of an individual pig lying in mud, which could be
read as an almost Orwellian reference to military powers. The sheep are herded
against their will, whereas the pig lies back in the mud of his success. This contrasts
again with the fish, which are superimposed so lack individuality, but just float around
and stare in silent complicity. The mass of sheep can also be compared to the
multiple pairs of disembodied legs that get out of the car. Taken literally, this can be
seen as a parallel with the mechanisation of fragmentation, the machine spewing
forth body parts reminiscent of the corpse-production war machine. Man Ray uses
superimposition to increase our awareness of the impossibility of the appearance of
so many legs, distorting our vision as well as our sense of reality, in a visual trick
similar to Richters men disappearing behind the lamppost.
Through Dadas satirical stance in reference to mechanisation, fragmentation
and violence, we might assume that it was against war in the utmost way. Yet in the
two films studied here, the presence of a different bird in each may betray a feeling
thus far unexplored. Vormittagsspuk contains a goose, Emak Bakia several swans.
These birds both get their colour from their white feathers. Could this be a subtle
remark on cowardice, or even conscientious objection? There is naturally irony even
within this, however, since a dove was not chosen: we know that Dada was anti-war,
but was it pro-peace? After all, its vehemently anti attitude to life and society meant
its rebellion took an inherently combative stance. Emak Bakia also contains
references to white flowers: a field of daisies and the flower superimposed onto a
womans face, a double reference to the apparent peaceful femininity of flowers, but
~21~

also to flowers on graves.

6
However we can see that the Dadas did not entirely
surrender to the negativity of war:
[R]ather than blocking the irrational, penning in the devil, subjugating instinct to
reason, they wish to release it in a more positive way, through their art and their
life practices (Pegrum 2000: 159).

Fragmentation was a common theme in the avant-garde, likely linked to the
proliferation of mutils de guerre that were at times paraded around as heroes, and
at others hidden away in order to preserve a certain image of the glory of war. These
fragments, once liberated, could be applied in abstract ways, such as in the work of
Otto Dix, which explicitly displays the disfigurement of the human body, sometimes
substituting mechanical parts to varying degrees of functionality. Parts could also be
misapplied to provide gender and species ambiguity or androgyny:
Dada practice, like the cinematic apparatus, redefines the relation of part to
whole, the relation of part to part (Elsaesser in Kuenzli ed. 1996: 25).

Examples of reverse fragmentation are also employed: a plant in Vormittagsspuk
magically grows leaves from a bare stalk; crockery smashes, only to later float back
into place. This could be an ironic reference to the impossibility of putting back
together the mutilated body. In Dada, however, one can put things back together,
and Dada offers this magical alternative to the horror of mutilation, comme si les
rapports des choses leurs potentialits ntaient pas rgls par des processus
dterministes, mais par la magie (Sartre 1948: 33).
The films themselves are divided up somewhat arbitrarily: Emak Bakias
episodes and Vormittagsspuks interruptions by the clock do not conform to temporal

6
Examples include white lilies, often associated with death, and Frangipani flowers (also white) which
are commonly known as Singapore Graveyard Flowers (Kinsey 2011).
~22~

organisation as defined in reality. It is from this position that the incessant

questioning that dadaist and surrealist works demand of their perceivers constitutes
an injunction to them to alter their perception of reality (Hedges 1983: 57). As we
have seen, the invitation to question societal norms is not only very Dada, but could
prove to be extremely dangerous for those creating it. In this way, Vormittagsspuk in
particular took great risk by rebelling to such a perceived extreme. Von Hofacker
points out the indication of danger through the use of the time five to twelve: [w]hen
the clock strikes twelve no more can be done, and hats, specifically that hats that fly
from peoples heads were a sign of existential danger, because of their association
with the bourgeoisie and status quo (in S. Foster ed. 1998: 133). The film shows the
feeling of fear that living in belligerent Europe imposed, but also the creative potential
of existential questioning, and of the positive alternative identity that Dada offers. The
objects rebel, but playfully, and at the end of the day nothing is lost. Dada shook life
to the core, not with the sole purpose to destroy, but also to recognise the importance
of constructing the self through choice rather than to conform to predetermined
societal configurations.
Beyond dismemberment of bodies or body parts, these films also show
fragmentation of everyday objects, rendered equally disturbing in these contexts.
Vormittagsspuks main characters are hats which are separated from their owners.
The clock that begins this film ends it by breaking in two. The pair of dice in Emak
Bakia also split into halves. But arguably the most striking fragmentary parallel
between the two works is the use of shirt collars. Vormittagsspuks first character
(Werner Graeff) straightens his bow tie, only for it to spin around his neck and
eventually fly off, followed by his collar, and the two then briefly dance together. In
~23~

Emak Bakia, the characters reaction to collars is more extreme. True to the actors
(J acques Rigaut) own habits,
7
he systematically rips up several collars, before
removing his own. As Knowles writes, [i]t is difficult not to relate [] the tearing of
shirt collars in Emak Bakia with a rejection of these bourgeois values, and as
representing an act of self-emancipation (2009: 87). These collars also take on
independent life, flying back in the direction from which they came after having been
thrown down. A Strauss-esque waltz plays as the man rips off his own collar, which
starts a slow, snake-charmer-esque dance. If Man Ray deliberately exploited the
control he gained through the films accompanying music, what are we to make of
this reference to a late-Romantic dance? We might assume that it is simply a tongue-
in-cheek remark on the pointless circular motion of a waltz. Furthermore the collar,
which gives a smart, official impression, usually stays around the neck of the wearer
as a constant threat of being choked by the bureaucracy and class discrimination that
it silently supports. Even if the Dadas themselves had bourgeois origins, we cannot
deny this reference to the destruction of traditional class markers.
The frequent Dada combination of fragmentation and distorted reality is
reminiscent of Lacans theories of the development of the self and the presentation of
the corps morcel:
Ce corps morcel [] se montre rgulirement dans les rves, quand la motion
de lanalyse touche un certain niveau de dsintgration aggressive de
lindividu. Il apparat alors sous la forme de membres disjoints et de ces
organes figurs en exoscopie, qui sailent et sarment pour les perscutions
intestines (1966: 94).

7
Rigauts specialty was removing buttons and cuffs from people as he spoke to them (Sanouillet
2005: 158).
~24~

Reference to image, false image and composite image is common in Dada, not least
through their cinema productions. If Elsaesser states that the cinema was not ideal
for Dada performance, due to the conditions of a reception in the cinema - the dark
room, the stable rectangle of the screen, the fixed voyeuristic position of the
spectator (in Kuenzli ed. 1996: 20), it also provides an uninterrupted moment of
exposure to a static image of Dada, without the capacity for interaction from the
Dadas themselves. Although it gives the possibility to hide behind a polished screen,
it simultaneously renders vulnerable any aspects of the Dada personality presented
undefended in that moment. However, if Dada was designed to not be remembered
in any fixed way, it is then unsurprising that it chooses to embrace its natural
contradictions and propose a series of altered or false facets.
Gender ambiguity illustrates this aspect in both films, and most obviously in
Emak Bakias woman in a house by the sea. As she beautifies herself at the mirror
her androgynous traits become apparent. She is dressing up for an occasion, but
then does not leave, simply walks over to the window and watches the seascape
(moving from one front to another). In Vormittagsspuk four men stroke (fake) beards,
and four women sit with their backs to the camera, with bushy (fake) hair. One by
one the men lose their beards, and the women lose their hair simultaneously. Since
the women sit with their backs to the audience, we cannot know that they are in fact
female, and only presume this because of their long hair (though we have already
discovered that several Dada women wore theirs short). The rapid alternation of the
frame between the two groups implies that this (lack of) distinction is deliberate, a
Dada act of rebellion against a fundamentally oppressive society:
~25~

Confusing of gender boundaries or sexual orientation undermines the

foundations of a patriarchal society, which relies for its power structures on the
differentiality of gender, and the sexual and power orientation of intergender
relationships (Pegrum 2000: 137).

Additionally, we can see rapid alternation of images as a constant desire to verify
ones own existence, especially through cameras and mirrors. Man Rays woman at
the dresser can be compared to the eye on the camera at the beginning of Emak
Bakia, and further to Rigauts assessment that [l]es glaces sont faites pour rappeler
chacun son identit (1970: 51).
We are led to conclude that the image of Dada is a front. Behind every face is
another, proving that the sole intention of showing ones face was to say that it in turn
was not the true one. It is paradoxical but instructive that Dada, whose tenets
encourage readings beyond the superficial, was so intent on taking things at face
value. Sanouillet points out that the Dadas in Paris were taken aback when, au lieu
de se rvolter les proltaires demandrent tout bonnement des explications (2005:
137). One might argue that this contradiction was a deliberate attempt to undermine
the values not only of art but also of art criticism. [B]ecause art as an institution
proves indestructible, Dada takes the opposite ploy of turning everything into art
(Pegrum 2000: 224): Dada ultimately challenged the art world by leaving it
questioning itself even today. Pegrum shows that Dada comes at a point where
humanity is particularly vulnerable and thus ripe for change, emerg[ing] in a world
where capitalism and society seem to have been rocked to their foundations by the
war and where for that very reason a new age appears all the more possible (ibid.:
42). We might even argue that the world was already waiting for Dada, as Arp
~26~

certainly did, stating, Bevor Dada da war, war Dada da. (1955: 48) In this case, the
war was simply the catalyst required to set the change in motion.
Dadas self-image was complicated, and we can see from the art works
analysed here that Dadas surface image is not necessarily its real face: Dada
delighted in its capacity to deceive. Additionally, because the road toward a tabula
rasa was indicated by the Dada attraction to the hermetic and the invisible (Lippard
1971: 11), in the utmost Dada way, that which is truly Dada is that which we cannot
see, either through invisibility, or because it has been lost or destroyed. However,
some Dadas commissioned replicas of their lost works, and Man Ray once stated
that he liked the reproductions of certain of his works so much that he would often
destroy the original (sculpture) and keep the (photographic) document (Knowles
2009: 284). Is this also the case with Dadas ephemeral nature? Dada destroyed
itself, but the movement gains a glossier edge through nostalgic accounts. If the idea
of Dada is not to produce a concrete catalogue of its creations, it could be argued
that its true self-image simply comes from the provocation to notice and remember it:
Chacun cherche son look. [] Non pas: jexiste, je suis l, mais: je suis visible, je
suis image look, look! (Baudrillard 1990: 31).


