0:00:02.719,0:00:05.120
Dada...

0:00:05.120,0:00:06.960
Dada.

0:00:06.960,0:00:10.560
Some words seize the imagination and draw you in,

0:00:10.560,0:00:12.640
inviting you to delve deeper.

0:00:13.920,0:00:17.800
For me, Dada is just one of those words.

0:00:17.800,0:00:21.880
An idea, a call to arms and a way of thinking.

0:00:24.160,0:00:26.480
OK, ready, here we go.

0:00:26.480,0:00:28.400
We're going to embark on a journey.

0:00:28.400,0:00:30.680
I'm going to take you, dear viewer, to a place where

0:00:30.680,0:00:33.120
no television programme has ever been before, but...

0:00:33.120,0:00:37.120
No, what I am going to do is try and persuade you that Dada is

0:00:37.120,0:00:40.960
much, much more than an obscure art movement with a funny name.

0:00:40.960,0:00:42.360
Oh, yes.

0:00:43.360,0:00:47.080
100 years ago, in the midst of a nonsensical war,

0:00:47.080,0:00:49.960
Dada made an art out of the absurd.

0:00:51.840,0:00:54.520
Mocking politicians,

0:00:54.520,0:00:56.800
satirising the media,

0:00:56.800,0:00:59.480
and ridiculing centuries of culture,

0:00:59.480,0:01:03.360
Dada created a new way of looking at the world.

0:01:03.360,0:01:06.120
Sometimes shocking, often anarchic,

0:01:06.120,0:01:11.080
and always difficult to define, its legacy would span a century.

0:01:11.080,0:01:14.920
Dada's tentacles have spread right across our culture,

0:01:14.920,0:01:17.120
from punk

0:01:17.120,0:01:18.760
to the Pythons

0:01:18.760,0:01:20.400
and from Damien Hirst

0:01:20.400,0:01:22.400
to David Bowie.

0:01:22.400,0:01:26.120
The world has gone gaga for Dada.

0:01:26.120,0:01:28.000
Do you want me to shout "Dada" now?

0:01:28.000,0:01:29.280
No.

0:01:29.280,0:01:30.560
Everybody's heard of Dada,

0:01:30.560,0:01:33.320
but no-one seems to know exactly what it is.

0:01:33.320,0:01:35.920
Dada takes delight in contradiction.

0:01:35.920,0:01:40.120
So, to help me pin it down, I've enlisted the help of a few friends.

0:01:40.120,0:01:41.280
Dada!

0:01:41.280,0:01:43.280
Daaaaaaaa-daaaaaaa!

0:01:43.280,0:01:45.800
Da-da, Da-da, Da-da-da.

0:01:45.800,0:01:48.120
Da! Da!

0:01:48.120,0:01:53.960
And, with their assistance, I'll be recreating some Dada performances,

0:01:53.960,0:01:56.080
destroying some artworks,

0:01:56.080,0:01:59.120
and pulling some mischievous stunts.

0:01:59.120,0:02:01.520
There's my Dadaist act for the day.

0:02:01.520,0:02:06.440
And all of this to establish why, out of all the isms, movements and

0:02:06.440,0:02:08.639
manifestos of the 20th century,

0:02:08.639,0:02:12.320
it was the Dadaists who proved the most important,

0:02:12.320,0:02:14.760
giving birth not only to a lot of modern art,

0:02:14.760,0:02:19.840
but also shaping comedy, music and political protest.

0:02:19.840,0:02:24.240
MUSIC: Da Da Da by Trio

0:02:28.520,0:02:30.760
LAIDBACK RUSTIC MUSIC PLAYS

0:02:34.840,0:02:38.760
I first came across Dada at art school in the early '80s.

0:02:38.760,0:02:41.560
It was funnier and more anarchic than anything else I'd

0:02:41.560,0:02:45.320
discovered and it didn't always have to make sense.

0:02:45.320,0:02:49.320
I soon embarked on nonsensical performances of my own.

0:02:52.000,0:02:54.560
I did a performance called I, Kestrel,

0:02:54.560,0:02:59.320
where I dropped potatoes from out of a cardboard box.

0:02:59.320,0:03:03.360
I was in a band that had no name, but we smelt of curry.

0:03:03.360,0:03:06.840
It emerged from flasks at the side of the stage.

0:03:08.320,0:03:11.920
Some people have called some of my performances Dada-esque, and they've

0:03:11.920,0:03:15.840
certainly always flown in the face of logic, leading me to think...

0:03:15.840,0:03:20.040
have I've been subconsciously influenced? Hmmm.

0:03:20.040,0:03:21.680
Maybe.

0:03:26.880,0:03:29.320
- Hmmm.[br]- Hmmmmm.

0:03:32.880,0:03:35.840
But where did all this Dadaism begin?

0:03:39.160,0:03:41.240
Que es Dada?

0:03:43.960,0:03:48.320
Dada - a word chosen at random from a French-German dictionary.

0:03:48.320,0:03:50.760
"Yes, yes," in Romanian.

0:03:53.160,0:03:55.400
A hobby horse in French.

0:03:57.560,0:04:03.440
Whatever the case, it all began 100 years ago in an unlikely place.

0:04:03.440,0:04:05.280
CUCKOO!

0:04:05.280,0:04:07.080
It wasn't in Berlin

0:04:07.080,0:04:08.720
or Paris,

0:04:08.720,0:04:13.440
or any of your usual hotbeds of Bohemian outrage. No.

0:04:13.440,0:04:16.839
The first artists to scare the hell out of the Establishment

0:04:16.839,0:04:20.959
launched their revolution here in, of all places, Zurich.

0:04:22.040,0:04:23.920
SWISS YODELLING SONG PLAYS

0:04:27.640,0:04:29.400
When you think of Zurich,

0:04:29.400,0:04:32.680
the last thing you think about is a radical, anarchic art movement.

0:04:32.680,0:04:35.680
What you might think about is cheese, clocks,

0:04:35.680,0:04:37.480
or Swiss Army knives.

0:04:37.480,0:04:39.240
But radical art movements? No.

0:04:39.240,0:04:41.840
But it was exactly that "There's nothing to see here"

0:04:41.840,0:04:46.400
reputation, that staying in neutral whilst their neighbours were all

0:04:46.400,0:04:51.880
fighting to the death that made Zurich the breeding ground for Dada.

0:04:57.520,0:05:03.680
In 1916, Europe was tearing itself apart, and some wanted

0:05:03.680,0:05:07.640
no further part in the madness and destruction they saw around them.

0:05:10.320,0:05:14.240
Amidst the violence and upheaval of the First World War, artists, poets

0:05:14.240,0:05:17.840
and freethinkers from both sides of the conflict gathered here in

0:05:17.840,0:05:21.040
Zurich to avoid the horrors of the battlefront.

0:05:21.040,0:05:23.200
MUSIC: Boogie Stop Shuffle by Charles Mingus

0:05:23.200,0:05:25.880
It was a city of exiles, and among them a group of unlikely

0:05:25.880,0:05:30.520
revolutionaries formed a bizarre protest movement - Dada.

0:05:30.520,0:05:33.800
In a world where governments created carnage and the normal order

0:05:33.800,0:05:37.320
had become nonsensical, the Dadaists felt the only appropriate

0:05:37.320,0:05:41.520
artistic response was to be truly and deliberately absurd.

0:05:43.800,0:05:46.760
And like all the best world-changing movements,

0:05:46.760,0:05:50.400
Dada began here in a dirty, dingy underground drinking hole.

0:05:55.480,0:05:58.880
With nothing more than the humble dream of selling extra

0:05:58.880,0:06:03.680
sausages and beer, the proprietor of this place sanctioned a cabaret.

0:06:03.680,0:06:07.080
Little did he know what he was letting himself in for.

0:06:08.160,0:06:12.760
The Cabaret Voltaire, still here 100 years on, kick-started

0:06:12.760,0:06:16.640
a movement that would wreak havoc across Europe and beyond.

0:06:17.720,0:06:20.720
- So, welcome, Jim, to Cabaret Voltaire...[br]- Thank you, Adrian.

0:06:20.720,0:06:23.760
- ..the birthplace of Dada.[br]- Cheers.

0:06:23.760,0:06:27.440
So, how did the Cabaret Voltaire start here, then?

0:06:27.440,0:06:31.360
Hugo Ball, who was a writer and a director in the theatre in Munich,

0:06:31.360,0:06:35.240
and Emmy Hennings who was a singer in cafes and bars,

0:06:35.240,0:06:38.640
they came here in 1915 and they were hired in

0:06:38.640,0:06:42.120
a cabaret just down the street, and after a while they thought,

0:06:42.120,0:06:44.960
"We should have our own cabaret."

0:06:44.960,0:06:47.560
They send out an invitation to artists.

0:06:47.560,0:06:49.640
Was there any kind of direction,

0:06:49.640,0:06:51.720
or it was just "Do whatever you want to do?"

0:06:51.720,0:06:53.680
Today, one would say it was an open stage.

0:06:53.680,0:06:55.880
- A free-for-all. [br]- Yeah, free-for-all.[br]- Yeah.

0:06:55.880,0:06:58.440
So, the Dadaists mobilised themselves for war,

0:06:58.440,0:07:01.360
but theirs was a battle against reason itself.

0:07:01.360,0:07:03.040
BRAIN WHIMPERS LIKE A DOG

0:07:03.040,0:07:05.840
Hugo Ball appeared in a bizarre bishop's outfit.

0:07:08.920,0:07:13.120
Romanian poet Tristan Tzara cast a Maori tribal spell.

0:07:15.280,0:07:18.520
Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber improvised a dance, wearing

0:07:18.520,0:07:20.920
a cardboard mask.

0:07:20.920,0:07:24.240
And a dozen balalaika players turned up.

0:07:24.240,0:07:29.240
The German poet Richard Huelsenbeck snapped a riding whip, shouting...

0:07:33.320,0:07:36.360
..and was joined by Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco to perform

0:07:36.360,0:07:39.280
in German, English and French all at the same time.

0:07:43.240,0:07:44.880
Sounds like a great show.

0:07:44.880,0:07:47.640
But a bit of a shock for the locals.

