DADA
The creation of dadaism formed at the beginning of WWI as an angry reaction to the violence and tragedy that the war brought. It rejected reason as a political protest and to break away from societal norms to create change. In the “Dada Manifesto” Tristan Tzara, one of the leaders of the Dada movement, illustrates that Dada is not just a genre of art but a way of thinking. Dada artists create an entirely new world because this world is not the way it is supposed to be.
Dada is random, even the name itself was randomly picked out of the germen dictionary. This was to fight the bourgeois mentality of trying to decipher, understand, and assign meaning to everything, therefor dadaism has no meaning. The point of Dada is that there is no point, which ironically makes it anti-dada. Tzara argues that logic is always wrong as it leads to WWI. By seeing art as meaningless, the artists were able to use it as a tool for self-purification. It makes fun of media culture, consumerism, authority, and the war as it challenges people to break away from what is socially constructed and step into a new world that is authentic. Dada is freedom. There is no need to make sense of things, and to explain one’s self. The artist is freed, no longer needing to paint, draw, or sculpt because it is not about the art, time, skill, or technique but the concept. The “art” becomes the conversation the viewer has with the piece and the people around them.
The “Dada Manifesto” is significant because it challenged art in the way it is created and how art is viewed. Dada rebelled against traditional art which made way for new art to be created. Even today, people are still challenged on how they view art and what art is when viewers see Duchamp’s readymade, “Foutain.” Dada is a reminder that just because authority tells us something does not mean it is correct or that we have to listen because at the end of the day they are just words. During this pandemic, I find comfort in the Dada movement as it is freeing to see something chaotic, random, and other-worldly. Dada was a way to process the war, grief, and death so maybe it can help us now to do the same thing. The world does not make sense so why should art? Tzara makes the point that only the artist can fight against the larger bodies of power (government, religion, nationalism, etc.) because visual arts express ideas, emotions, and messages in a matter of seconds. Artists have the power to challenge the way people think which leads to change. Tzara’s argument is persuasive because he points out that everyone is an individual with their own “Ideal, knowledge, boomboom,” and when art is conceptual it taps into that individuality by creating a conversation. Tzara’s Manifesto was written for artists but Dada art is for everyone. I would highly recommend people learn about Dada, especially during this pandemic. Dada is so many things and nothing at all. It perfectly does not make sense and I think that is what I love about it. Dada art would challenge ideas, encourage people to think as individuals and give people a place to feel the freedom of no explanations. After exposure to Dada, I would then recommend reading the “Dada manifesto” simply because Tzara does have a round-a-bout way of writing which is a combination of nonsense and brilliance.
Tzara does have biases in his writing as he is one of the main leaders of Dada so, of course, he wants to shine a light on their movement and cause. He is against war, consumerism, government, unity, alliances, nationalism, imperialism, logic (things that lead to the war), and more. Tzara focuses on the value of being individual. To him, beauty is dead because it can not be objective. The way Tzara views this world is very clear in his writing and they are in line with the Dada views. He uses primary sources such as artist Duchamp and artist Cezanne as examples of what dada is and is not.
The “Manifesto of Futurism” came before the “Dada Manifesto,” therefore impacting how it developed. They both had the goal of changing the world and social ordering but went about it in very different ways. The “Manifesto of Futurism” and the “Dada Manifesto” conflict in ideas as Futurism embraces danger and violence, glorifying was, where Dada does not. Futurism wanted to destroy libraries, colleges, and histories, whereas Dada wanted to destroy old lines of thinking, to create a better path. Many of the readings we have done so far put the artist at the center of creating change and being the voice for the working class and powerless.