~27~

Chapter Two: Self-Awareness in the Literary Tumult of the Dada Reviews

Self-kleptomania and Self-promotion: the Role of the Reviews
The historical function of Dada was [] to bring a new self-awareness into modern
art.
- Hans Richter (1965: 219)
Chaque page doit exploser, soit par le srieux profond et lourd, le tourbillon, le
vertige, le nouveau, lternel, par la blague crasante, par lenthousiasme des
principes ou par la faon dtre imprime.
- Tristan Tzara (in Dada 3 1918: 1)

The journal was Dadas source of propagation into avant-garde circles across Europe
and beyond, so a multitude of publications were produced for maximum effect:
8
a lot
of little reviews would have a greater public impact than a single one, and the
Dadaists responded enthusiastically (Ades ed. 2006: 244). But it was Tzaras role as
enthusiastic leader and propagandist that was the essential springboard for the
dissemination of Dada ideas (see for example Schfer in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996:
182). Dada was a collective endeavour, and thus the content of the little magazines
reflected the widest variety of Dada's activities, not only in literature and the visual
arts, but also in music, philosophy, politics, architecture - even in advertising (Shipe
1987). But where Dadas cabaret roots focused inwards to build its self-image
through visual art, the reviews document the movements embracing of the written
form, looking outward to interaction with the world. In this respect we have seen how
Dada viewed itself as an isolated entity, a physical being and also its mental attitude
towards itself. But how did this translate in the way in which it saw itself in relation to
others, and the other it saw in itself?

8
This also supports Benjamins theory of Dadas non-marketability (2008: 31).
~28~

For a short time, it seems that everyone sees in Dada the Other they fear most.
Yet the fact that it can be seen as so many things by so many people implies
that it cannot be restricted to any one of these; far more, it includes all of them,
and rises above individual Others. It is a dance of all the powerless, all the
Others, of creation (Pegrum 2000: 175).

Three central reviews have been chosen for the assessment of Dadas self-
awareness. Cabaret Voltaire (1916) was the first of the Dada reviews, yet contained
many contributions from non-Dada artists. This is essential for the development of
truly Dada ideas: many of the movements influences will be adopted, but also
rejected, and it is this combination that will illuminate the path to Dadas strongest
self-awareness. Dada (1917-1921) is arguably closest to the movements core, most
obviously in name,
9
but also through its eventual directorship by Tzara and
consequent wider-ranging influence. Additionally, it is one of the more typographically
adventurous reviews, implying a more intense expressive desire. Littrature (1919-
1924) represents the more organised corner of Dada, and has arguably the greatest
overlap with Surrealism. Because of this overlap, and because Littrature was more
reserved (and arguably less Dada), only one issue (the thirteenth) will be analysed.
This issue is described by Ades as the high point of Dada in Littrature (ed. 2006:
164), with its subtitle Twenty-three Manifestos of the Dada Movement.
The review was not only a means of communication across national borders,
but represented another way that Dada was able to explore the dissolution of
boundaries between the arts, as well as a development from performance to the
more organised structure of a literary publication:

9
Other than perhaps the Berlin periodical Der Dada, or Duchamp and Man Rays New York Dada, but
both reviews were published after having requested Tzaras permission to use the movements name,
implying their roles and impact as secondary to Dada.
~29~

Word and image, word as image and image as word, music and photography
could be explored in this portable format, which could be shared with those
interested in these ideas, almost simultaneously across the world. The little
magazine vied with the manifesto to be seen as the art medium par excellence
of the avant garde (Bury ed. 2007: 51).

Bury also points out that Dada existed within the last period in which the printed
format was the primary mode for communicating information; film and broadcasting
were ready to take over (ibid.: 8). Dada reviews drew their strength from
systematically violat[ing] every convention of the literary-artistic review (Shipe 1987),
invading literary traditions only to destroy them from within. The little magazines
embraced a wide range of stylistic variation, though Littrature returned to a more
conservative look, likely because this review was created in Paris, which did not
share Zurichs status of political safe haven. It also occurred at a point at which
certain Paris-based practitioners were inclined to transform Dada into the newly
conceived Surrealism. This chapter will assess whether Cabaret Voltaire, Dada, and
Littrature represent a developing, dying, or simply differing Dada, through the
manifestations of self-kleptomania and self-promotion in selected texts and the
changing structure of the review network. In Chapter One we saw that Dadas
provocation through the visual came from a desire to be noticed, through the
assertion of its look. Here we will see Baudrillards extension of the look into
Dadas self-awareness through the dissemination of the reviews:
Ce nest mme pas du narcissisme, cest une extraversion sans profondeur, une
sorte dingnuit publicitaire o chacun devient limpresario de sa propre apparence
(1990: 31).


~30~

Cabaret Voltaire: for One Issue Only

Through this review [] Ball sought to define the activities at the cabaret and to
give Dada an identity (Hofmann 1996: 133).

The single issue of Cabaret Voltaire represents the movements tentative yet
enthusiastic entry into the published literary world. It is a collection of texts and
artworks by a reasonably wide range of authors, including some who would not
reappear when the review was replaced by Dada and taken over by the (future) main
adherents to the movement. Cabaret Voltaire, subtitled eine Sammlung
Knstlerischer und Literarischer Beitrge, can be seen as a collage of fledgling
Dadas influences, containing contributions from Expressionists, Cubists and
Futurists. In addition, it includes two parole in libert, which would go on to inspire the
creation of the Dada sound poems (Ades ed. 2006: 16). Aside from the plethora of
artistic influences, Cabaret Voltaire comprises a spectrum of nationalities, reflecting
the haven that neutral Switzerland provided during the war, essential to the dynamics
of the early Dada personality:
Sociologists have suggested that the interaction and validation within a group
can radicalize intellectual innovation, leading to positions more extreme than
individual members would adopt in isolation. (Dickerman 2005: 2)

The initial favouring of juxtaposition, rather than the visual interaction that would be
present in Dada, shows how the collection of individuals would come to produce
more adventurous texts in collaboration. This is no doubt influenced by the conditions
of Dadas early Cabaret days.
Cabaret Voltaire opens with an untitled text by Ball which documents the
creation of the Spiegelgasse Cabaret, presenting several of the people involved and
~31~

underlining the importance of the international nature of the little establishment. Early
Dada ideals are shown through remarks on independent thinking, as well as subtle
anti-war, anti-nationalist ideals. Typographically, it remains fairly conservative, and
Schfer states that Cabaret Voltaire would not have challenge[d] the reading habits
of recipients used to expressionist publications (in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 178).
It is Tzara and the Futurists contributions that begin to play not only with language
but also with colour and space, fully aware of the reaction these developments would
provoke.
Tzaras Lamiral cherche une maison louer (CV: 6-7) is a trilingual score
for the simultaneous poem performed at Cabaret Voltaire. The poem demonstrates
Dadas delight in challenging traditional linguistic and performative structures and,
though it cannot come anywhere near representing the auditory effect the poem
would have created during its performance, it introduces a similar disruption to the
published literary medium. Tzara explains in his Note pour les bourgeois (printed
underneath the poem) this poems roots in the work of the Cubist painters, which
suscitaient lenvie dappliquer en posie les mmes principes simultans (CV: 6), and
is reflected in Tzaras expression of the spatial simultaneity of experiencing the
spoken parts from all angles. In its written form, the work shows its Futurist
influences in its display of temporal simultaneity across the page. The embracing of
these two roots raises questions, however, about the real nature of simultaneity
across different media. The written version forces a reasoned reading, limiting the
amount of information that can be taken in at once, but in its aural form the poem
disorientates the listener. To truly listen to all three voices, we lose the ability to hear
each as isolated. This gives a feeling of aphasia, and raises the issue of Tzaras
~32~

selfcleptomane. By creating a new world for the self, both the Dada and the listener
are momentarily disconnected from the real (and undesirable) world. The Dada
juxtaposition of multiple languages is described by Demos as a utopian Esperanto
(2003: 154), and Hage points out its use as a rejection of linguistic nationalism (2005:
2). Having expanded the parameters of the poem through the admirals multi-lingual
battle, we end with an implosive withdrawal; a (presumed) unison of language,
rhythm and content: lamiral na rien trouv (CV: 7). This contraction into interiority is
reasserted in Tzaras La Revue Dada 2 (CV: 19), which refers to human organs,
and specifically the destruction of these organs through consumption.
10
The inherent
nihilism, however, gains a self-protective aspect in relation to the self-kleptomaniac,
and ranges from a narcissistic interiorisation to scatological expulsions, both rejecting
the outside world. The rejection of the world in this way implies an ingrained crisis of
identity in Dadas core, which can only gain existential potency when combined with
references to higher beings and churches.
11

Balls Das Carousselpferd J ohann (CV: 8) also contains references to an
avoidance of the world with a horses isolation through its protective cotton wool
wrapping. The feeling that one could be blown away at any moment seems to be a
reference to the fragility of life in a war environment:
Wir haben die Fhlung verloren. Liessen uns da in die Nacht hinein und haben
vergessen, Gewichtsteine an uns zu hngen. (CV: 8)

This feeling is especially potent when the characters meet a wall which leads straight
up to the heavens, combining detached drifting with being hemmed in. The drifting in

10
il y a un jeune homme qui mange ses poumons; votre dessin dans mes intestins a mang le mal
et le bien; mon cur je lai donn pourboire hihi (CV: 19).
11
il y avait sur chaquune notre Seigneur et sur chaque seigneur il y avait mon cur (CV: 19).
~33~

and out of sense reflects the confusion and fear that conflict must have brought. A
coping mechanism for Ball was religion: he mentions being taken over by a liturgical
cadence when reading his poem Elefantenkarawane at Cabaret Voltaire (1974: 71),
and includes a Hymne in the publication (CV: 14).
12
Yet the latter is full of references
to brooding violence, including the bruised impressions of purple darkened horizons,
contrasting with the Gick! Gack! reminiscent of machine gun fire.
13
We must wonder
whether this poem represents a temporary disenchantment with or an eerie
attachment to the liturgical. Alternatively, it could be seen as furthering Chapter
Ones case of self-severing from the world, as when overwhelmed (Sartre 1948: 33).
In the two futurist parole in libert, Marinettis Dune (CV: 22-23) and
Cangiullos Adioooo (CV: 30) we can see elements that anticipated the dynamic
typography of future Dada issues (Schfer in Pichon and Riha eds.: 178). The
sonority of frequent rhyme gives a musical, and also performative, feel to the works,
with the Italian language proving apt for an almost operatic approach, rendered all
the more effective by the employment of unusual lexical combinations. It is probably
these systematic calls for revolutionizing the visual, literary, and graphic form
(Drucker 1994: 105) that inspired Tzaras embracing of the increased flexibility of the
page, and his extension of these ideals from art to life. These are the aspects of
futurism that Dada would take as influences, while rejecting the inherent nationalism
associated with the more political Italians. Both parole in libert included in this
review transfer a range of dynamic and rhythmic expression onto the page through
varying type size (dynamics), and spatial arrangement (rhythm). Marinetti reflects this

12
Despite many Dadas blaming religion for the war, Ball would eventually return to a religious life.
13
If we also note the similarity of gack to gackern (to cackle), we gain an extra level of threat.
~34~

in his use of increasingly busy columns of words, and expresses the need to break
with syntax to obtain ultimate freedom:
Despite the most skilful deformations, the syntactic sentence always contains a
scientific and photographic perspective absolutely contrary to the rights of
emotion. With words in freedom this photographic perspective is destroyed and
one arrives naturally at the multiform emotional perspective (in Drucker 1994:
128).