0:07:47.640,0:07:50.280
What sort of people did they attract in here, then?

0:07:50.280,0:07:54.000
- People who come to drink beer and eat sausages and...[br]- And absinthe.

0:07:54.000,0:07:55.880
- ..and absinthe, yeah.[br]- Yeah.

0:07:55.880,0:07:59.840
And they didn't come to see somebody talking about art or reciting poems.

0:07:59.840,0:08:03.320
- Yeah.[br]- Basically they had to be better than the absinthe

0:08:03.320,0:08:05.520
or better than beer and sausages.

0:08:05.520,0:08:08.080
This really reminds me of where I started off.

0:08:08.080,0:08:11.920
- I started off in a pub in Southeast London...[br]- Yeah.

0:08:11.920,0:08:14.720
..which was about the same size as this, the same layout,

0:08:14.720,0:08:16.560
and it was the same kind of thing.

0:08:16.560,0:08:20.400
- I used to get people out of the audience...[br]- Yeah.[br]- ..and say, "Do you want to do something?"

0:08:20.400,0:08:23.200
And it'd be a different show every week, and it was just, like,

0:08:23.200,0:08:25.560
strangely so similar.

0:08:25.560,0:08:28.840
So, did you have some absinthe at that time, maybe, and that's why...?

0:08:28.840,0:08:31.640
- Didn't have absinth, no. We just had lager.[br]- Lager.

0:08:31.640,0:08:33.520
THEY LAUGH

0:08:33.520,0:08:37.000
For Hugo Ball, language had been hijacked by the warmongers

0:08:37.000,0:08:40.120
who twisted words to justify their violent acts,

0:08:40.120,0:08:44.200
so out went words and in came some unusual poetry.

0:08:44.200,0:08:47.640
A lot of these words, they're made up, aren't they?

0:08:47.640,0:08:51.680
- Bloiko - I could say that in my accent. Bloiko.[br]- Bloiko.

0:08:51.680,0:08:53.360
That's nice, yeah.

0:08:53.360,0:08:58.240
- Ogrogoooo. What is it, the umlaut? There's an umlaut.[br]- Ogrogoooo.

0:08:58.240,0:08:59.960
- Ogrogoooo.[br]- Ogrogoooo.

0:08:59.960,0:09:01.760
What's this? Bulomen.

0:09:01.760,0:09:04.040
I think you can probably get that in a face cream.

0:09:04.040,0:09:06.080
ADRIAN LAUGHS

0:09:06.080,0:09:08.680
Some of those words may feel a bit familiar.

0:09:08.680,0:09:10.640
Uvavu.

0:09:10.640,0:09:13.920
Well, look, the audience is in and we're ruining it for them,

0:09:13.920,0:09:17.000
really, by still being here, so we should make a dramatic entrance...

0:09:17.000,0:09:19.560
- Yes.[br]- ..very soon.

0:09:19.560,0:09:23.160
'Tonight I'm going to be re-staging one of the founding moments

0:09:23.160,0:09:27.120
'in the history of Dada, here at its birthplace.

0:09:27.120,0:09:29.560
'For Hugo ball's most iconic performance,

0:09:29.560,0:09:32.360
'he wore his most outlandish outfit.'

0:09:33.360,0:09:37.520
So we'll try and fit Jim into Hugo's costume.

0:09:37.520,0:09:39.520
JIM LAUGHS

0:09:39.520,0:09:42.360
- Pull it off.[br]- OK.

0:09:42.360,0:09:44.720
You misjudged my bulk.

0:09:47.160,0:09:49.920
'There's a few serious faces in the audience.

0:09:49.920,0:09:53.480
'God knows what they're going to make of my transformation into Hugo Ball.'

0:09:53.480,0:09:55.800
How's that?

0:09:55.800,0:09:58.040
- The words don't make any sense. [br]- I know.

0:09:58.040,0:10:00.720
- LAUGHTER [br]- There's only one word.

0:10:00.720,0:10:02.880
- Don't try and understand, just... [br]- I'm not going to.

0:10:02.880,0:10:07.000
- ..go with the flow.[br]- Right, start, because my specs are falling off my nose with the sweat.

0:10:07.000,0:10:09.680
Thanks. LAUGHTER

0:10:09.680,0:10:16.400
Gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori.

0:10:16.400,0:10:22.400
Gadjama tuffm i zimzalla binban gligla wowolimai bin beri ban.

0:10:24.440,0:10:30.000
Elifantolim brussala bulomen brussala bulomen tromtata.

0:10:31.040,0:10:35.960
Velo da bang band affalo purzamai affalo purzamai lengado tor.

0:10:37.000,0:10:38.960
LAUGHTER

0:10:38.960,0:10:40.680
I'm getting lost.

0:10:40.680,0:10:43.240
Gaga di bumbalo bumbalo gadjamen.

0:10:43.240,0:10:45.640
Gaga di bling blong.

0:10:45.640,0:10:47.960
Gaga blung.

0:10:47.960,0:10:51.360
APPLAUSE

0:10:53.880,0:10:55.680
I'm collapsing.

0:10:56.760,0:10:59.920
Take this off. LAUGHTER

0:10:59.920,0:11:02.480
Thank you. And there we are.

0:11:02.480,0:11:03.840
Um...

0:11:03.840,0:11:06.480
What was that? LAUGHTER

0:11:06.480,0:11:09.200
APPLAUSE

0:11:13.560,0:11:15.560
- His outfit was ridiculous.[br]- Yeah.

0:11:15.560,0:11:17.440
JIM LAUGHS

0:11:17.440,0:11:19.400
- I'm not knocking it at all.[br]- OK.

0:11:19.400,0:11:20.600
Oh, I'm right on it.

0:11:20.600,0:11:24.280
If he's there, doing his poetry in his magic bishop's costume,

0:11:24.280,0:11:29.000
he's already got a congregation, so he's begun a religion.

0:11:29.000,0:11:32.960
Yeah. And so that's why all these people come here, like a pilgrimage.

0:11:32.960,0:11:35.600
- And what a great shrine.[br]- Yeah. [br]- What a fantastic place.

0:11:35.600,0:11:41.160
- If you've got to have a religion, I'm going to be in here.[br]- Yeah.

0:11:41.160,0:11:46.880
'Hugo Ball wrote that, "Everyone has been seized by an indefinable intoxication.

0:11:46.880,0:11:50.080
' "The little cabaret is about to come apart at the seams and is

0:11:50.080,0:11:53.800
' "getting to be a playground for crazy emotions." '

0:11:53.800,0:11:56.520
Are you following me?

0:11:56.520,0:11:59.840
Just five months after it opened, the cabaret closed,

0:11:59.840,0:12:03.560
but Dada was just beginning.

0:12:03.560,0:12:07.040
In July 1916, Hugo Ball delivered the first in

0:12:07.040,0:12:12.160
a series of speeches announcing the Dada Manifestos.

0:12:12.160,0:12:15.720
These speeches parodied the more grandiose written manifestos

0:12:15.720,0:12:17.600
of the time.

0:12:17.600,0:12:23.560
Dada is a new tendency in art. How does one achieve eternal bliss?

0:12:23.560,0:12:25.560
By saying Dada.

0:12:25.560,0:12:29.520
How does one become famous? By saying Dada.

0:12:29.520,0:12:34.000
A line of poetry is a chance to get rid of all the filth that

0:12:34.000,0:12:37.600
clings to this accursed language,

0:12:37.600,0:12:41.280
as if put there by a stockbroker's hands,

0:12:41.280,0:12:44.960
hands wrought smooth by coins.

0:12:44.960,0:12:47.560
Dada is the heart of words.

0:12:48.680,0:12:50.640
So, what were they doing?

0:12:50.640,0:12:53.400
Let's say, with the poetry, the meaningless, pointless,

0:12:53.400,0:12:55.680
senseless words within the poetry,

0:12:55.680,0:12:58.720
was it a reaction against the meaningless, senseless,

0:12:58.720,0:13:01.280
pointless war that was surrounding them?

0:13:01.280,0:13:04.560
Or were they just trying out something new and having fun with it?

0:13:04.560,0:13:06.240
I don't know.

0:13:06.240,0:13:09.040
Do you know?

0:13:10.320,0:13:13.160
In neighbouring Germany, life was becoming increasingly

0:13:13.160,0:13:15.560
desperate as the war drew to a close,

0:13:15.560,0:13:19.160
and nowhere was this more so than in Berlin.

0:13:19.160,0:13:22.680
This devastated city would provide the setting for Dada's new

0:13:22.680,0:13:27.920
incarnation as the German poet Richard Huelsenbeck returned home from Zurich.

0:13:31.480,0:13:34.560
Richard Huelsenbeck wound up the crowd,

0:13:34.560,0:13:37.680
claiming the Zurich Dadaists were pro-war.

0:13:37.680,0:13:41.000
"And Dadaism is still pro-war today.

0:13:41.000,0:13:44.160
"Things are still not cruel enough."

0:13:44.160,0:13:49.920
In Berlin, Club Dada would unleash a fiercely political rage.

0:13:49.920,0:13:53.240
The First International Dada Fair shook Berlin with its

0:13:53.240,0:13:56.600
shocking satire of the German Establishment.

0:13:56.600,0:13:59.440
And it didn't just tease the Establishment -

0:13:59.440,0:14:02.120
it mercilessly mocked the powers that be.

0:14:02.120,0:14:05.320
John Heartfield hung a dummy from the ceiling dressed in German

0:14:05.320,0:14:08.960
military uniform and with a pig's snout for a face.

0:14:08.960,0:14:12.760
And Otto Dix showed veterans disabled by war injuries.

0:14:12.760,0:14:15.360
These artists took genuine risks,

0:14:15.360,0:14:18.480
and many were arrested for their actions.

0:14:18.480,0:14:22.760
But in the male-dominated world of Berlin Dada, Huelsenbeck, Heartfield

0:14:22.760,0:14:25.800
and Dix met their match in Hannah Hoch.

