DADAGLOBE RECOSTRUCTED
Kunsthaus Zürich
Keimplats 1 - Zürich
5/2/2016 - 1/2/2016
From 5 February to 1 May 2016, the
Kunsthaus Zürich presents ‘Dadaglobe Reconstructed’. The exhibition brings
together some 200 works and texts submitted to Tristan Tzara by more than 40
artists from all over the world for his 1921 book project ‘Dadaglobe,’ which
remained unpublished at the time. Now, to mark 100 years since the foundation of
Dada, the widely dispersed original works are reunited for the first time.
For the first time ever – and uniquely in Europe – the Kunsthaus Zürich
presents a reconstruction of perhaps the most intriguing and legendary Dada book
project – a volume that was never published. If the ‘Dadaglobe’ anthology had
come to fruition in 1921, it would unquestionably be seen today as one of the
most ambitious publications of the Dada movement.
With contributions by
artists and writers from seven countries, many of whom created new works for his
publication, co-founder of Dada and originator of the ‘Dadaglobe’ project
Tristan Tzara (1896-1963) set out to present the apotheosis of Dada as a
literary and artistic movement of international scope and to document it for
posterity.
‘Dadaglobe’ was envisaged as a paean to the work of art in
reproduction; but financial and organizational difficulties meant that the book
never saw the light of day.
The result is a void where a magnum opus should
be – at the heart of Dada’s reception and the artistic production of the
avant-garde in general.
Now, a hundred years after the foundation of Dada,
an exhibition and a comprehensive publication aim to fill that void. ‘Dadaglobe
Reconstructed’ turns the analytical spotlight on this notoriously restless and
virtually unclassifiable art movement.
It writes a fundamental, hitherto
missing chapter in the history of modernism, in which Tzara’s Dada legacy shapes
the vocabulary of artistic discourse.
‘Dadaglobe Reconstructed’ is a
remarkable survey of the artistic diversity, sociopolitical relevance and
art-historical impact of the Dada movement, with contributions from Hans Arp,
André Breton, Max Ernst, Hannah Höch, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and around 30 other
artists.
Their goal was not simply to make mischief: through a provocative,
guerrilla art aimed squarely at the establishment, they drew attention to the
brutal social upheavals of the First World War.
The exhibition comprises
some 200 small-format works on paper. They include photographs, drawings,
photomontages and collages as well as a series of selected lyrical and prose
works, manuscripts, printed matter and historically relevant documents. Many
come from prestigious public and private collections in Berlin, New York, and
Paris.
Especially remarkable are the treasures of the Bibliothèque
littéraire Jacques Doucet, Paris, which account for approximately a quarter of
the loans that New York-based guest curator and project initiator Adrian
Sudhalter has assembled, researched and, working with Kunsthaus curator
Cathérine Hug, arranged into a dense cabinet exhibition.
‘Dadaglobe
Reconstructed’ will travel to the The Museum of Modern Art exhibition, where it
will be on view from 12 June to 18 September 2016 in New York.
The
catalogue in German and English is published by Scheidegger & Spiess. It
contains an overarching scholarly essay by Adrian Sudhalter and a reconstruction
of Tzara’s book project that follows his instructions as faithfully as possible.
It is prefaced by Michel Sanouillet and includes contributions by Cathérine
Hug, Samantha Friedman, Lee Ann Daffner and Karl Buchberg that explore the
social and artistic accomplishment of the uncompleted ‘Dadaglobe’ project.
Over some 300 pages, with 170 colour illustrations and 100 black and white
reproductions, it also includes documents upon which the reconstruction is
based: Tzara’s lists and notes, correspondence, and manuscripts that were
exchanged between the artists.
This exhibition is part of an extensive
programme at the Kunsthaus Zürich to mark 100 years of Dada: ‘Dadaglobe
Reconstructed’ (5 February – 1 May 2016), ‘Francis Picabia – A Retrospective’ (3
June – 25 September 2016), the Dada costume ball (13 February 2016) and the
digitization of the Kunsthaus’s Dada collection.
Image: Portrait of
Tristan Tzara, 1920