Accenting in Dune is also added through bold type, which is particularly
effective when teamed with percussive sounds (zingzang), where the meaning is
secondary to the aural effect. Hissing and growling sounds provide an aggressive
fricative contrast with other areas of flowing, bubbling cadences constructed on a
softer balance of open vowels. Additionally, the combinations of words provide a
multi-sensory attack, including the unpleasant combination of ferocious sun, a lunch
menu, smells of armpits, combined with the projection of images and sound via the
variety of resonant syllables and explosions of stars, blood and tears. This need to
liberate the word from syntactic rigidity and thus logical meaning fitted in perfectly
with Dadas collaborative nature, and we can see its continued influence through
Dadas embracing of the simultaneous poem (which arguably liberates the word from
the page by restricting effect to its oral form). It is perhaps this influence that takes
Cabaret Voltaire from the self-kleptomaniacal negativity of Balls texts to the self-
promotion evoked by the exciting typography that is initiated in the parole in libert,
and that we will see carried through into Dada.



~35~

Dada: the Heart of the Little Reviews

Attempting to promulgate Dada ideas throughout Europe, Tzara launched the
art and literature review Dada. [] Word of Dada quickly spread: Tzaras new
review was purchased widely and found its way into every country in Europe,
and its international status was established. (Hofmann 1996: 133)

Dada represents the epicentre of the reviews, and embarks on a more
propaganda-like stance than Cabaret Voltaire, beginning the (d)evolution into stylistic
and linguistic experimentation that the reviews are remembered for. It begins
surprisingly reserved, keeping the red cover with its single image, the rarely
remarkable typography that we saw in Cabaret Voltaire, and subtitles itself recueil
littraire et artistique. This latter reservation would only last for three issues, as Tzara
moved the graphic appearance of Dada publications away from art and toward
life- in other words, from literature to press (Drucker 1994: 204). Drucker also
highlights Dadas altered authorial status, where it is usually not possible to isolate a
unified editorial position or voice (ibid.: 205). We could see this as being entirely
within Dadas aims of detachment, and it is arguably here that the review reaches its
most dada point.
The first two issues of Dada each contain a Note sur lart by Tzara. Though
these maintain the pseudo-formality of the recueil littraire et artistique, they mark
the subtle beginning of Dadas subversion of literature and art. Note 18 (D1: 2)
presents calm sentences, in a short piece that reflects its gallery setting, but on
closer inspection contains Dadaistic alterations. The piece begins with the noticeably
intelligible sentence: Lart est prsent la seule chose construite, accomplie en soi,
dont on ne peut plus rien dire, tellement richesse vitalit sens sagesse, which sets
the tone of an academic treatise only to undermine it with the statement: Crapauds
~36~

des lampions froids aplatis sur lintelligence dscriptive [sic] du ventrerouge. The
latter statement contains the playful elision characteristic of Dada expression (and
particularly in the case of Tzara), which appears to serve as an acceleration of
thought. Equally Note 2 (D2: 2) contains rambling passages about nature, but also
directly criticises man, especially in relation to the destruction of nature, and in
contrast to the creativity of the artist. Here we can see Dada beginning to differentiate
itself by marking its status as a specific other, which will escalate over the course of
the reviews with the various states of not being, giving us a sense of becoming.
14

Schfer tells us that Dada 3 received press attention, including appraisal in the
Neue Zrcher Zeitung:
The third issue of the major periodical of the Dadaists primarily arouses, more
so than the previous issues, visual interest; it is printed in random directions and
in all variations of Roman angles (in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 184).

This review of the little magazine highlighted its capacity to attract attention, but also
claims the disadvantage of tiring the reader and of annoying him by forcing him to
turn each page several times (ibid.). This must have amused the Dadas greatly,
since they delighted in annoying their audience, and would likely have taken this as
an indication of success. Tzara himself later even stated:
The typography of Dada 3 is a form of expression in itself: [] the Dadaists
who, wanting to disorganize everything, no longer were worried about aesthetic
imperatives (in ibid.: 185).

Dada 3s cover embraces the adventurous typography and excitable activity that
would come to characterise the reviews increasingly content-packed pages. Though

14
Though we could of course argue that [e]verything that exists only becomes and never is (Roffe
2002 on Deleuze).
~37~

the cover has lost its bold red paper, the colour is transferred to the title, which is
larger than before and dominates the page. A statement falsely attributed to
Descartes
15
intersects the page diagonally, simultaneously creating a myth and
denying any kind of historical past.
16
By taking on this statement, Dada essentially
qualifies itself against a history that does not exist, freeing itself from a certain level of
reasoning. Nonetheless, however much Dada may try to alter reality, much of its
work is unavoidably linked to the present by the use of montage techniques which
borrow from popular and media culture. Additionally, aligning himself with the father
of philosophy gave Tzara a new ideological weight. In early Dada we see the need to
create false truths and histories about itself, perhaps to simulate emphatic power
before it had developed its own identity. With Dadas Descartes quote, this extends
to creating false histories about the world. Where the earlier flexibility with the truth
was part of falsely constructing Dadas own image, here it is a way of eliciting a
response, both positively, through association, and negatively, through the
provocation to contradict or oppose it.
This issue of Dada is probably most notable for its inclusion of Tzaras
Manifeste Dada 1918 (D3: 1-3), an important moment for the movements identity,
and which draws together performativity and publishing:
This exemplifies again the fact that the Zurich Dadas included primarily those
innovations in their periodicals that had previously been presented in public
recitation. (Schfer in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 185)

15
J e ne veux mme pas savoir sil y a eu des hommes avant moi. Elusive references to historical
figures are echoed by Serner in Dada 4-5 and Littrature 13 (Napoleon), and Picabia in Littrature 13
(Louis XIII).
16
The principle of re-writing history is continued in the title of Savinios Seconde origine de la voie
lacte (D3: 9).
~38~

The 1918 manifesto reads like a comprehensive guide to Dada principles. Calm in its
beginnings, it seems to work itself up into a frenzy, launching, in Dgot dadaste
(D3: 3), into a full speed list of everything that is Dada, repeating the word over and
over (eleven times) before collapsing into its final choice: life. The introductory
paragraph is highly self-referential: it outlines the aims of writing a manifesto while
claiming to be against manifestos in principle, but also against principles. This circling
of contradictions serves to set up the phrase: J cris ce manifeste pour montrer
quon peut faire les actions opposes ensemble (D3: 1). These contradictions are
furthered when the statement Dada signifie rien is followed by a list of
encyclopaedic definitions of the word. A brief critique of art reminds us of two of
Dadas influences, Cubism and Futurism,
17
while writing off pictoral and plastic art as
inutile, and seeming to favour literature. Within the present assessment of Dadas
developing personality, this supports the idea of the movements growing self-
awareness beyond its initial self-image.
What is striking about this manifesto is Tzaras delving into philosophical ideas,
reflective of the presence of theoretical concerns within Dada. While Dada is often
written off as nonsensical, paragraphs here not only aim at epistemological and
ontological concerns, but also address issues key to the Dada mindset:
J e dtruis les tiroirs du cerveau, et ceux de lorganisation sociale [] de quel
ct commencer regarder la vie, dieu, lide, ou les autres apparitions. Tout
ce quon regarde est faux (D3: 2).

17
Though Bury reminds us that [m]anifestos crossed the divide of the isms (ed. 2007: 16).
~39~

Though we have already seen Dada categorise itself through affiliation with
Descartes, Tzara manifestly claims to be against another founder of discursivity,
18

Freud, through his distrust of not only psychoanalysis but also (non-utilitarian)
science.
19
Instead he advocates jemenfoutisme and [l]a simplicit active,
discarding morality in favour of individuality, and implying that Dada had more long
term aims than simple destruction, including concerns for an alternative form of
expression and society, but also for the identity of the individual beyond the tabula
rasa state.
Dada 3 offers a marked increase in excitable self-promotion within the reviews.
Not only does it begin with Tzaras ambitious three-page manifesto (arguably the
Dada manifesto), but it also embraces a hyperactive crossover of text and image that
will only be outdone by Dada 4-5s multi-coloured pages. Dada 4-5 represents a
major stage in the development of the review as well as in relation to Dada as a
movement: it is the most comprehensive collection of Dada works up to that point
(Schfer in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 187), and is dubbed Anthologie Dada. An
Arp print reminiscent of a dissected heart appears on one of its covers; Picabias ink
print Rveil matin on another. Though Arps is not necessarily a deliberate likeness,
the combination of human/animal and mechanical innards gives us the impression
that this issue stands as central to Dadas aims and character. Not only is this issue
long, but it is scattered with multi-coloured, multi-lingual pages, and is indicative of
the level of determined promotion of Dada ideas.
20
Despite the relative formality of

18
See Foucault (in Lodge ed. 2000: 174-187).
19
La psychoanalyse [sic] est une maladie dangereuse; La science me rpugne ds quelle devient
spculative-systme (D3: 2).
20
Though apart from not changing colour mid-text, the assignment of colours to artists or texts/images
appears to be arbitrary, and otherwise simply evenly spaced.
~40~

early Dada reviews, this one is filled with texts referring to the refusal of rules and
structures. Is this why, then, this issue contains a contribution by Cocteau, despite
the fact that was disliked by many Dadas?
21
The resistance to rules is teamed with
the red statement Lisez le Manifeste Dada 1918 (D4-5: 30) as if, ironically, this set
of rules will explain Dada. Yet this is on a page with adverts, statements, a print and
a poem:
The registers slip so easily, one to the other, that the advertisement becomes
part of the poem which is itself continually crossing the boundaries between the
language of commodity promotion and that of poetic imagery (Drucker 1994:
212).