0:14:27.800,0:14:31.240
MALE VOICES SCREAM More than holding her own at the art fair,

0:14:31.240,0:14:34.080
Hoch satirised the entire German Establishment with her

0:14:34.080,0:14:36.880
masterpiece, Cut With The Kitchen Knife,

0:14:36.880,0:14:40.920
pioneering a radically subversive new artform - photomontage.

0:14:43.840,0:14:46.840
Dada's ground-breaking visual techniques would have a huge

0:14:46.840,0:14:50.960
impact on Neville Brody, one of the pioneers of modern graphic design.

0:14:52.560,0:14:55.880
His interest in Dada has seeped into his cutting edge art

0:14:55.880,0:14:59.760
direction for The Face magazine and his iconic post-punk sleeve

0:14:59.760,0:15:02.640
designs for bands like, you guessed it...

0:15:02.640,0:15:04.600
Cabaret Voltaire.

0:15:06.840,0:15:12.000
Neville, here we've got an early bit of photomontage by Hannah Hoch.

0:15:12.000,0:15:14.080
That's the Kaiser, isn't it?

0:15:14.080,0:15:16.360
So, this is his moustache here.

0:15:16.360,0:15:19.480
Well, this is what I like about it, yeah. Oh, it's two wrestlers.

0:15:19.480,0:15:22.760
Well, you've got little Hannah Hoch down here,

0:15:22.760,0:15:25.480
this tiny head is a kind of signature.

0:15:25.480,0:15:29.640
And then these are the countries where women had the right to

0:15:29.640,0:15:31.160
vote at the time.

0:15:31.160,0:15:35.240
This is the first real kind of powerful use of photomontage

0:15:35.240,0:15:37.320
as a real tool of subversion.

0:15:37.320,0:15:40.720
Why was it? Was it because you'd got photos in newspapers?

0:15:40.720,0:15:42.880
The free access of, like,

0:15:42.880,0:15:45.600
printed photographs meant that someone like Hannah Hoch could come

0:15:45.600,0:15:49.000
in, cut it out, combine it all and create a completely new narrative.

0:15:49.000,0:15:51.440
So this is a whole new way of looking.

0:15:51.440,0:15:54.160
- Like a big political cartoon as well, isn't it?[br]- Yeah.

0:15:54.160,0:15:56.000
This was shocking to the bourgeoisie.

0:15:56.000,0:15:59.840
It was deliberately non-aesthetic. It's not pretty.

0:15:59.840,0:16:03.200
And this is something that we've seen a lot since.

0:16:03.200,0:16:06.680
You know, punk, Jamie Reid, the Sex Pistols covers.

0:16:11.640,0:16:14.520
Punk hijacked Dada's use of photomontage as

0:16:14.520,0:16:16.320
a weapon of subversion,

0:16:16.320,0:16:19.840
from Jamie Reid's Sex Pistols covers to Linder sterling's feminist

0:16:19.840,0:16:23.120
artworks and sleeve designs for bands like the Buzzcocks.

0:16:24.400,0:16:27.600
But punk is only the most obvious child of Dada.

0:16:29.400,0:16:34.720
'Club Dada's striking visuals extended to magazines and journals.

0:16:34.720,0:16:38.880
'I've brought along a copy of the first Dada publication,

0:16:38.880,0:16:41.680
'and I've got a feeling this is going to be right up Neville's street.'

0:16:41.680,0:16:43.200
What is this?

0:16:43.200,0:16:47.000
This is coming directly out of the photomontage approach,

0:16:47.000,0:16:49.200
but now it's typomontage.

0:16:49.200,0:16:52.160
- Yeah, so it's using everything. [br]- This is really stunning.

0:16:52.160,0:16:56.160
It's an amazing piece of freeform typography.

0:16:56.160,0:16:58.600
This really was ahead of its time.

0:16:58.600,0:16:59.960
Just looks incredibly modern.

0:16:59.960,0:17:02.760
There was a lot of punk stuff that was done that looked like this.

0:17:02.760,0:17:06.560
- A lot of art in the '60s and 70s had this feel, and the '50s.[br]- Yeah.

0:17:06.560,0:17:10.240
And this had a big influence on my work, directly - the idea of going

0:17:10.240,0:17:14.560
off-grid, nothing lines up, it's all at an angle,

0:17:14.560,0:17:16.839
yet it has so much energy.

0:17:16.839,0:17:18.920
- It is completely haphazard.[br]- Yeah.

0:17:18.920,0:17:21.640
I actually remember I did a whole record cover where all the type was

0:17:21.640,0:17:26.000
at angles and the printer helped me by straightening them all up again.

0:17:26.000,0:17:28.720
He said, "I've fixed it for you now, young man."

0:17:28.720,0:17:30.560
This is beautiful, though, isn't it?

0:17:30.560,0:17:33.240
It's gorgeous, just an extraordinary piece.

0:17:33.240,0:17:36.080
Makes me want to give it up - it's all been done, really, hasn't it?

0:17:36.080,0:17:38.400
JIM LAUGHS

0:17:38.400,0:17:41.000
'A lot of today's generation of graphic designers think

0:17:41.000,0:17:44.440
'they're nicking ideas from Neville Brody, but what they don't realise

0:17:44.440,0:17:48.680
'is that some of the freshest looking magazine layouts date back to Dada.'

0:17:50.840,0:17:53.680
While Hannah Hoch and others were busy setting the agenda

0:17:53.680,0:17:55.520
for 20th century culture,

0:17:55.520,0:17:59.920
one lone wolf managed to grab all of the world's media attention.

0:18:01.200,0:18:05.520
Architect Johannes Baader was in his own Dada universe.

0:18:05.520,0:18:09.880
He called himself Super Dada, or Dada Chief,

0:18:09.880,0:18:13.800
and announced himself as President Of The Earth.

0:18:13.800,0:18:15.480
No ego problems there, then.

0:18:15.480,0:18:16.720
On April Fools' Day,

0:18:16.720,0:18:20.240
he warned the district of Berlin that Dada forces were on

0:18:20.240,0:18:25.040
their way, and 2,000 people were there to fend off the Dada invasion.

0:18:25.040,0:18:28.480
When the time came, he wrote his own obituary but announced his

0:18:28.480,0:18:31.160
resurrection the following day.

0:18:31.160,0:18:33.080
Richard Huelsenbeck warned,

0:18:33.080,0:18:37.040
"Watch out for Baader, who has nothing to do with our thoughts.

0:18:37.040,0:18:42.720
"He has compromised Dada in Berlin to such an extent with his

0:18:42.720,0:18:47.240
"idiocies that I can't even get a small item into the press."

0:18:47.240,0:18:49.480
MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie

0:18:49.480,0:18:53.560
According to one of the Dada gang, "Dada was a dancing epidemic

0:18:53.560,0:18:58.320
"with simultaneous beginnings in different parts of the world."

0:18:59.320,0:19:02.880
In Zurich, Dada had taken a hammer to language.

0:19:02.880,0:19:06.480
In Berlin, it attacked the political Establishment.

0:19:06.480,0:19:11.560
And now, in New York, Dada took aim at art itself.

0:19:12.760,0:19:14.320
JAZZ PIANO MUSIC PLAYS

0:19:16.920,0:19:20.920
Marcel Duchamp, the king of conceptual art,

0:19:20.920,0:19:24.200
forced the grand old guardians of the art world to ask

0:19:24.200,0:19:27.920
themselves a question they hadn't had to think about before.

0:19:27.920,0:19:32.040
"If you put a toilet in art gallery, does that make it art?"

0:19:32.040,0:19:35.120
And, "Should I start stroking my beard yet?"

0:19:37.360,0:19:41.880
Duchamp caused scandal by presenting a urinal signed "R Mutt"

0:19:41.880,0:19:45.080
to the board of the Society For Independent Artists.

0:19:45.080,0:19:50.800
It was rejected and the story went in Dada journals like The Blind Man.

0:19:50.800,0:19:54.880
It was just one in a series of ready-mades -

0:19:54.880,0:19:58.480
everyday objects exhibited as art -

0:19:58.480,0:20:00.880
a closed window,

0:20:00.880,0:20:03.400
a snow shovel,

0:20:03.400,0:20:05.400
a bottle rack,

0:20:05.400,0:20:07.440
and a bicycle wheel.

0:20:08.760,0:20:12.240
And Duchamp provoked the rage of the art establishment still

0:20:12.240,0:20:16.600
further by defacing an old master.

0:20:16.600,0:20:19.280
A copy at least.

0:20:19.280,0:20:21.920
He called the work Elle A Chaud Au Cul,

0:20:21.920,0:20:24.200
which in French sounds just like,

0:20:24.200,0:20:26.320
"She's got a hot ass."

0:20:26.320,0:20:29.640
For the Dadaists, this series of provocations was enough for

0:20:29.640,0:20:34.000
Duchamp to gain entry into their club, whether he liked it or not.

0:20:37.240,0:20:41.600
Artist Cornelia Parker has made art out of everyday objects herself,

0:20:41.600,0:20:45.160
but not without flattening them first with a steam roller.

0:20:45.160,0:20:47.000
She's my kind of artist.

0:20:50.080,0:20:52.720
And, for Cornelia, Duchamp, the reluctant Dadaist,

0:20:52.720,0:20:54.840
has been a lifelong inspiration.

0:20:56.400,0:20:59.760
Was Marcel Duchamp a Dadaist?

0:20:59.760,0:21:02.600
He was a Dadaist by default, I think.

0:21:02.600,0:21:05.320
The toilet...R Mutt's toilet, that's the thing that everyone knows,

0:21:05.320,0:21:08.520
- isn't it?[br]- R Mutt's toilet, yeah, I suppose you introduce the idea of

0:21:08.520,0:21:11.040
anything you just go and buy in the shop becoming an art object.

0:21:11.040,0:21:13.680
- And he did, and he caused a big stink.[br]- He did.

0:21:13.680,0:21:16.880
The idea of putting that into a salon where you're supposed

0:21:16.880,0:21:20.960
to put accepted work seemed to be what it was all about,

0:21:20.960,0:21:23.520
really, more than the object itself.

0:21:23.520,0:21:25.480
A lot of things just started with him,

0:21:25.480,0:21:27.800
because he was just up for anything.