This can be compared to Tzaras typographically adventurous Bilan (D4-5: 31),
which has the look of one of his own inventions, the Dadaist poem (Prenez des
ciseaux (Tzara 1996: 228)). The juxtaposition of rules and structure with
perspectival and syntactic anarchy increases the impact of Dadas refusal of
regulation much more effectively than simple rejection. It is also indicative that
although Dada claims to have no internal consistency, structure persists nonetheless.
Although Serners Letzte Lockerung manifest (D4-5: 15-17) displays arguably
one of the more extreme Dada outlooks, Richter describes the piece as representing
the essence of Dada:
This dissolution was the ultimate in everything that Dada represented,
philosophically and morally; everything must be pulled apart, not a screw left in
its customary place, the screw-holes wrenched out of shape, the screw, like
man himself, set on its way towards new functions which could only be known
after the total negation of everything that had existed before. Until then: riot,
destruction, defiance, confusion (Richter 1965: 48).

21
See, for example, Sanouillet (2005: 165-66).
~41~

In referencing this destructive tabula rasa process, we can see a parallel with Tzaras
emphasis on not being in his Note[s] sur lart, as a simultaneous continuation and
reversal of Deleuzes state of becoming, through its un-becoming while aiming for
the creation of an alternative way of being. Serner expresses more overtly political,
accusatory statements against the bourgeoisie, referencing Damenseidenstrmpfe,
Gauguin paintings, and Geldflsse in the same breath as a Kotkugel (D4-5: 15).
This satirical mix of values mirrors the progression from Cabaret Voltaire into Dada,
which marks an increasing engagement and interaction with the world both positively,
through the movements self-promotion, and negatively, through its rejection of
traditional ideals. The move to Paris with Dadas involvement in Littrature would
reflect this, but engaging with an established literary centre would not necessarily
give the propulsion Dada, and particularly Tzara, envisaged.

Littrature: Little Rature?
Une publication de ce genre ne pouvait que recueillir ladhsion de Tout-Paris
littraire que les audaces, comme on sait, neffraient point, pourvu quelles
soient prsentes selon les rgles du bon got (Sanouillet 2005: 91).

Returning to a more formal, unadventurous look, Littrature marks the
structured and less colourful end of Dada, and would lead seamlessly into
Surrealism. This little magazine - unlike Cabaret Voltaire and Dada - had existed
independently of Tzaras input,
22
but a special Dada issue (number thirteen) was
produced on the arrival of Arp, Tzara, Man Ray, Picabia and Ernst in Paris (Hofmann
1996: 140). Not only is it typographically traditional, the first series of Littrature does

22
Established by the Paris-based practitioners Breton, Soupault and Aragon.
~42~

not contain any images. This fits with the development of Dadas character from self-
image to self-awareness, and its changed social environment. Richter explains that
[p]ainters were involved in the metaphysical revolt of the writers but the visual
medium could not, by its very nature, give form to pure protest (1965: 171). To some
extent then, Paris Dada represents an evolution in Dadas message to the world but,
despite its proclamation of containing twenty-four Dada manifestos, feels like a
retreat into the earlier manifestations of self-kleptomania (not to mention that it
actually only contains four texts bearing the word manifesto in their titles).
Aragons nihilistic Manifeste du mouvement Dada (L13: 1) focuses on
destruction of all standards for example of artists, politicians, classes and
homelands in order to begin again from tabula rasa which would be moins
immensement grotesque.
23
It imposes an equality of membership, obliterating
hierarchy in favour of giving all members presidency. Aragons manifesto also
introduces a plus de structure taken up in Tzaras self-titled contribution (L13: 2-4),
which advocates plus de regards and plus de paroles because Dada introduit de
nouveaux points de vue. If Sanouillet states that Littrature was initially (and
inadvertently) nationalist (2005: 100), it is here that the Zurich influence takes hold.
Picabias Dada Philosophe (L13: 5-6) equates Dada to so many (traits of)
nationalities,
24
authors and thinkers, various aspects of nature, and to Tzara and
himself, that we are given the resonance of another of Tzaras manifestos where he
claims that tout est Dada (1996: 227). Picabia also asserts Dadas eternal youth
(DADA a vingt-deux ans depuis toujours (L13: 6)), thus rendering the movement not
only omnipresent but also immortal despite its self-prophesised demise.

23
Original emphasis.
24
Echoed in Arensbergs Dada est amricain (L13: 15).
~43~

Bretons Patinage Dada (L13: 9-10) presents Dada as humorous, in particular

the name that lends itself so easily to jokes, and despite the fact that its presence in
Littrature was probably its most austere. Bretons representation of Dada as a joke,
in addition to the impression that he considered it to be self-indulgent (Tout ce quon
crit sur DADA est donc pour nous plaire (L13: 9)), does not seem inaccurate and
yet seems to contain a mild element of derision; though considering his future
rejection of Dada this is unsurprising. His underlining of the fact that il ny a pas de
vrit DADA is compounded with DADA ne promet pas de vous faire aller au ciel
and il serait ridicule dattendre un chef duvre DADA (ibid.): statements that would
not seem out of place within Zurich Dada, but in retrospect again seem to be aimed
as an interrogation of Dadas validity (a question that would not, of course, be
considered a relevant concern by Dada itself). Short tells us that Breton and the
future Paris group was primarily influenced by Tzaras 1918 manifesto (in Peterson
ed. 2001: 100). In this case the explosive energy of the manifesto may have given
promises it could (or would) not fulfil.
However, Dadas reality on arrival in Paris (compared to the myth projected
from Zurich) is not necessarily seen as a disappointment, as Ribemont-Dessaignes
exemplifies in Les plaisirs de Dada (L13: 10-11). He outlines Dadas delight in
engaging in anarchistic tomfoolery, and crucially a provocation to join in, in order to
share this happiness:
Le principal plaisir de Dada est de se voir chez les autres. [] Avec vous on
peut samuser. (L13: 10; 11)

We have seen through the reviews that Dada combines nihilism with self-
kleptomania in an effort to reject the world, but its compulsion towards self-promotion
~44~

simultaneously allows it to embrace joy and fun. If Littrature seems to imply a

regression into the self-kleptomania of Cabaret Voltaire after the self-promotion of
Dada, it is perhaps more likely the beginnings of the movements suicide-by-Breton.
[A]t the very core of Dadas apparent nihilism is to be found a thrust towards
universal self-realisation. This, indeed, is Dadas often misinterpreted way of
saying Yes to life. (Pegrum 2000: 178)

The sometimes contradictory combination of nihilism and joy, in addition to the
denial of the past (and the future), leaves Dada suspended in a timeless self-
awareness. In this way Dada is, like J amesons schizophrenic, condemned to live a
perpetual present with which the various moments of his or her past have little
connection and for which there is no conceivable future on the horizon (in H. Foster
ed. 1998: 119). Yet, as J ameson expands, this same schizophrenic gains the
advantage of having a far more intense experience of any given present of the world
(ibid.). These two statements do not present a disadvantage in Dadas case, if it was
in fact a blueprint for a re-modelled existence: a short burst of extreme detachment
from the world allowed both the breakdown of stagnating traditions and the
development of a regained faith in life.
The written medium allowed Dada to gain a new level of interaction through
responses both within the movement and further afield, and explores the efficacy of
engaging with, versus denial of, the world. Constant self-referentiality through the
manifestos, and the promotion of other like-minded magazines (Bury ed. 2007: 38),
indicates the intense and constant self-(re)evaluation that we saw in the visual art in
Chapter One. This link back to Dadas visual art seems to be indicative of the
dependence of self-awareness on self-image, in the same way as language is
~45~

dependent on the use of images (Tucker 2010: 29). Chapter Three will show how
these two interdependent aspects of identity affect the manifestations of the
movements self-reflection, Dadas own perception of its evolving personality.

~46~

Chapter Three: Self-Reflection in Dadas Kaleidoscopic Development

Dada had identified an ahistorical and universal state of mind.

[R]ather than stagnate once established in a particular location, Dada continued to
evolve in response to each specific context
- Estera Milman (in Gaughan ed. 2003: 14; 15)

Dada reached and influenced an incredibly wide audience. Yet in accounts such as
Van den Berg (2003) we find details of Dada activity but denial of a movement (in
this case in Belgium and Holland). Even New York, a widely accepted Dada haven,
has been rejected as an official Dada centre, notably by Man Ray on several
occasions (cf. Gaughan ed. 2003). How, then, do we decide what was official within
Dada? Through analysis of texts such as Van den Bergs, compared to accounts by
the movements protagonists, we will pick out Dadas reflection on its evolution and
influences, and isolate the strands that constitute its core identity. The fact that the
Dadas were very quick to document the movement, both from within (Balls diary)
and post-facto accounts such as Richters (1965), show that the progression of the
movement was important to its adherents, as well as the desire to play with this
recording of progression. This ties in with Dadas heightened self-awareness: its
constant need to display, promote and redesign itself leads logically into self-
documentation both during and after the movements lifetime.
Dadas international flavour is essential to its unique character. With many
Dadas living and participating in activities in cities and countries other than those of
their origins, the movement takes the idea of exile, channels it through a haven and
explodes back out onto the international scene. In Chapter One, we explored the
idea of (shattered) mirrors, whereas within the realm of Dadas development these
~47~

shards become more kaleidoscopic:

25
This combination of mirror- and kaleidoscopic
imagery is reminiscent of the endless deflections produced when trying to find and
focus on Dadas core, beyond its beginning, and whether, like Derridas concept of
the centre that is not the centre (2001: 352), this Dada core escapes geographical
structurality. This chapter will consider the development and influences of both key
and more ephemeral Dada centres, and the way in which Dada viewed its own
progression.
Dada undeniably began in Zurich, and yet it is said that the New York branch
appeared simultaneously and independently (Milman in Gaughan ed. 2003: 15).
Picabia recognised stylistic affinities between New York, Zurich and Paris, and
considered them international coincidences (ibid.: 27). Equally, Paris is commonly
accepted as the place of death of the movement, and yet what does that make the
scattered activities that continued after Dadas fateful last soire? To what extent was
Dada limited to its Zurich, Paris and New York centres, leaving the wider scope as
mere resonances of influence?
Paris provided Dada with a specific setting, that of a metropolitan capital
recovering from war. This setting shaped the movement, which thus differed
from Dada in the smaller, more homogeneous cities of Hannover and Cologne,
the neutral wartime refuge of Zurich, or the distant urban environment of New
York (Dickerman 2005: 349).


Zurich: the End in the Beginning

Pichon posits two concepts of identity within Zurich Dada: emigration, and
liminality (in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 13). The former produces shadows of

25
Bergius describes the heterogeneity of the individual personalities of Dada as in a kaleidoscope
(2003: 40): here the concept will be used in reference to the makeup of the movement and its
branches.
~48~

ourselves, we become our own double, whereas liminality is more positive, allowing
one to see two (or more!) sides (of the self, of the world) at the same time (ibid.,
original emphasis). These two facets can be extended to Dada as a movement,
beyond the experiences of its individual adherents. In its mobility, Dada incites
restlessness, but moulds its collection of worldviews into a collage-identity, and
simultaneously creates the possibility of fluid, hybrid identities from its multifaceted
own:
Zurich Dada represented a radical attempt to model an identity that was
immersed in a social space founded on difference and inclusiveness (Demos
2003: 158).

Dada frees identity from traditional constraints, perceiv[ing] itself as the
unlimited possibilities of states of mind, as the opening up of doors into yet unknown
and nonhabitualized worlds (Pichon in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 16). In this
respect Zurich Dada offers a widening of spatial awareness while anticipating
temporal development. Dadas Zurich beginnings produced the tabula rasa state
necessary for the creation of new identity out of the chaos of the surrounding world,
and the humiliating age (Ball 1974: 61) could be the stressor that forced the initially
introverted Dada to block out the world, as a defence mechanism. To some extent,
we could see the Cabaret Voltaire stage of Zurich Dada as a bottling up, or burying
its head in the sand, until the little cabaret is about to come apart at the seams and is
getting to be a playground for crazy emotions (ibid.: 51-2). However, since it is in
visual and performative Dada (and particularly Zurich) that we have explored the
basis of Dadas self-image, it is possible that this bottling up was a gathering of force
in order to take on the world. Hugnet confirms that [t]hose who had taken refuge in
~49~

Zurich were not themselves fully conscious of what was going on within them, of that
force that in some of them was acquiring substance and becoming explosive (in
Motherwell ed. 1989: 126). The fact that in determinedly neutral Switzerland it was
frowned upon to express any strong singular political view (Varisco in Peterson ed.
2001: 279) meant that politics never really arrives in Zurich Dada (Pegrum 2000:
89). The Zurich Dadas were not so much at odds with any particular ideology, nor
against the war itself[,] as against the principles and institutions which stand behind it
and have permitted it to occur (ibid.: 63). Thus Dadas vehement anti-ideology within
such a stifled political environment only exacerbated the escalating inward bubbling
of its angry neutrality.
We have established the events of Cabaret Voltaire as the original period of
Dada in which its unique style is developed: an all-inclusive, all-absorbing, all-
exposing chaos (Winter in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 140). However, its character
developed as it moved across the city:
When Dada removed itself from the Niederdorf, it acquired a wider visibility and
the use of the venue with the public identity coincided with the Dadas own
heightened public identity in the city (Lewer in ibid.: 54).

From residing in an undesirable area that was regarded as a social and hygienic
problem (ibid.: 51), Dada spread across the city, engaging more with Zurichs own
character and engaging with increasingly upwardly mobile venues, veering from its
smaller, more closed and introverted (humiliated?) cabaret setting to the more
respectable Zunfthuser (guildhouses) and finally, to the prestigious new
Kaufleutensaal (built in 1915). Here the movement lost a few adherents, notably Ball,
perhaps due to his psychic frailty, perhaps because he viewed Dada as selling out.
~50~

Its introduction of increasing tariffs contradicts certain Dada principles; as a money

making venture Dadas personality would be altered. But viewing this change as
selling out is a rather narrow option. It rather demonstrated Dadas evolving identity,
allowing it access to the bourgeoisie that it aimed to destroy from within, by rendering
the public prt tout supporter (Breton in Sanouillet 2005: 410). Additionally, Lewer
stresses that Dada could not operate effectively on the margins of culture (in Pichon
and Riha eds. 1996: 51-2): had it stayed at the Cabaret, its influence would have
been limited to the drunken students, revolutionaries, spies, deserters and
vagabonds (ibid.: 51) that frequented it; hardly a crowd that needed proof of global
malaise.
Zurich Dadas hive of activity arguably gives us the strongest sense of Dadas
self-image, in its predominantly visual- and performance-based output. This can be
seen in relation to its location, and consequentially as a reflection of Dadas rejection
of war:
When Emmy Hennings sang They kill one another with steam and with knives
in Switzerland, which was encircled by fighting armies, she was voicing our
collective hatred of the inhumanity of war (Huelsenbeck 1974: 137).

Winter highlights the importance of Zurich Dadas cabaret beginnings, and
particularly Cabaret Voltaires dual role as cabaret and gallery, exhibiting tendencies
in the former toward a dominance of difference within unity, and in the latter, a
dominance of unity within multiplicity (in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 145). In
embracing these contradictions, Zurich Dada provoked destruction of expectations,
but simultaneously a cohabitation of previously incompatible concepts. In this way
rationality and irrationality can work together; nothing and everything become
~51~

synonymous. Opposites are no longer simply negation, nihilism no longer inherently

negative, dissonance is embraced and highlighted, and destruction and construction
are identical (Mhsam in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 71).
But however anarchic its beginnings, it became evident that, through the desire
to establish itself as a movement and while denying (the possibility of) its existence
Dada was settling into pseudo-permanence:
The Dadas obviously wanted now to avoid detachment; they were orienting
themselves and establishing guidelines (Winter in ibid. 1996: 147).

Additionally, we can see that from early on, Tzara wanted to create a Paris/Zurich
axis part of a still larger Dada International based on exchanges of work and to
build a distribution network (Short in Peterson ed. 2001: 97). It remains difficult to
believe that a movement that claimed to be so intent on (self-)destruction would aim
to put down roots in such a way.
Zurich Dada is variably described as lhystrie savamment cultive
(Sanouillet 2005: 7) and laughter on the edge of the abyss (Dhl in Pichon and Riha
eds. 1996: 112), giving way to an image of the movements teetering first steps, an
emphasis on fun and the child-like, but always aware of the danger that surrounded it
as it prepared to explode onto the international scene. It drew in art forms, shift[ing]
its focus away from the individual work or medium to the hyper-, meta- or transitional
work (Winter in ibid.: 141), absorbing all into its collaborative, anarchic stew. Then,
shaking off its local limitations, it branched out into Europe, having armed itself with
these all-pervasive methods. Richter even claimed that through contact with Dada,
the public had gained in self-awareness [] The public was tamed (1965: 80).
~52~

Germany: Ja Ja to Da Da

Dada activities in Germany are mixed, varying according to individual
adherents involvement in the war, but most groups extensively explored the media of
collage and photomontage. Three centres stand out as main or official: those in
Berlin, Cologne and Hanover.
Based on their war experience, Cologne artists modified the image of the world
itself. This new world [] was a collaged world in which images were drawn
from many sources, put together to make a world of fragmentary memories
(Stokes ed. 1997: 20).

Cologne Dada is usually associated with Arp, Ernst and Baargeld. Here we can see
three very different influences coming together. Arp escaped the war by feigning
mental unfitness. Ernst, who undermined the substance of the world as
conventionally defined (ibid.: 37), fought and was injured in the war, and moved
between French and German influences, possibly as a consequence of his friendship
with the bilingual Arp. Freedom of linguistic expression was also important to the use
of language in Dada montage: linguistic elements were a means for the self-
reflection of art as well as the reflection of the surrounding world (Bergius 2003:
141). Baargeld introduced a mild political aspect to Cologne Dada, and was brought
in by Arp and Ernst who, knowing his Communist leaning, convinced him that Dada
went much further than Communism and that its combination of new-found inner
freedom and powerful external expression could set the whole world free (Richter
1965: 160). However, since Dada does not subscribe to a specific political
standpoint, Cologne Dada gradually relinquishes its political stance to become like
the apolitical Dada of Zurich or Paris (Pegrum 2000: 90). The Cologne centre, as
~53~

with German Dada in general, shows a proliferation of art featuring war cripples, and
the awful technology of war that had kept them alive after the trauma to their bodies
and minds (Stokes ed. 1997: 39).
Despite being rejected by the Berlin Club Dada, Schwitters is said to embody
peut-tre mieux quaucun autre lesprit farouchement individualiste, anarchiste et
fantasque de Dada (Sanouillet 2005: 30), and is particularly representative of
Hanover Dada. Schwitters took the Dada delight in trans-media work further, creating
his new Merz art, and incorporating it into his house and his daily life. Dietrich
describes the Merz work as creating new connections between different dissociated
and newly associated parts (in Stokes ed. 1997: 120), and Germundson tells us that
Schwitters was searching not for absolute truth, but for a truth that changes through
time (ibid.: 225). Schwitterss work lends itself to the Dada hybrid identity, where the
choice of personality construction lies with the individual and is subject to temporal
development. Additionally, Schwitterss Merz concept leans toward the
Gesamtkunstwerk in which Ball took great interest. In engaging across the arts in this
way, Schwitters and Ball demonstrated a desire to explore art at its fullest, arguably
reflecting a fully formed artistic identity, especially when we combine it with the Dada
tendency to reject or spontaneously reassign their connection to the past, integrating
and disintegrating this cultural heritage (Dachy 1990: 142).
Arguably the most politically engaged of the Dada centres, Berlin fully
embraced the radical technique of montage, giving way to works such as Hchs
Schnitt mit dem Kchenmesser Dada durch die letzte Weimarer
Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands (1919-1920), an obvious response to German
wartime society, and Groszs Ein Opfer der Gesellschaft (1919) and Dixs
~54~