0:21:27.800,0:21:30.520
Duchamp sort of opened up this seam, you know,

0:21:30.520,0:21:34.720
in kind of art that was kind of...everything was quite

0:21:34.720,0:21:37.440
stable and quite...progressing nicely,

0:21:37.440,0:21:40.680
but he'd just kind of create this big fissure, you know, this

0:21:40.680,0:21:45.240
fault-line that allowed other people just to be completely maverick.

0:21:47.240,0:21:50.200
Duchamp's idea for the readymade has inspired generations of

0:21:50.200,0:21:52.360
artists since,

0:21:52.360,0:21:55.160
and at the time inspired a collaboration with artist and

0:21:55.160,0:21:57.400
photographer Man Ray.

0:21:57.400,0:22:01.440
This is a fantastic photograph by Man Ray of Duchamp's

0:22:01.440,0:22:05.640
half-finished sculpture which was called The Large Glass.

0:22:05.640,0:22:09.200
He was allowing dust to accumulate on it,

0:22:09.200,0:22:11.560
because he wanted to incorporate the dust into the piece,

0:22:11.560,0:22:13.880
and I think he left a note for the cleaner, cos

0:22:13.880,0:22:17.760
he had a cleaning lady, saying, you know, "Don't touch, dust breeding."

0:22:17.760,0:22:23.840
- Did Man Ray come round to his house and then...?[br]- Spot it and like it? [br]- And Marcel said,

0:22:23.840,0:22:26.720
"Here, have a look at this, look at all this dust I'm breeding here."

0:22:26.720,0:22:29.120
And he says, "We'll just take a picture of it, shall we?"

0:22:29.120,0:22:31.320
- I'm sure it went something like that.[br]- I bet it is, yeah.

0:22:31.320,0:22:33.840
I think some of the best art is serendipitous.

0:22:33.840,0:22:38.480
- I quite like the idea of, you know, negligence becoming art. [br]- CORNELIA LAUGHS

0:22:38.480,0:22:41.720
Yeah. And have you been influenced by Dada?

0:22:41.720,0:22:44.720
I'm very influenced by Duchamp. I think he's, most probably, if

0:22:44.720,0:22:48.560
I had to pick one artist to say that he's had the most influence on me.

0:22:48.560,0:22:50.520
Yeah.

0:22:50.520,0:22:54.600
Dada managed to be really infantile and outrageous but at the

0:22:54.600,0:22:57.920
same time made people think about things afresh.

0:22:59.080,0:23:02.480
I'm off with Cornelia to stage our own Dada intervention.

0:23:02.480,0:23:04.600
MUSIC: Da Funk by Daft Punk

0:23:04.600,0:23:07.560
It'll pay tribute to both the politics of Club Dada in Berlin

0:23:07.560,0:23:09.680
and the irreverence of New York Dada.

0:23:13.880,0:23:17.120
It's taking us to Bond Street, where war leaders

0:23:17.120,0:23:19.960
Churchill and Roosevelt hold court.

0:23:25.680,0:23:28.400
Let's see who gets arrested first.

0:23:28.400,0:23:31.880
Do you think I'll get arrested... I'm more likely to get arrested with balaclavas?

0:23:31.880,0:23:35.000
I think you'll get more arrested than me. THEY LAUGH

0:23:35.000,0:23:38.400
- Here are the boys. [br]- Right, so, are you ready?[br]- Yeah.

0:23:46.840,0:23:49.200
There's my Dadaist act for the day.

0:23:49.200,0:23:51.320
- That's great, don't you think?[br]- Yeah.

0:23:51.320,0:23:53.720
It looks really menacing.

0:23:53.720,0:23:56.920
Shall we leave them on for a couple of minutes to see what people think?

0:23:58.040,0:24:00.680
'I think Cornelia's gone for political Dada -

0:24:00.680,0:24:02.680
'she's made them into terrorists.'

0:24:03.800,0:24:07.560
The police don't seem to have noticed yet.

0:24:07.560,0:24:10.720
'Right, now it's my turn to give these old geezers

0:24:10.720,0:24:12.760
'a 21st century face-lift.

0:24:12.760,0:24:16.720
'I'm thinking absurdo-Dada is more my style.'

0:24:16.720,0:24:20.080
MUSIC: I've Told Every Little Star by Linda Scott

0:24:20.080,0:24:21.960
'That should bring them down to scale.'

0:24:21.960,0:24:24.560
- There.[br]- That's great, I love it.

0:24:24.560,0:24:26.400
These need you on, darling.

0:24:26.400,0:24:28.320
I think I'll go on here.

0:24:28.320,0:24:29.960
Oh!

0:24:29.960,0:24:33.040
- What does it mean then?[br]- What does it mean?[br]- What have we done?

0:24:33.040,0:24:35.880
Well, this is almost...well, it's 100 years after Dadaism,

0:24:35.880,0:24:37.920
- so this is...[br]- Is it a student prank?

0:24:37.920,0:24:40.320
- I think it's a student prank... [br]- It kind of feels like it.

0:24:40.320,0:24:42.400
It is a student prank, isn't it?

0:24:42.400,0:24:44.560
I liked your balaclavas, I think, best.

0:24:44.560,0:24:48.040
- Did you?[br]- Yeah. It was more of a striking effect.

0:24:48.040,0:24:51.720
It was slightly more edgy. People enjoy this one more, I think.

0:24:51.720,0:24:54.960
- Mine was most probably a bit more like... [br]- SIREN WAILS

0:24:54.960,0:24:56.880
..you know, like Pussy Riot or something.

0:24:56.880,0:24:58.280
- Do you think so?[br]- Yes.

0:24:58.280,0:25:00.600
Here come the coppers.

0:25:00.600,0:25:03.240
- What should we do - just leave it there?[br]- Well, we could.

0:25:03.240,0:25:05.720
Should we just walk off and leave it?

0:25:11.240,0:25:14.720
I suppose the whole legacy of Dada means that people

0:25:14.720,0:25:17.600
have been defacing statues for a long time, haven't they?

0:25:17.600,0:25:20.160
Usually the traffic cone is the favourite one.

0:25:20.160,0:25:22.640
Now you've got Banksy.

0:25:22.640,0:25:26.200
It's not just being cheeky. No. CORNELIA LAUGHS

0:25:26.200,0:25:28.320
No, it's a bit more, I don't know,

0:25:28.320,0:25:30.440
it came out of a more political time, didn't it?

0:25:30.440,0:25:33.160
For some reason I always thought Dadaism was

0:25:33.160,0:25:36.640
a little less benign than Surrealism.

0:25:38.360,0:25:40.560
'Well, that's its brilliance for me.

0:25:40.560,0:25:43.600
'Dada can be the provocative dangerous artform Cornelia is

0:25:43.600,0:25:46.880
'drawn to, but it's also the original inspiration for mindless

0:25:46.880,0:25:49.040
'student pranks.'

0:25:55.440,0:26:00.040
Back in Zurich, Tristan Tzara, who we last saw casting a tribal spell

0:26:00.040,0:26:04.680
at the Cabaret Voltaire, was taking Dada in a radical new direction.

0:26:06.200,0:26:09.080
With new publications springing up by the second,

0:26:09.080,0:26:13.960
Dada's next target was the world of mass communication.

0:26:13.960,0:26:18.560
Tzara planned to trick the papers with a fake press release.

0:26:21.360,0:26:24.200
Tzara was using Dada's subversive energy

0:26:24.200,0:26:26.680
to mock the new media culture.

0:26:26.680,0:26:29.760
NEWS JINGLE PLAYS

0:26:32.800,0:26:37.040
There was a pistol duel yesterday on the Rehalp near Zurich, between

0:26:37.040,0:26:41.880
Tristan Tzara, familiar founder of Dada, and Dada painter Hans Arp.

0:26:41.880,0:26:44.640
Four rounds were fired and, in the fourth exchange,

0:26:44.640,0:26:47.440
Arp was slightly grazed on his left thigh.

0:26:49.040,0:26:51.040
Armando Iannucci.

0:26:51.040,0:26:53.400
How do you respond to this?

0:26:53.400,0:26:55.800
- Well, this is literally news to me. [br]- Yeah.

0:26:55.800,0:26:58.480
- I'm going to put the hands down. [br]- Yeah, I'm going to stop doing this.

0:26:58.480,0:27:00.320
This was an article,

0:27:00.320,0:27:02.600
this was written by the Dadaists and sent out

0:27:02.600,0:27:05.640
to various publications and newspapers, and was printed.

0:27:05.640,0:27:07.440
It was all made up. It was fake.

0:27:07.440,0:27:10.880
And that is something that is very contemporary,

0:27:10.880,0:27:14.080
because nowadays, you know, there's so much,

0:27:14.080,0:27:17.160
you know, 24-hour media and newspapers that have websites

0:27:17.160,0:27:21.200
- that need filling, so if you sent them a press release now...[br]- Yeah.

0:27:21.200,0:27:25.040
..it will appear as a story, even though it's word-for-word

0:27:25.040,0:27:27.160
quoting the press release that you sent out.

0:27:27.160,0:27:31.840
I mean, what Dada is saying is that something that sounds very

0:27:31.840,0:27:35.880
serious and true might not be serious and might not be true.

0:27:35.880,0:27:39.600
I remember, about 20 years ago, we did a show called On The Hour, which

0:27:39.600,0:27:43.760
was like a false news programme, but we actually did a...we made a report

0:27:43.760,0:27:47.320
about an abattoir where the cows were actually rising from the dead.

0:27:47.320,0:27:49.240
I remember it.

0:27:49.240,0:27:52.600
..and it nearly got on the Today programme.

0:27:52.600,0:27:56.560
We submitted it as from a Bristol reporter for BBC Bristol,

0:27:56.560,0:27:58.360
and it was all lined up,

0:27:58.360,0:28:01.000
and John Humphrys had written his introduction and everything,

0:28:01.000,0:28:04.440
and we came seconds away from it being played live.

0:28:04.440,0:28:08.840
Armando Iannucci has made an art out of Dadaist manipulation with

0:28:08.840,0:28:11.080
shows like The Day Today.

0:28:11.080,0:28:12.320
News.