Kartenspielende Kriegskrppel (1920) which respond directly to war-induced

disfiguration. Berlin Dada represented a more closed community,
26
with groups such
as Club Dada, which came across as mildly elitist, through selective membership (in
the case of Schwitters), and reclusive, through the fact that they never idealized their
group activities or posed for photographs (Bergius 2003: 31). This strikes a discord
with the impression of Dadas overall mobility and solubility of boundaries, leaving
Berlin Dada in a slightly isolated stance. However, given Berlin Dadas socio-political
surroundings, we could see this partial withdrawal as a defence mechanism or
coping strategy (S. Foster in Peterson ed. 2001: 194), like Zurich Dada in its early
stage, that needed to shelter in a closed environment until ready to embark on its
international mission. The Berlin Dadas engaged in the creation of alternative
realities, and their critique of existing society mirrored this disintegrating reality that
was losing its hold on itself (Bergius 2003: 134). This breakdown allowed the
creation of, and ironical play (ibid.: 138) with, new identities from chaos and
destruction, through montage of its fragments.
Though German Dada displays some characteristics that were not present in
Zurich, it mirrors it in many respects, and primarily in its embracing of contradictions
(thus rendering differences equal to affinities). The engagement with politics,
however fleeting, can be seen as representative of the differences in social climate
between the two centres. To some extent Zurich used its status as safe haven to
detach itself from the turmoil of belligerent Europe; Berlin was caught in the middle,
and expressed considerable anger at this state. Though Paris was also involved in
the conflicts, it was on the side of the winners. Additionally, Dada only came to Paris

26
Though this centre was still subject to various members vying for leadership or notoriety and the
conflict that ensued, a trait it would share with its Parisian counterpart (cf. Bergius 2003).
~55~

after the war, thus encountering a different worldview, including an aftermath

tension of a return to order which may have contributed to Dadas demise through
Surrealism. Berlin Dadas timeline overlaps with that of the war, giving rise to
negativity and political engagement, but also a desire to start again.
If Everything was Nothing and Nothing the beginning of Everything, Dada
intended an artistic-philosophical creation of an endlessly relational abundance
and emptiness (Bergius 2003: 21).


Dada Low and Dada East: Dada Goes Viral

Dadas international influences are widespread, and yet we find that some of
the more far-flung centres are only historically appropriated as Dada. In many
places Dada was simply not perceived as such,
27
and in some cases it was merely
that the term itself was not used, as in Poland, where instead the more positive
futurism was preferred for activities resembling Dada (J anecek in J anecek and
Omuka eds.1998: 4). Conversely, in Russia the nothingists group issued a firm
nyet, nyet to Da[ ]da, rejecting the term due to its overtly affirmative tone in Russian
(Bowlt in ibid. 1998: 151). In this respect Dada does not always allow for multi-
meaning acceptance: while most adherents saw the positive meanings in the
seemingly nonsense word,
28
its playfulness was not for all. Van den Berg tells us that
the history of Dadaism in the Low Countries is a largely fragmented collection of only
slightly related individual appropriations and incidental recuperations (2002: 18-19)
despite the fact that these artists were among the only historical Dadaists using the

27
J anecek takes Bulgaria as perhaps the weakest case for an indigenous Dada movement (in
J anecek and Omuka eds. 1998: 4).
28
In J apanese, dada means childish wilfulness (Omuka in ibid.: 230).
~56~

name associated with their location.

29
Sanouillet states that Belgian Dada nexista
que comme antenne du groupe parisien (2005: 33). The Eastern Dada offspring
have only recently been explored, in part due to their lack of official status. Through
these ephemeral manifestations we would expect to see examples of cumulative
error, with different parts of the Dada personality being transferred to varying
degrees of accuracy, and feeding into the heterogeneous nature of the movement,
building on the exploration of hybrid identities and cultures: [t]hat Dada transcended
nationality was, on occasions, almost an article of faith for its supporters (Impey in
J anecek and Omuka eds. 1998: 132).
Czech Dada, through the transfer point of Prague, was founded in the form of
a Czech Dada Society by Huelsenbeck in 1920 (J anecek in ibid.: 2). We could
perhaps see Czech Dada as the strongest link among the ephemeral centres, with
interest being expressed within one of Dadas contemporaries, poetism, and some
elements of Dada were in fact further cultivated (Toman in ibid.: 19). We can also
see here an element of transplantation of Dada ideals, and specifically because it
was two Germans (Huelsenbeck and Hausmann) who exported Dada, from Zurich,
into Czech territory (displaying a linguistic, as well as geographical, logic). We have
already seen that Paris Dada was shaped by a limited, specific knowledge of Zurich
Dada. Short introduces the idea of the childrens game, Chinese whispers, in
relation to the transference of Dada news into Paris (in Peterson 2001: 98). If
mistakes were transmitted to Paris, generally accepted as Dadas primary path
across Europe, it is safe to say that the differences between Paris and the former

29
Dada Holland and Holland Dada. The Zurich Dadas referred to themselves as Galerie Dada and
Mouvement Dada (Van den Berg 2002: 5), perhaps because of being the original and thus to them,
they were purely Dada.
~57~

Czechoslovakia would be marked. These two cases present an interesting dilemma.

Since Zurich Dada dissolved, destroying the perceived original, it remains for the
Dada scholar to decide to what extent later or further branches match the original.
A notable Czech Dada adherent is Frantiek Halas, who was subject to these
Chinese whispers effects. Strongly influenced by Serners Letzte Lockerung
manifest, Toman describes Halass interpretations of Serner as occasionally
sound[ing] more shocking than Serners original (in J anecek and Omuka eds. 1998:
24). This is not to say, however, that Halas only drew from Dadas negative aspect.
As he expressed:
[O]ut of Dada comes a lesson for the modern man who is smiling today at what
he was horrified by yesterday. Sowing doubts about everything, Dada was the
starting point of the process of relativization of our thought. (in ibid.: 23-4)

Halas saw the Dada adherent as an active and positive type, despite, or even
because of, the movements perceived nihilism (ibid.: 24). In this respect Halas
almost seems to echo New York Dada, the movements more upbeat branch.

NYC: Not Your Cousin
[T]he Dada spirit was capable of coming to consciousness spontaneously,
independently, and about the same time in different parts of the world (Peterson
ed. 2001, p.106).

Despite Petersons description, New York was often rejected as having been a
Dada centre, rather, as a series of Dada-like activities being assigned Dada status as
an a posteriori construct (Milman in Gaughan ed. 2003: 29). Sanouillet describes it
as un mouvement original de caractre dadaste (2005: 14, emphasis own). It was a
~58~

fairly hermetic venture, working out of the Arensburgs apartment, and was arguably
detached from European Dada in that it was not as caught up in the negativity and
fear pervading the latter continent. Like Zurich, it provided a haven for exiles in this
belligerent climate, including Duchamp and Picabia, but [u]nlike the Zrich centre,
Dada in New York involved indigenous artists, a situation which made it more like
Berlin Dada in this respect (Gaughan ed. 2003: xiii).
Although its concerns arguably remained predominantly issues of identity
raised by modernisation (ibid.), New York Dada differed from European centres
primarily because it addressed the machine within a wider, mass commodity-based
aesthetic, as opposed to the machine as murderous, or as a life-preserving prosthetic
that reflected on the horror of war. Additionally, New York Dada presented its
machines as non-functional. New York had superceded [sic] Paris as the worlds
modern city (Tashjian in ibid.: 66), and this is reflected in the Dada groups
embracing of modern technology in the city. Gaughan underlines the Dada centres
varied responses to Western crisis as basic cultural anarchism in Zurich, more
politically focused in Berlin, while the technological may be considered a central, if
not overdetermining presence in New York (ed. 2003: 9). Furthermore Europe saw
America, and particularly New York, as an other towards which to aspire, a superior
other to its cultural situation (J ones in ibid.: 175).
Richter explains that it was with photography
30
and Stieglitz that Dada found its
roots in New York; not a night-club, not a sceptical philosopher like Ball, but a little
photographic gallery and this cheerful, aggressive photographer (1965: 82). Man
Ray sought to exploit photography-as-art-form to the point of rendering it defunct,

30
Notnewinitsownright,photographywashowevernotwidelyemployedasanartformatthispoint.
~59~

especially through his rayographs which, in the Dada tabula rasa spirit, do not
involve a camera, rather a more direct contact with the film itself. Man Rays and
Duchamps readymade creations explore a similar (anti-)aesthetic, by
simultaneously depersonalising the art work, anticipating the structuralists death of
the author as a controlling force in the text (Pegrum 2000: 76), yet having created
this technique the two artists (particularly Duchamp) are inserted into the historical
canon, re-personalising the work through their own notoriety.
Something that marks out the New York centre is its status as Dada ltat pur,
libre de toute interfrence surraliste (Sanouillet 2005: 20). A parallel to New
Yorks detachment can be seen in one of its adherents, Picabia, who was present in
the three main Dada centres, Zurich, New York and Paris, but also independently in
Barcelona. His financial status meant that he was able to travel about more than
many other Dadas, but his liking for fast cars and the fast life (ibid.: 96) predisposed
him to boredom, and he flitted about, never in one place for very long, likely known
as much for his absence as for his presence. However, Picabia went on to claim
Dada for himself, despite his public break with the movement in 1921 (see
Dickerman 2003: 145-6) putting himself and Duchamp as the centre around which
the movement revolved:
Lesprit dada na vritablement exist que durant trois ou quatre ans, il fut
exprim par Marcel Duchamp et moi la fin de 1912 (in Sanouillet 2005: 233,
original emphasis)

The fact that no Dada history goes so far back, and that Duchamp himself was
tangential to at least the Paris branch, somewhat undermines Picabias claims.
However, Picabia is credited as the originator of Dada by Claude Rivire (in Richter
~60~

1965: 11), and is seen to have had a considerable influence on the movement in
Zurich, Paris, and New York.
31
Additionally, Picabias stance mirrors Bretons, but
where Breton had denied his own involvement, or else renamed it as Surrealist
activity, Picabia here claims to have embodied it, despite rejecting it with this break.