0:28:12.320,0:28:15.000
London Transport say they may have to close the Underground

0:28:15.000,0:28:17.720
system due to an infestation of horses.

0:28:17.720,0:28:20.440
A report described the conditions in the equine plague as

0:28:20.440,0:28:23.440
"like an abattoir in a power cut".

0:28:23.440,0:28:27.280
To inspire other would-be Dadaists, Tristan Tzara published

0:28:27.280,0:28:30.520
a set of instructions on how to tear up newspaper articles and

0:28:30.520,0:28:32.160
reassemble them.

0:28:33.680,0:28:36.880
Take a newspaper. Take some scissors.

0:28:36.880,0:28:39.480
Choose from this paper an article.

0:28:39.480,0:28:43.040
Next, carefully cut out each of the words that make up this

0:28:43.040,0:28:46.480
article and put them all together in a bag.

0:28:46.480,0:28:48.560
Shake gently.

0:28:48.560,0:28:52.000
Next, take out each cutting, one after the other.

0:28:52.000,0:28:56.320
Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.

0:28:56.320,0:28:58.640
- OK.[br]- Right, so tip it out.[br]- Right.

0:28:58.640,0:28:59.960
So, let's...

0:28:59.960,0:29:01.920
This is the way they've fallen out.

0:29:01.920,0:29:04.240
"We're updating squeaky-voiced felt."

0:29:05.240,0:29:06.960
Hang on.

0:29:06.960,0:29:11.840
"The Cumberbatch appeared correct where cardboard catchphrases,

0:29:11.840,0:29:15.760
"occasionally sometimes correct," it says.

0:29:15.760,0:29:20.120
- Which kind of sums up random words. [br]- Yeah.

0:29:20.120,0:29:24.480
I think what they were beginning to explore was that idea that,

0:29:24.480,0:29:29.600
you know, we take so much of what we're being told for granted.

0:29:29.600,0:29:33.000
We're seeing it as the voice of authority and infallible,

0:29:33.000,0:29:36.680
- and they're saying it's not, really. [br]- Yeah.[br]- It's just words.

0:29:37.840,0:29:39.760
Thank you, thank you.

0:29:39.760,0:29:43.280
We've been recording a music video, and it goes like this.

0:29:43.280,0:29:45.520
# I'm hardcore and I know the score

0:29:45.520,0:29:47.840
# I am disgusted by the poor

0:29:47.840,0:29:50.600
# And my chums matter more because we are the law

0:29:50.600,0:29:53.560
# And I've made sure we're ready for class war. #

0:29:53.560,0:29:56.760
Cut-up, today, is such a prevalent form.

0:29:56.760,0:30:01.800
Deconstructing what you think of as true and telling you it's just,

0:30:01.800,0:30:06.120
you know, it's just an assembly of information which you could

0:30:06.120,0:30:08.520
put out in another combination.

0:30:08.520,0:30:11.840
Any source of any information can be cut and connected...

0:30:11.840,0:30:15.640
- But this is a random combination. [br]- Yeah.[br]- That's the difference.

0:30:15.640,0:30:18.160
I think what's happening now is people are trying to do

0:30:18.160,0:30:20.440
something more coherent with it.

0:30:20.440,0:30:24.320
So this is Tristan Tzara's unpatented idea,

0:30:24.320,0:30:28.000
- but it's led to fridge magnet poetry.[br]- Fridge magnet poetry.

0:30:28.000,0:30:30.800
And it's led to the whole of the internet, which consists

0:30:30.800,0:30:36.560
mostly of people cutting up bits of film and television.

0:30:36.560,0:30:38.760
The idea that we can all reedit -

0:30:38.760,0:30:41.440
one day this is how all programmes will be made.

0:30:43.920,0:30:45.920
That's great. Thank you.'

0:30:45.920,0:30:47.480
THEY CHUCKLE

0:30:47.480,0:30:49.200
DRAMATIC NEWS SHOW MUSIC

0:30:51.320,0:30:54.720
Dada poets and artists jumped on the creative opportunities

0:30:54.720,0:30:59.720
provided by cut-up, using the process for more than just satire.

0:30:59.720,0:31:04.000
Sometimes, a painting doesn't go the way you want it to go.

0:31:04.000,0:31:06.360
Damn you, fine artwork!

0:31:06.360,0:31:11.880
And this happened to artist Jean Arp, who was so frustrated,

0:31:11.880,0:31:17.800
he ripped up the painting and let the pieces land on the floor and

0:31:17.800,0:31:21.560
where they landed, he decided that

0:31:21.560,0:31:24.960
this was exactly what he wanted

0:31:24.960,0:31:27.400
in the first place.

0:31:30.080,0:31:33.560
That's not bad, actually. It's pretty good.

0:31:33.560,0:31:36.240
And Arp's wasn't too bad either.

0:31:36.240,0:31:38.440
Hello. Yes. Hello. Thank you. Yes.

0:31:38.440,0:31:41.920
This Dadaist principle of tearing everything up re-emerged in

0:31:41.920,0:31:45.840
'60s counter culture and nowhere more so than with

0:31:45.840,0:31:49.000
William Burroughs, who made an art out of chance happening with

0:31:49.000,0:31:55.400
his fragmented poetry, tape cut-ups, and even randomly reassembled films.

0:31:55.400,0:31:58.520
Hello. Yes. Where are we? Hello. Yes.

0:31:58.520,0:32:00.600
Hello. Yes.

0:32:00.600,0:32:03.360
Burroughs' artistic experiments would trigger

0:32:03.360,0:32:06.800
a new wave of cut-up in the second half of the century, passing on

0:32:06.800,0:32:11.280
his Dadaist technique to musicians, from Paul McCartney to David Bowie.

0:32:12.520,0:32:17.680
What I've used it for more than anything else is igniting

0:32:17.680,0:32:20.120
anything that might be in my imagination.

0:32:20.120,0:32:23.440
I've tried doing it with diaries and things and I was finding out

0:32:23.440,0:32:27.160
amazing things about me and what I'd done and where I was going.

0:32:27.160,0:32:30.360
And a lot of the things that I'd done, it seemed that it would

0:32:30.360,0:32:33.720
predict things about the future, or tell me a lot about the past.

0:32:33.720,0:32:35.840
I don't know, let's see what happens.

0:32:40.840,0:32:45.160
# I'm an alligator

0:32:45.160,0:32:47.040
# I'm a momma-papa... #

0:32:47.040,0:32:50.280
From our pop stars to our counter cultural heroes,

0:32:50.280,0:32:53.160
we're all a little bit under the influence of Dada.

0:32:54.680,0:32:58.440
In 1919, the Dada epidemic hit Cologne.

0:32:58.440,0:33:01.880
Each time it spread, Dada mutated and evolved.

0:33:03.520,0:33:09.240
Zurich Dada had introduced absurdist nonsense, Berlin Dada had targeted

0:33:09.240,0:33:14.240
the political establishment, and New York Dadaists sent up the art world.

0:33:14.240,0:33:18.840
Now, in Cologne, it was all about shock for shock's sake.

0:33:18.840,0:33:21.640
A Cologne publication called the Berlin Dadaists

0:33:21.640,0:33:26.400
counterfeits of Dada for their strongly held beliefs.

0:33:26.400,0:33:30.800
It claimed, they can neither shit nor pee without ideologies.

0:33:32.640,0:33:37.960
What Cologne Dada lacked in politics, it made up for in anarchy.

0:33:39.040,0:33:42.840
The Dada early spring exhibition incensed audiences with an

0:33:42.840,0:33:46.760
entrance via a public urinal of a beer hall and on the way in,

0:33:46.760,0:33:50.000
the public were showered with obscenities.

0:33:50.000,0:33:52.080
BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.

0:33:52.080,0:33:57.880
Audiences were so incensed that they destroyed artworks in fits of rage.

0:33:57.880,0:34:01.640
And Max Ernst, the leader of Cologne Dada, actively encouraged

0:34:01.640,0:34:06.040
this destruction, displaying a sculpture with an axe attached.

0:34:06.040,0:34:09.600
The police said, "Enough is enough!" and closed down the show.

0:34:14.360,0:34:17.920
To find out what all this anarchy and destruction was about,

0:34:17.920,0:34:20.040
I'm going to meet Michael Landy,

0:34:20.040,0:34:24.440
one of the mischievous Young British Artists who introduced

0:34:24.440,0:34:27.120
Dada's shock tactics to a new generation in the '90s.

0:34:33.040,0:34:36.760
Michael is best known for destroying all of his possessions

0:34:36.760,0:34:38.080
in the name of art.

0:34:38.080,0:34:39.960
Hello?

0:34:39.960,0:34:42.000
And judging by the look of his house,

0:34:42.000,0:34:44.199
he hasn't replaced many of them since.

0:34:46.280,0:34:48.280
DRAMATIC WESTERN STYLE MUSIC

0:34:57.920,0:35:02.080
In Cologne, Max Ernst had a wooden sculpture with an axe

0:35:02.080,0:35:04.680
attached to it, so that they could destroy it.

0:35:04.680,0:35:06.920
- Oh, yeah. [br]- What do you know about that?

0:35:06.920,0:35:10.400
Destruction in art has kind of, like, a long history, really.

0:35:10.400,0:35:15.320
And I think Dada was like, it brought, like, destruction...

0:35:15.320,0:35:19.080
It's not necessarily nihilistic, it can also be creative.

0:35:19.080,0:35:20.280
Yeah.

0:35:20.280,0:35:23.480
Picasso talks about having, like, every time you make a painting,

0:35:23.480,0:35:25.880
in a sense, it's a kind of mini-destruction.

0:35:25.880,0:35:30.760
You know, you've got to take things apart to recreate, in a sense.

0:35:30.760,0:35:34.160
You've got to take the previous generation apart, in a sense.

0:35:34.160,0:35:38.320
You've got to almost, like, dismiss what they do and kind of

0:35:38.320,0:35:41.320
recreate yourself with a whole new set of values.

0:35:41.320,0:35:43.400
Cos you did your destruction...

0:35:43.400,0:35:46.320
Yeah, I destroyed all my worldly belongings, yeah.