Paris Dada: the Beginning in the End

With Dada growing root-bound, Tzara, careful tender of his avant-garden, opted
for a transplant to a larger pot (Polizzotti in Peterson ed. 2001: 116).

Paris Dadas group dynamic was a less internationally inclusive endeavour than
some other centres, probably because of its wartime positioning and mentality. Short
tells us that Paris Dada was strangely skewed in relation to its Zurich predecessor, as
their only influence was Tzara and his Manifeste Dada 1918 (in ibid.: 100).
32
The
citys longstanding literary tradition may have preconditioned the Paris group to find
Tzaras dramatic writing appealing, especially when presented in the large pages of
Dada 3 as an all-encompassing life-guide:
Tzara parvenait exposer sans concessions ni la forme ni au got du jour
une philosophie, une thique, un mode de vie qui rendaient aux oreilles des
intellectuels de 1919, peine dlivrs de la guerre, et qui se cherchaient une
voie, un son singulirement captivant (Sanouillet 2005: 116).

Paris Dada formed the opposite end of the movement to Zurich, and was its
place of death: Dada was to come to Paris as the exterminating angel (Peterson ed.
2001: 102), and ended up exterminating itself in the process. This extends logically

31
Richter (1965: 71), Schfer (in Pichon and Riha eds. 1996: 186) and Short (in Peterson ed. 2001:
101-2) are just a few examples of Picabias significant impact on the Dada branches in general, and
on Tzara in particular.
32
Apparently neither could Picabia conceive of anything specifically Dada happening without Tzara
being part of it (Short in Peterson ed. 2001: 108).
~61~

Richters description of the Parisian review Littrature as having been infected by

Dada (1965: 167). Imagery of Dada as a progressive disease reflects on the
movements views of war as the sickness of the age.
33
Where Zurich had primarily
been based in the visual and performance based arts, Paris represented the more
structured, literary and theoretical base.
34
And if Zurich was a collaborative venture,
Paris contained undertones of struggles for power, namely Bretons desire to turn the
movement into Surrealism. Like Zurich, Paris Dada was highly dependent on a series
of events designed to provoke the public, working within theatres in contrast with the
cabaret. In this respect Paris Dada can be seen as a continuation of the increasing
respectability of the establishments chosen for Dada events, especially because
Paris was already an established art and music scene; Zurich was not.
35
Sanouillet
points out that [d]s son installation Paris, le mouvement affirma son caractre
international (2005: 363). Equally in this way it may be through the fact of Dada
having died in Paris that Surrealism, though not the only route out of Dada, is most
frequently crowned as its successor.
Peterson tells us that although Paris Dada began amicably, describing 1920 as
its annus mirabilis, it soon descended into bickering, with 1922 as marked as much
by what did not come off as by what did and finally dissolving after the fateful Soire
du Cur Barbe in 1923 (ed. 2001: 27, original emphasis). Richter writes that the
French writers seemed to hesitate at first before embarking on the strange adventure
of Dada (1965: 167). Was this the reason that Dada met its end here? Or had it run

33
Duchamp also reflected on art within the terminology of disease, describing it as a habit-forming
drug and wanted to protect [his] ready-mades against such a contamination (in Richter 1965: 90,
original emphasis).
34
This is not to say that Paris Dada was sedate. Dada ended the way it had begun: with riots, poems,
speeches and manifestoes (Richter 1965: 171).
35
Goergen suggests this as a reason Dada music remains widely uninvestigated (in Pichon and Riha
eds. 1996: 153).
~62~

its natural course? It is true that shock and scandal lose impact on repetition:
Bretons audience may have been ready for anything, but Breton himself was only
ready for a coup dtat.
36
It is instructive that the Paris Dada centre should base itself
so heavily on Tzaras influence, when the main source of conflict would turn out to be
between Tzara and Breton, with Breton later denying affiliation with and the influence
of Dada on his Surrealist activity.
It is apparent, despite Paris being the city of Dadas demise, that Paris Dada
was of importance not only in its own right but also for the information and wider
picture we have of the movement. Short tells us that [w]ithout Paris Dada, our notion
of the movement as a whole would be diminished and fragmentary (in Peterson ed.
2001: 95), and Pegrum states that Paris was long assumed to represent Dada in its
entirety, giving rise to the apprehension of Dada as nothing but negative and
destructive (2000: 104). It is perhaps Dadas established detachment from history
that gives way not only to nihilism and destruction, but also to a pseudo detachment
from itself that both allowed it to see itself in its entirety (including its end), and left it
preoccupied with its own (suicidal) death.
37

The present that evaporated in the speed of the city was to be compensated for
by the eccentric chase of time. Simultaneity thus was not seen as a culmination
but as a loss of temporal experience perceiving temporal uniqueness from the
perspective of its ending (Bergius 2003: 153).

We can compare simultaneity and Dadas preoccupation with its own demise back to
the representation of J amesons perpetual present through the Dada reviews, with

36
Bretons use of this particular phrase is revealingly present in his letter to Tzara of April 1919, where
he claims that la prparation du coup dtat peut demander quelques annes (in Sanouillet 2005:
406).
37
This is particularly apt when we consider that at least three suicides associated with Dada were
linked to the Paris branch.
~63~

the movements timeless self-awareness exerting a multifaceted influence on the

then future of art and culture.
Dadas development as a movement was important during its lifetime, but also
for the adherents after the event, who largely saw their involvement as a distinct
stage in their lives, and most of its members, apart from those who joined the
Surrealist ranks, continued to proclaim their allegiance to Dada for the rest of their
lives (Dachy 1990: 185). Given the youth of most of Dadas adherents, we can see
the movement as playing a significant role in the evolution of their identities, just as
childhood experience is fundamentally formative in shaping adult identity. In
shrugging off and rejecting prescribed identities of a failing modernism, Dada opened
possibilities for a new, alternative form of identity, with an increased international
(anti-)ideological flexibility. Dadas strong assertion of anti finds echoes in iek,
who writes that
Materialism [] resides in the reflexive twist by means of which I myself am
included in the picture constituted by me it is this reflexive short circuit, this
necessary redoubling of myself as standing both outside and inside my picture,
that bears witness to my material existence. Materialism means that the reality
I see is never whole not because a large part of it eludes me, but because it
contains a stain, a blind spot, which indicates my inclusion in it (2006: 17).

The capacity to view oneself as both outside and inside finds a parallel with Dadas
mirror stage that allowed the simultaneous perception of the image as self and as
reflection. Dada upended traditional constructs in favour of a tabula rasa of the self,
as well as weaving a network of interdependence from cross-boundary
communication and lack of established roots.
38
In this way, Dadas homelessness

38
Much like Tzaras characters in Le cur barbe, who are not composites unto themselves, but are,
in fact, a collection of composite parts reliant on each other for a singular identity (Varisco in Peterson
ed. 2001: 286).
~64~

made everywhere its home, and its flexibility of character made any/everyone and
any/everything Dada.
~65~

Conclusion
Dada sapplique tout, et pourtant il nest rien [] Dada est inutile comme tout dans
la vie.
- Tristan Tzara (1924: 70)
To revolt against life! But there is only one wonderful remedy: suicide.
- Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes (in Motherwell ed. 1989: 105)

Commenting on the history of suicide, Brown tells us that from Plato and Socrates
onwards, and in pursuit of its time-honoured concern for questions of life and death,
philosophy has mediated suicides meanings in parallel with th[e] creative process
(2001: 8). Browns remarks highlight the radically different attitude to death and
suicide (ibid.: 15) around World War I, coinciding perfectly with Dada and initiating a
series of questions around crises of identity that the present thesis has sought to
address. On questioning, then, the extent to which Dada represented a suicidal
attempt of a movement that opposed society, life, and everything that surrounded it,
the problem arises of the conflict between physical suicide, philosophical suicide, and
artistic suicide.
Brown underlines the fundamental difference between suicide itself and
destructive behaviour (ibid.: 9). Though it was never the intention in this thesis to
prove Dada to be a manifestation of suicide proper, it remains useful to make this
distinction when considering actual Dada suicides (Vach, Crevel, Rigaut), and
especially when these three men were singled out and re-labelled trois hros
surralistes (Crastre 1947: 6-7, emphasis own). Despite the undeniable relevance of
suicide to Dada, the fact that these deaths have been claimed by the Surrealist
~66~

canon
39
by necessity removes them from the present point of inquiry. Beyond a
surface-level preoccupation with death, unsurprising in a war-torn society where
death was being systematically put under control and the dying removed from sight
(Brown 2001: 202), it is more useful here to consider instead Dadas destructive
behaviour. Thus we can trace Dadas desire to destroy the institution of art, in order
to live on in an altered and preferable paradigm, and that because art as an
institution proves indestructible, Dada takes the opposite ploy of turning everything
into art (Pegrum 2000: 224).
The closest we come to physical suicide within the present thesis is the
manifestations of destructive behaviour in Chapter Ones assessment of Dadas self-
image, of tearing up expectations, shattering reflections and creating anew from the
scattered shards. Dadas fragmented self-image also exposes its decentred core. In
pointing out that Dada is located far from the centre of society as well as possessing
no unified centre of its own, Pegrum pushes Dadas decentred state further, claiming
it also to be decentring[,] since Dada is extremely active in attempting to undermine
all that is centred in Western society (2000: 116). As a physical face, Dadas self-
image is a front, behind which are only more faces. In satirically reflecting the very
world it opposed, Dada broke the cycle of reckless progress, developing as an image
to be seen and as a nihilistic critique of society:
In an artistic sense, the Dadaists acted out the stupidity and violence of modern
warfare, and gave expression to the contemporary mood of futility, in an art
which was all about the worthlessness and the psychotic nature of self. (Brown
2001: 202)

39
And actively expressed in texts such as Agence gnrale du suicide (in Rigaut 1970: 39-40) and the
first issue of La Rvolution surraliste (1924 in Bhar 2009).
~67~