0:35:46.320,0:35:50.120
- Was it absolutely everything? [br]- At the time, yeah, at the age of 37.

0:35:50.120,0:35:51.760
And how did you destroy it?

0:35:51.760,0:35:54.000
We didn't get an axe to it or anything like that.

0:35:54.000,0:35:56.720
It was actually a quite methodical way of doing it.

0:35:56.720,0:35:58.840
So did you destroy your artwork as well?

0:35:58.840,0:36:02.400
Yeah, I destroyed my artwork, I destroyed my friends' artwork.

0:36:02.400,0:36:05.800
So would you say that was a Dadaist thing to do?

0:36:05.800,0:36:07.480
Yeah, in some respects, yeah.

0:36:07.480,0:36:09.680
I would say it's a pretty absurd thing to do.

0:36:09.680,0:36:12.320
Yeah, and it did get up people's noses because obviously

0:36:12.320,0:36:15.920
- people work their whole lives to acquire things, don't they?[br]- Yeah.

0:36:15.920,0:36:18.680
And there I was, destroying them all.

0:36:18.680,0:36:22.640
Michael Landy and his mates shocked the art world in the

0:36:22.640,0:36:26.400
'90s with the notorious Sensation exhibition.

0:36:26.400,0:36:30.280
There was Damien Hirst with his shark,

0:36:30.280,0:36:33.520
Tracey Emin with her unmade bed,

0:36:33.520,0:36:37.400
and Marcus Harvey with his portrait of serial killer Myra Hindley,

0:36:37.400,0:36:39.760
made with child handprints.

0:36:39.760,0:36:43.640
But while Cologne Dada had its show shut down by the police,

0:36:43.640,0:36:46.840
the YBA's just provoked a few headlines in the tabloids.

0:36:49.800,0:36:52.840
You were involved in the Sensation show, weren't you?

0:36:52.840,0:36:54.280
Hands up, I was, yeah.

0:36:54.280,0:36:58.720
I mean, Sensation is like a collection of Charles Saatchi's.

0:36:58.720,0:37:01.640
I mean, Dada is like...

0:37:01.640,0:37:05.040
They're a group of artists who create manifestos, you know.

0:37:05.040,0:37:07.680
They have like shared ideologies.

0:37:07.680,0:37:11.240
I think the only similarity would be the media.

0:37:11.240,0:37:15.400
Dada was being more provocative than I am and their audience is

0:37:15.400,0:37:18.880
very conservative. I mean, what people think of art is like

0:37:18.880,0:37:22.200
a nice landscape painting or a nice cherub in bronze.

0:37:22.200,0:37:23.760
They don't think, you know,

0:37:23.760,0:37:26.280
a mannequin with a light bulb on its head is art.

0:37:26.280,0:37:29.440
- Yeah.[br]- So they're trying to shock people, aren't they?[br]- Yeah, they are.

0:37:29.440,0:37:32.840
That's what they're trying to... Get up their noses and make them angry.

0:37:32.840,0:37:37.160
Yeah. So, any final thoughts on Dada?

0:37:37.160,0:37:40.560
I'd just like to thank Dada really for paving the way for people

0:37:40.560,0:37:42.600
like me to come along.

0:37:42.600,0:37:46.040
- Yeah. Thank you, Dada. [br]- Thank you, Dada.

0:37:46.040,0:37:48.720
HE CHUCKLES

0:37:48.720,0:37:52.360
I've brought a piece of artwork along with me for you.

0:37:52.360,0:37:55.720
- Do you know the history of me and artwork?[br]- I know, yeah.

0:37:55.720,0:37:57.600
It's one of my prized possessions.

0:37:57.600,0:38:00.520
- Well, now, you're making me feel bad. You can take it home.[br]- No.

0:38:00.520,0:38:03.040
No, I want you to do what you've got to do with it.

0:38:03.040,0:38:05.160
I could make you do it. I'd feel much better.

0:38:05.160,0:38:07.840
- You can follow my instructions. [br]- Have you got any ideas?

0:38:07.840,0:38:11.400
- Maybe show it to me first. [br]- So I'll go and get the plate.[br]- OK.

0:38:11.400,0:38:13.880
And then we'll talk about how to destroy.

0:38:13.880,0:38:16.760
- How we're going to get rid of it. [br]- Yeah, here it is.[br]- Aw.

0:38:16.760,0:38:19.720
It's a wedding plate for Bill and Cath.

0:38:19.720,0:38:22.320
William and you know...the royals.

0:38:24.600,0:38:25.800
So the classic way,

0:38:25.800,0:38:28.720
I suppose of destroying it is the Grecian way, isn't it?

0:38:28.720,0:38:31.360
- I like the idea of poking it off something.[br]- OK.

0:38:31.360,0:38:33.480
You could poke it off the top of my head.

0:38:33.480,0:38:36.720
- We could balance on top of my head and you could push it off.[br]- Yeah.

0:38:36.720,0:38:40.760
- You know where your broom... [br]- I've got a flat head. I'll go and get the broom.

0:38:47.160,0:38:50.720
- OK, I'll try and balance on my head. [br]- Yeah. Right, are you ready?

0:38:53.800,0:38:56.160
LOUD CLATTER

0:38:56.160,0:38:57.400
- Did that break?[br]- Yeah.

0:38:57.400,0:38:58.960
There.

0:38:58.960,0:39:01.600
- That looks nice now, I like that. [br]- Yeah, that looks nice.

0:39:01.600,0:39:04.480
- Yeah, I like that as well.[br]- I could sellotape that back together.

0:39:04.480,0:39:07.480
- Are you going to sweep that up and put it in a poitrine?[br]- In a latrine?

0:39:07.480,0:39:11.680
- In a poitrine, yeah. Not a latrine.[br]- Put a cloche over it.

0:39:11.680,0:39:13.400
- A what?[br]- A cloche.

0:39:13.400,0:39:16.040
THEY CHUCKLE

0:39:16.040,0:39:18.320
'When I do silly things in my comedy,

0:39:18.320,0:39:19.760
'it's a bit of throwaway fun,

0:39:19.760,0:39:23.160
'but when I do them with an esteemed Young British Artist, I am

0:39:23.160,0:39:26.800
'surely creating a piece of Dadaist performance art!'

0:39:26.800,0:39:30.600
You find me, several tenths of my way through this journey and

0:39:30.600,0:39:33.160
exploration into what is Dada.

0:39:33.160,0:39:35.480
I've spoken to several people,

0:39:35.480,0:39:39.840
all of which seem to have varying ideas about Dada.

0:39:39.840,0:39:42.880
Was it political, anarchic? Was it comedy? What was it?

0:39:42.880,0:39:45.520
It was probably all of those things and more.

0:39:45.520,0:39:47.880
But what I can say is since the beginning,

0:39:47.880,0:39:50.880
I thought I had quite a good idea about what Dada is.

0:39:50.880,0:39:53.120
I think I'm probably more confused now,

0:39:53.120,0:39:58.600
so I shall continue my journey and find out what exactly is Dada.

0:40:00.160,0:40:01.200
SQUEALING

0:40:02.880,0:40:04.000
UM!

0:40:05.400,0:40:08.760
To help me answer that question, I'm meeting the man who updated

0:40:08.760,0:40:12.400
Dada's absurdist style for my generation.

0:40:15.040,0:40:16.640
FANFARE

0:40:18.680,0:40:21.440
Now, where is he?

0:40:21.440,0:40:23.200
FANFARE

0:40:26.200,0:40:30.120
- Strangers meeting in the night.[br]- I never expected to see you here.[br]- No.

0:40:30.120,0:40:32.880
- Take a seat.[br]- What are you doing here?[br]- I don't know.

0:40:32.880,0:40:35.560
- What are you doing here? [br]- I don't know. A car brought me.

0:40:35.560,0:40:36.920
I know nothing!

0:40:36.920,0:40:38.960
Let's find out!

0:40:38.960,0:40:42.840
Well, Terry, what does Dada mean to you, if anything?

0:40:44.920,0:40:49.520
I've never seriously thought about what it means to me. It just is.

0:40:49.520,0:40:51.840
- Do you know what it is?[br]- Yeah. I do.

0:40:51.840,0:40:56.080
I think what was interesting, the fact that it was anti-war,

0:40:56.080,0:40:58.560
it was a reaction to the First World War,

0:40:58.560,0:41:04.840
a reaction to bourgeois society, and these very boring tastes.

0:41:04.840,0:41:07.440
I think the anger is what's interesting about it,

0:41:07.440,0:41:10.880
how they were angry about the world nightmare they were living in

0:41:10.880,0:41:14.040
and yet, you deal with it in different ways.

0:41:14.040,0:41:17.160
And it's the humour side that we always went for.

0:41:17.160,0:41:19.600
Is that what it was? Was there a war going on,

0:41:19.600,0:41:23.120
so we're going to have to have fun and lighten the situation?

0:41:23.120,0:41:26.200
Or you go absurd. You go totally Absurdist.

0:41:26.200,0:41:30.040
If we're in an absurd situation, a complete nightmare out there,

0:41:30.040,0:41:33.720
well, let's create nightmares and throw it back at society and

0:41:33.720,0:41:35.560
see if you can shake it up.

0:41:35.560,0:41:39.760
- That's a really good point cos it really was just madness.[br]- Yeah.

0:41:39.760,0:41:43.360
I mean, I left America because of the Vietnam War and all of

0:41:43.360,0:41:45.480
that and I realised I was more...

0:41:45.480,0:41:49.400
I was more Dadaist than I realised

0:41:49.400,0:41:53.880
because completely against the war, I hated the way society was

0:41:53.880,0:41:57.360
structured and behaving, and I wanted to make people laugh.

0:41:57.360,0:41:59.640
- Yeah.[br]- Bah-boom!

0:41:59.640,0:42:01.600
MUMBLING SINGING WAGNER

0:42:04.760,0:42:06.480
BLESSING IN LATIN

0:42:11.200,0:42:15.360
What interests me is how many artists that I've always been

0:42:15.360,0:42:19.200
either copying, admiring, or being influenced by,

0:42:19.200,0:42:24.720
were the Dadaists, and George Melly wrote a review of Python and

0:42:24.720,0:42:31.520
he referred to me as a product of Max Ernst. Wow!

0:42:31.520,0:42:35.760
- So you weren't aware before...? [br]- I was only aware of his paintings.

0:42:35.760,0:42:38.000
I wasn't aware of his collages.

0:42:44.000,0:42:47.560
This is a film by Hans Richter, who was a Dadaist.

0:42:47.560,0:42:49.440
Look at this.

0:42:49.440,0:42:51.640
It's called Ghosts Before Breakfast.

0:42:58.320,0:43:01.840
- The silly walk![br]- It is, look. That's it. Isn't it?[br]- Yup!

0:43:01.840,0:43:03.920
So, who saw that then?

0:43:03.920,0:43:06.720
- Probably nobody. [br]- Is it just a coincidence?

0:43:06.720,0:43:11.000
But that's what I love about things, how coincidental things can be.

0:43:11.000,0:43:14.480
- Yeah.[br]- We were just doing it. We weren't aware of what we were doing.

0:43:14.480,0:43:18.120
There's a bubbling pot, isn't there? Where Dadaists pop out like

0:43:18.120,0:43:22.800
bubbles and they're not aware that they are being called Dadaists!

0:43:22.800,0:43:24.040
Yeah. I know.

0:43:24.040,0:43:28.960
I think it was easier when we were doing Python, certainly for me,

0:43:28.960,0:43:33.480
coming to this country, the categories are more clear.

0:43:33.480,0:43:36.280
You know, the bankers, City guys, pin stripe suits,

0:43:36.280,0:43:39.800
bowler hats, working class, look like working class,

0:43:39.800,0:43:41.640
the middle class was the middle class.

0:43:41.640,0:43:45.200
Now, I think it's harder to be Dadaist right now.

0:43:45.200,0:43:48.000
Maybe it's ripe for a new uprising of Dadaism.

0:43:48.000,0:43:52.880
I think it's really hard to get to grips with cos you can't find

0:43:52.880,0:43:54.600
what the enemy is.

0:43:54.600,0:43:58.080
You can't react against it cos it's so atomised now.

0:43:58.080,0:44:01.000
SWANEE WHISTLE

0:44:08.160,0:44:10.840
In the early '20s, with the war over,

0:44:10.840,0:44:14.480
the global outposts of Dada converged in Paris.

0:44:15.640,0:44:18.640
First, Tristan Tzara from Zurich,

0:44:18.640,0:44:21.880
then Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray from New York...

0:44:21.880,0:44:23.480
Oi, Marcel!

0:44:23.480,0:44:27.080
..and then, Max Ernst from Cologne.

0:44:29.400,0:44:31.880
A new supergroup was formed.

0:44:35.320,0:44:38.840
Paris Dada offered its groupies more spectacle and more sheer

0:44:38.840,0:44:42.160
silliness than anything that had gone before.

0:44:42.160,0:44:45.000
It was Dada with bells on.

0:44:45.000,0:44:46.240
BELLS SHAKE

0:44:47.560,0:44:49.800
HE HUMS FLORAL DANCE

0:44:54.320,0:44:56.640
By way of self-promotion,

0:44:56.640,0:44:59.640
the Dadaists plastered stickers across the city.

0:45:03.440,0:45:08.960
BELL RINGS AND DROWNS OUT SPEECH

0:45:20.360,0:45:26.000
Francis Picabia made a drawing on a blackboard and then erased it

0:45:26.000,0:45:28.600
at the exhibition.

0:45:30.320,0:45:35.160
And to announce the opening of a Man Ray exhibition,

0:45:35.160,0:45:37.120
the space was filled

0:45:37.120,0:45:40.600
with balloons and the Dadaists popped them as people came in.

0:45:41.880,0:45:45.200
Paris audiences were so outraged,

0:45:45.200,0:45:48.440
they threw tomatoes and raw meat at them.

0:45:48.440,0:45:52.480
Now, I'm meeting an artist who knows exactly how it feels to be on

0:45:52.480,0:45:55.160
the receiving end of groceries.

0:45:55.160,0:45:57.600
Martin Creed's Turner Prize-winning show,

0:45:57.600,0:46:01.400
The Lights Going On And Off, which consisted of the lights going

0:46:01.400,0:46:04.880
on and off, invited the question - is this art?

0:46:04.880,0:46:09.160
And prompted some gallery goers to throw eggs at the wall.

0:46:09.160,0:46:14.240
- So this is your studio?[br]- Yeah.[br]- Well, show us around?[br]- Well, so there's...

0:46:14.240,0:46:18.240
- These are paintings.[br]- Oh, yeah. I've heard about them.

0:46:18.240,0:46:21.920
- That's a bag.[br]- Yeah. [br]- That's a bag, that says...

0:46:21.920,0:46:24.000
That actually says "whatever".

0:46:25.560,0:46:29.080
- Oh, yeah. [br]- There's some boxes here.[br]- Yeah.

0:46:29.080,0:46:33.120
- What's this?[br]- A knitting thing with the stripes getting bigger.

0:46:33.120,0:46:36.240
- What's it going to be? [br]- No, that is what it is.

0:46:36.240,0:46:39.000
- Oh, is it? [br]- This is a pair of trousers

0:46:39.000,0:46:40.760
I've been working on.

0:46:40.760,0:46:44.000
- What are you going to do with them? [br]- Well, just erm...

0:46:45.960,0:46:49.240
- ..wear them. [br]- JIM CHUCKLES

0:46:49.240,0:46:52.080
- Wow![br]- That is a hat.

0:46:52.080,0:46:53.800
- How does it look?[br]- Looks good.

0:46:53.800,0:46:55.080
Aye.

0:46:56.960,0:46:59.600
- What is that?[br]- That's a Panda. A Fiat Panda.

0:47:02.160,0:47:04.040
So what about Dada?

0:47:04.040,0:47:06.640
You got anything that's Dadaesque in here?

0:47:06.640,0:47:09.880
Er, I don't, well, I don't know about, I don't know,

0:47:09.880,0:47:17.120
- maybe a lot of it is because I think it's sort of a bit stupid.[br]- Yeah.

0:47:17.120,0:47:18.800
You know? I think that's...

0:47:18.800,0:47:21.480
- That's what Dada is. [br]- Aye, like being stupid.

0:47:21.480,0:47:24.760
But there's political meaning and then you've got to balance that

0:47:24.760,0:47:27.720
- with the daftness or the stupidness. [br]- Right, aye.

0:47:27.720,0:47:29.520
Cos I'd probably fall on the daft side.

0:47:29.520,0:47:33.400
I would go...I think I would definitely fall on the stupid side.

0:47:33.400,0:47:36.320
You'd be even further, right the other end!

0:47:36.320,0:47:38.720
- Yeah.[br]- Yeah.

0:47:38.720,0:47:42.160
Cos I think it's like more, you know,

0:47:42.160,0:47:45.600
- it's more like life, cos life's stupid.[br]- Yeah.

0:47:47.000,0:47:51.720
'Like the Dadaists, Martin filled the gallery half full with balloons.

0:47:51.720,0:47:54.960
'His works are starting to feel rather familiar.'

0:47:54.960,0:47:58.840
- That was your idea, wasn't it? Balloons.[br]- I didn't know about that.

0:47:58.840,0:48:01.120
This is what I've been finding,

0:48:01.120,0:48:05.040
the Dadaists did have a lot of ideas for the first time.

0:48:05.040,0:48:08.320
- Yeah, it looks like it, aye. [br]- And, um...

0:48:08.320,0:48:10.720
- and then you had them later. [br]- Right!

0:48:10.720,0:48:13.160
THEY LAUGH

0:48:13.160,0:48:15.720
I'm just wandering about here.

0:48:15.720,0:48:18.760
I mean, who knows what they were really trying to do, those people?

0:48:18.760,0:48:21.000
- I don't know.[br]- I don't know.

0:48:21.000,0:48:22.640
No, I don't.

0:48:24.520,0:48:28.280
And I don't know either, but, aye, I don't know.

0:48:28.280,0:48:30.600
- I don't know.[br]- I don't know.

0:48:30.600,0:48:33.480
Well, there we are then, that's the answer to that, isn't it?

0:48:35.920,0:48:38.440
Is there any reason behind any of your stuff?

0:48:38.440,0:48:41.320
Maybe it's trying to do what you're not supposed to do.

0:48:41.320,0:48:43.600
When I did this film of people being sick,

0:48:43.600,0:48:46.440
and one of people shitting as well,

0:48:46.440,0:48:53.080
just cos it's a taboo of our, like, British society.

0:48:53.080,0:48:58.040
And are you allowed to go into a gallery and laugh your head off.

0:48:58.040,0:49:00.920
Yeah, well, I would have thought so, aye.

0:49:00.920,0:49:03.720
- That's what I encourage whenever I have my shows.[br]- Aye.

0:49:07.200,0:49:12.080
'Martin's invited me to join him in his latest nonsensical idea,

0:49:12.080,0:49:14.400
'blind painting.

0:49:14.400,0:49:17.360
'So I'm going to do a portrait with absolutely no idea

0:49:17.360,0:49:19.120
'what it's going to look like.'

0:49:20.880,0:49:23.640
- It is weird, isn't it?[br]- It is weird.

0:49:51.800,0:49:53.960
- I think I'm done. [br]- Yeah, I think I have.

0:49:53.960,0:49:55.920
- Right.[br]- So we're going to...

0:49:55.920,0:49:58.560
- What are we going to do, just show? [br]- Oh, aye, OK.

0:49:58.560,0:50:00.440
Whoa!

0:50:00.440,0:50:01.760
Oh, yeah.

0:50:01.760,0:50:03.400
THEY LAUGH

0:50:06.360,0:50:08.040
- Oh, God.[br]- Oh, it's dripping.

0:50:08.040,0:50:09.600
Put them down on here.

0:50:09.600,0:50:13.240
Aye. Don't want it to drip. Amazing.

0:50:15.120,0:50:17.440
So has this got anything to do with Dada?

0:50:17.440,0:50:19.280
I suppose it's just a new idea.