If we then turn to philosophical suicide, we can see that by referring to Camuss

work on death and suicide (see Le Mythe de Sisyphe, 1942 in 2006: 217-315),
suicide is not the answer to the absurd: [p]ourquoi se tuer, quitter ce monde aprs
avoir conquis la libert? (ibid.: 293). Surmising that Dada embraced the absurd in
life, like existentialism, Dada has the appearance of standing on the brink of suicide,
yet the innate optimism of both movements precludes actual suicide. Expanding on
Camuss representation of his protagonist, and his concluding statement that Il faut
imaginer Sisyphe heureux (ibid.: 304), we find echoes of Georges Ribemont-
Dessaigness manifesto Les Plaisirs de Dada, and the conclusion, amid Dadas
destructiveness and embracing of meaninglessness and after a long and often
nonsensical list of aimless pleasures that Dada est trs content (in L13: 10-11).
When considering the Dada reviews we saw Dadas personality begin to
develop its more theoretical, even philosophical side. The fragmented nature that we
saw in our explorations of self-image is carried through into self-awareness, but with
an added temporal detachment. In Chapter Two this was discussed in relation to
J amesons schizophrenic, who lives without past or future, yet experiences a much
more intense version of the world. Additionally, the second chapter aligned this state
with Deleuzes theory of becoming. Dadas evolution comprises a plethora of short,
intense bursts of activity in a multitude of locations: never fixed and always
embracing contradiction, it offers questions instead of solutions, constantly evolving
but never being. We can see this as philosophically self-destructive in the way that it
insists on cutting itself short of any ideological fixity. When combined with multi-
sensory frozen delay and time made material, as we saw with Duchamps delay in
glass and the flurry of repeated activity to no particular end in Richters
~68~

Vormittagsspuk (and trapped within the cinematic frame), we are left with a feeling
reminiscent of Tzaras morceaux de dure verte [qui] voltigent dans ma chambre
(1918: 28); a return to a synaesthetic cross-wired perception. A key factor in the
development of Dadas self-awareness is the increased willingness to embrace the
reactions and interactions of others. Where the self-image stage consistently hinted
at introversion and rejection, the self-awareness stage invites audience participation
(Avec vous on peut samuser).
The short lifespan of the movement is certainly reminiscent of artistic suicide.
Dadas preoccupation with its own death, and the death surrounding it, lends its self-
prophesied demise a feeling of deliberate self-effacement, as we saw in Chapter
One, through Dadas destructive behaviour and, in Chapter Two, through its self-
kleptomania. These tendencies, along with Blosches theory that Dada will survive
only by ceasing to exist (in Richter 1965: 192), give us a tension between the
perceived aims of Dadas actions: was this a deliberate attempt to kill art by killing
itself? In this way we come to the contradictory conclusion that Dada was an attempt
at philosophical or artistic suicide, based on its behaviour, but that it simultaneously
was not, through its efforts to provide a creative way out of a stifling situation. To a
certain extent, then, Dada pushed the art world to its breaking point, then offered
itself up as a sacrifice in order to force a new outlook, a new way of thinking, a new
attitude, a new ethos both in the world of men and in the world of objects, both in art
and in thought (Haftmann in Richter 1965: 192).
In Chapter Three, we saw that Dada created, based on the core of its
personality as discussed in Chapters One and Two, a wide network of adherents and
influences, making the movement at home simultaneously everywhere and nowhere.
~69~

When married with the attempt to leave while it was at maximum effect, this gives the
impression of an inherent desire to leave a lasting impression, both in the art world
and in the realm of (alternative) identity formation. Through Chapter Three we can
see that although Dada manifested many suicidal aspects, its self-reflection indicates
more strongly a desire for change. Furthermore, Dadas intense awareness of its own
nihilism gives way to a conscious destruction, negating the possibility of artistic
suicide since [o]n se suicide rarement [] par rflexion (Camus 2006: 222).
Where we compared Dadas self-awareness to J amesons perpetual present as
a timeless self-perpetuation, Hugnet links the movements timelessness to its
persistent relevance and thus its legacy: Dada is always a thing of the present,
hence its posthumous activity (in Motherwell ed. 1989: 127). As a movement
simultaneously seen to be complete and to have left an all-permeating legacy, the
critic is left in an interesting position regarding Dadas status in the realm of ideas of
the self. Sanouillet (who knew several of the Dadas) argues the case of temporal
distance being essential to the critics assessment of the movement, comparing it to
a psychological trauma whose symptoms may have a delayed onset (2005: 361).
Chapter Threes assessment of the contributing branches and temporal development
of the movement mirrors this diagnosis, providing numerous cases for symptoms of,
or stressors leading to, a mental illness. In addition to the role of the critic, the Dadas
own post-(traumatic)reflection on the movement gives us another counter to the
labelling of Dada as artistic suicide, in that involvement with the movement is mostly
seen and expressed in a positive light, and that [a]side from a few, mostly marginal
nihilistic figures, the Dadaists attack existing structures in such a way as to facilitate
change (Pegrum 2000: 194).
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Despite the negative undertones of the movement and its reception, and the
destructive persona it may have embodied, Dada was an intensely creative being. Its
negativity lies in an opposition to the world surrounding it, and the resultant desire to
detach itself from the past, in order to start afresh. Tzara argued that old work only
remained useful as a novelty: [o]nly contrast links us to the past (in J akobson 1987:
39). Therefore although it gave many signs of a suicidal nature, it cannot be argued
that it was entirely self-destructive. Rather, its constant insistence on tabula rasa
sprang from a desire to find an alternative way, and in the case of this thesis, a
different approach to identity formation.
[T]he Dadaists destructive, rebellious act is not nihilistic, but has a positive
counterpart: incomprehensibility is a refuge, and the refusal to use societys
communicational codes brings an isolation and detachment which, for Ball, lead
to a deeper self-knowledge, untarnished by the need to compromise with social
values (Peterson ed. 2001: 203).

By its very nature, Dada does not offer an explicit idea of what this alternative may
be, but in this way increases individual freedom of choice by leaving the options
open. Additionally the possibility arises that artistic suicide and alternative identity are
not mutually exclusive, much as Sartre links emotions such as anger and joy, which
ne diffrent que par lintensit (1948: 2). Perhaps the closest idea we have to this
proposed alternative identity is the advocacy of a composite identity, formed from
reality fragments (Brger 1984: 72). The embracing of montage is a particularly
appropriate technique for proposing an alternative to the real world, while remaining
aware of, and often emphasising, the fault lines within its own planes. As Haftmann
states,Dada led to a new image of the artist. [] Dada stood for a new vision of
humanity! (in Richter 1965: 218-9). Whether this image is composite, or simply
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infinitely interpretable, Dadas suicidal creativity led to the possibility of an expressive

alternative to the stultifying rigidity of socially imposed identity formation.

~72~

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Translated from the German by Ann Raimes.

BAUDRILLARD, J ean (1990), La Transparence du mal: essai sur les
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Modern Art, 1909-1923. London; Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press.
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KUENZLI, Rudolf E. and NAUMANN, Francis eds. (1989), Marcel Duchamp: Artist
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SAWELSON-GORSE, Naomi ed. (1999), Women in Dada: Essays on Sex,

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J ournals
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DICKERMAN, Leah ed. (2003), Dada: a Special Issue. October, Vol. 105 (Summer):
pp. 1-181. In particular from this issue:
DICKERMAN, Leah, Dada Gambits (pp. 4-12)
DEMOS, T.J ., Circulations: In and Around Zurich Dada (pp. 147-158).
BAKER, George, Entracte (pp. 159-163).
MOLESWORTH, Helen, From Dada to Neo-Dada and Back Again (pp. 177-181).

DOHERTY, Brigid (1997), See: We are All Neurasthenics! or, the Trauma of Dada
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Surrealist J ournals in the Mary Reynolds Collection. Art Institute of Chicago
Museum Studies, Vol. 22 (2): pp. 130-149+197.
PREVOTS, Naima (1985), Zurich Dada and Dance: Formative Ferment. Dance
Research Journal, Vol. 17 (1): pp. 3-8.
WASSERMAN, Burton (1966), Remember Dada? Today we call him Pop. Art
Education, Vol. 19 (5): pp. 12-16.

Theses
DICKER, Barnaby (2010), Cinematic Atavism, Graphic Proteanism. Visibly
Frame-Based Cinematography: Practice, Theory, History. Unpublished PhD
thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London.
HAGE, Emily (2005), New York and European Dada art journals 1916-1926:
international venues of exchange. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of
Pennsylvania.

Internet Resources
BHAR, Sophie (2009) La Rvolution surraliste.
http://melusine.univ-paris3.fr/Revolution_surrealiste/Revol_surr_index.htm
[Digital copies of journal. Last accessed 15.09.2011]
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Original journal edited by Pierre Naville and Benjamin Pret (issues 1-3); Andr
Breton (4-12). In this thesis: issue 1 (December 1924)
International Dada archive: Digital Dada Collection.
http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/collection.html
[last accessed 09.09.2011]
Cabaret Voltaire. Edited by Hugo Ball, Zurich, 1916, 1 issue, 32 pp.

Dada. Edited by Tristan Tzara. Zurich: J ulius Heuberger, J uly 1917-September
1921, 8 issues. In this thesis: issues 1 (J uly 1917), 16 pp.; 2 (December 1917),
22 pp.; 3 (December 1918), 16 pp.; 4-5/Anthologie Dada (May 1919), 32 pp.

Littrature. Edited by Louis Aragon, Andr Breton and Philippe Soupault. Paris:
Au Sans Pareil (March 1919-J une 1924), 20 issues in first series. In this thesis:
issue 13 (May 1920), 24 pp.
KINSEY, Beth (2011), Plumeria Obtusa.
http://wildlifeofhawaii.com/flowers/1298/plumeria-obtusa-singapore-plumeria/
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http://www.iep.utm.edu/deleuze/
[accessed 30.05.2011]
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http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/bai/shipe.htm
[accessed 21.05.2011]
TATE GALLERY (2005), Expressionism.
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/
[accessed 30.11.2011]

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Film
Cinma Dada. (2005) Re:voir Vido et Editions du Centre Pompidou, ADAGP,
Cecile Starr: Paris.
Emak Bakia. (1926) Man Ray, 35mm, b/w, 17 minutes.

Vormittagsspuk (Ghosts Before Breakfast). (1927) Hans Richter, 35mm,
b/w, 6 minutes.