0:50:19.280,0:50:21.360
Maybe cos it's like trying to do it the way you're not

0:50:21.360,0:50:23.560
supposed to do it, cos you find that if you're going to do

0:50:23.560,0:50:25.960
- a picture of something you should... [br]- So it's getting rid of

0:50:25.960,0:50:28.120
- all conventions. [br]- ..at least look at what your...

0:50:28.120,0:50:31.200
I feel like, you know, if you try to control things

0:50:31.200,0:50:34.200
- it doesn't necessarily make them better, you know?[br]- Yeah.

0:50:34.200,0:50:35.960
This has got no bearing on anything.

0:50:50.360,0:50:54.400
In Paris Tristan Tzara achieved his dream by gathering together

0:50:54.400,0:50:59.000
all the Dadaists to form a movement, Movement Dada.

0:50:59.000,0:51:02.680
It was the culmination of all the nonsense of Dada,

0:51:02.680,0:51:06.840
and for a brief moment Dada was the talk of the town.

0:51:08.800,0:51:13.160
But for some, like Max Ernst and Man Ray, the nonsense was wearing thin.

0:51:13.160,0:51:18.160
They'd begun searching for meaning through dreams and the subconscious.

0:51:19.280,0:51:23.880
Man Ray famously took a metronome, cut out an eye from a photograph,

0:51:23.880,0:51:28.120
put them together and made a new work, Object To Be Destroyed.

0:51:28.120,0:51:30.560
I think I might have a go myself.

0:51:33.920,0:51:36.240
Connect and print. Is that what I do?

0:51:36.240,0:51:38.160
Enter the password.

0:51:38.160,0:51:40.360
Shove a little bit of light music on.

0:51:41.840,0:51:45.360
MUSIC: Left Bank Two by The Noveltones

0:51:49.200,0:51:51.120
There is something blurry happening.

0:51:53.200,0:51:57.480
Then you cut out an eye.

0:52:00.760,0:52:04.800
And then he stuck the eye on the metronome

0:52:04.800,0:52:07.240
and there...

0:52:07.240,0:52:09.840
he had a new work,

0:52:09.840,0:52:12.480
Object To Be Destroyed.

0:52:21.920,0:52:25.320
So with all the Dadaists all going off in different directions

0:52:25.320,0:52:28.680
there was nothing holding this movement together

0:52:28.680,0:52:31.880
and, what's more, egos were taking over.

0:52:32.960,0:52:36.880
So Tristan Tzara, right, he wanted to be the leader of the Dadaists.

0:52:36.880,0:52:39.800
"Oh, look at me, I want to be the king of the Dadaists!"

0:52:39.800,0:52:42.520
In fact they used to call him Tzar Tristan.

0:52:42.520,0:52:46.160
But soon Dada had rivals in the Paris art world,

0:52:46.160,0:52:49.000
including the French poet Andre Breton, and he was

0:52:49.000,0:52:52.880
getting up the noses of other poets as well, like Paul Eluard.

0:52:52.880,0:52:57.200
Dada was about to reach its bitter end in July 1923

0:52:57.200,0:53:01.080
at the Soiree Of The Bearded Heart.

0:53:02.200,0:53:06.320
So early on in the evening, Andre Breton takes offence at some

0:53:06.320,0:53:10.280
performer and whacks him with his cane and gets thrown out, then

0:53:10.280,0:53:14.720
a bit later on, just before Tristan Tzara's play The Gas Heart

0:53:14.720,0:53:18.720
is on, there's like a rumpus going on in the stalls.

0:53:18.720,0:53:20.280
Then who is it?

0:53:20.280,0:53:23.600
It's Paul Eluard, the poet. He demands to see Tristan Tzara,

0:53:23.600,0:53:26.280
so Tristan Tzara comes out, they have a pushing and shoving match

0:53:26.280,0:53:30.040
and then Paul Eluard lamps Tristan Tzara,

0:53:30.040,0:53:33.680
he goes down and that was it, you know, it was kind of all over

0:53:33.680,0:53:36.680
by then really, so we went off to the boozer to talk about it,

0:53:36.680,0:53:38.960
and had a right old laugh.

0:53:38.960,0:53:41.400
Dada had died a death.

0:53:41.400,0:53:44.520
But some Dadaists, like Max Ernst and Man Ray,

0:53:44.520,0:53:46.400
found another gang to join,

0:53:46.400,0:53:50.320
jumping ship to Andre Breton's new art movement,

0:53:50.320,0:53:52.280
Surrealism.

0:53:53.280,0:53:56.440
But I don't know if anyone really, really and honestly knew

0:53:56.440,0:53:59.480
what Dada was all about yet.

0:53:59.480,0:54:02.160
And to be honest, neither do I.

0:54:03.560,0:54:07.040
But perhaps if I look out on this historic city,

0:54:07.040,0:54:12.960
take in its atmosphere, I might get a feel for Dada

0:54:12.960,0:54:20.360
and finally get to grips with this contradictory movement.

0:54:21.760,0:54:24.320
No, Paris didn't do much for Dadaism,

0:54:24.320,0:54:27.480
and, to be honest, it's not doing a lot for me either.

0:54:27.480,0:54:28.640
I'm off.

0:54:34.960,0:54:36.800
Terry! Terry!

0:54:38.120,0:54:40.160
What is... What is Dada?

0:54:40.160,0:54:42.360
Come on, what is Dada?

0:54:42.360,0:54:45.080
- Leave me alone! Leave me alone![br]- What is it?

0:54:46.760,0:54:49.320
- What is Dada?[br]- I'm not going to tell him, I'm not going to tell him.

0:54:51.880,0:54:54.640
What is Dada?

0:54:56.000,0:54:59.480
Everyone needs a shed to go to when all else has failed.

0:55:00.800,0:55:02.320
What is Dada?

0:55:02.320,0:55:06.080
What is Dada? What...is Dada?

0:55:06.080,0:55:08.040
- VOICE ECHOES: [br]- Eh, what do you reckon?

0:55:08.040,0:55:11.880
Turkey. Tutankhamen.

0:55:11.880,0:55:14.160
- Hello.[br]- What?

0:55:14.160,0:55:18.080
Moon River, wider than a mile.

0:55:18.080,0:55:19.680
Hello.

0:55:19.680,0:55:21.000
Hello.

0:55:21.000,0:55:23.240
Yes, Arthur Smith at your service here.

0:55:23.240,0:55:26.920
What exactly is Dada?

0:55:26.920,0:55:31.600
Dada is a virgin microbe that fills up all the space

0:55:31.600,0:55:35.200
that reason cannot with its convention.

0:55:35.200,0:55:37.680
Good, glad you sorted that out for me, then.

0:55:37.680,0:55:39.360
Yeah, I mean, in a sense, you know,

0:55:39.360,0:55:42.560
if you start trying to analyse it then you'll end up

0:55:42.560,0:55:45.840
disappearing up your own bottom, and it recognises that.

0:55:45.840,0:55:50.480
So some people reckon is political, some people think it's just

0:55:50.480,0:55:54.560
stupid absurdist comedy, or is it all of it? What is it?

0:55:54.560,0:55:59.800
You've got to defy convention and logic in order to amaze

0:55:59.800,0:56:03.080
and stimulate people, I suppose.

0:56:03.080,0:56:06.960
Dada gave a licence for people to be stupid and in some sense

0:56:06.960,0:56:11.880
it is the founder of modern comedy and you've definitely acted on

0:56:11.880,0:56:18.040
your licence to be stupid, and Vic and all your mates, so well done.

0:56:18.040,0:56:19.640
Thanks.

0:56:19.640,0:56:21.880
Well, I'm stuck here alone in my bar,

0:56:21.880,0:56:24.200
and you're stuck there alone in your bar,

0:56:24.200,0:56:28.840
and yet we're together, Jim, that's a kind of Dadaism all by itself.

0:56:28.840,0:56:30.760
That's beautiful.

0:56:30.760,0:56:34.160
'Right, where do I go from here?'

0:56:42.800,0:56:46.480
We're nearly at the end of our voyage, and have we discovered anything?

0:56:46.480,0:56:49.760
Yes, I think we have. I think we know a little bit more about Dada.

0:56:49.760,0:56:52.760
Do you know more about Dada? Do I know more about Dada?

0:56:52.760,0:56:55.040
I do, but do you?

0:56:55.040,0:56:57.200
I don't and you do.

0:56:57.200,0:57:01.320
And I think one thing that we have learned is that a bloke

0:57:01.320,0:57:03.920
from the BBC, that's me, sitting on a pedestal,

0:57:03.920,0:57:05.640
can't tell you what to think.

0:57:05.640,0:57:08.360
They'll put it all together in the edit anyway.

0:57:08.360,0:57:09.920
Dada is...

0:57:09.920,0:57:11.360
- Completely...[br]- Maverick...

0:57:11.360,0:57:14.360
- Deconstructing... [br]- This serious idea about...

0:57:14.360,0:57:17.040
- Art...[br]- It's just an assembly...

0:57:17.040,0:57:19.760
- Of artists who create... [br]- Art that was...[br]- Incredibly modern...

0:57:19.760,0:57:21.200
- Very...[br]- Coincidental...

0:57:21.200,0:57:23.600
- Free-form...[br]- Negligence...

0:57:23.600,0:57:26.640
- They were a bit stupid... [br]- And want to make people laugh...

0:57:26.640,0:57:28.520
- The spirit of Dada...[br]- Was about...

0:57:28.520,0:57:31.200
- A whole new set of... [br]- Extraordinary...[br]- Ideologies...

0:57:31.200,0:57:33.800
- They were angry about... [br]- Convention and...

0:57:33.800,0:57:36.360
- People being sick... [br]- It's like a big political...

0:57:36.360,0:57:38.720
- Shake it up. [br]- I would say it's pretty absurd...

0:57:38.720,0:57:41.040
- It just is...[br]- More like life...

0:57:41.040,0:57:43.600
- Nonsensical anyway... [br]- More provocative...

0:57:43.600,0:57:46.240
- Than beer and sausages... [br]- I'm sure it's something like that.

0:58:15.240,0:58:17.080
Thank you.

0:58:17.080,0:58:19.720
LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE