1 00:00:02,719 --> 00:00:05,120 Dada... 2 00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:06,960 Dada. 3 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:10,560 Some words seize the imagination and draw you in, 4 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:12,640 inviting you to delve deeper. 5 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,800 For me, Dada is just one of those words. 6 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:21,880 An idea, a call to arms and a way of thinking. 7 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:26,480 OK, ready, here we go. 8 00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:28,400 We're going to embark on a journey. 9 00:00:28,400 --> 00:00:30,680 I'm going to take you, dear viewer, to a place where 10 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:33,120 no television programme has ever been before, but... 11 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:37,120 No, what I am going to do is try and persuade you that Dada is 12 00:00:37,120 --> 00:00:40,960 much, much more than an obscure art movement with a funny name. 13 00:00:40,960 --> 00:00:42,360 Oh, yes. 14 00:00:43,360 --> 00:00:47,080 100 years ago, in the midst of a nonsensical war, 15 00:00:47,080 --> 00:00:49,960 Dada made an art out of the absurd. 16 00:00:51,840 --> 00:00:54,520 Mocking politicians, 17 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:56,800 satirising the media, 18 00:00:56,800 --> 00:00:59,480 and ridiculing centuries of culture, 19 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:03,360 Dada created a new way of looking at the world. 20 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,120 Sometimes shocking, often anarchic, 21 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:11,080 and always difficult to define, its legacy would span a century. 22 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:14,920 Dada's tentacles have spread right across our culture, 23 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:17,120 from punk 24 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:18,760 to the Pythons 25 00:01:18,760 --> 00:01:20,400 and from Damien Hirst 26 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:22,400 to David Bowie. 27 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,120 The world has gone gaga for Dada. 28 00:01:26,120 --> 00:01:28,000 Do you want me to shout "Dada" now? 29 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:29,280 No. 30 00:01:29,280 --> 00:01:30,560 Everybody's heard of Dada, 31 00:01:30,560 --> 00:01:33,320 but no-one seems to know exactly what it is. 32 00:01:33,320 --> 00:01:35,920 Dada takes delight in contradiction. 33 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:40,120 So, to help me pin it down, I've enlisted the help of a few friends. 34 00:01:40,120 --> 00:01:41,280 Dada! 35 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:43,280 Daaaaaaaa-daaaaaaa! 36 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:45,800 Da-da, Da-da, Da-da-da. 37 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,120 Da! Da! 38 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:53,960 And, with their assistance, I'll be recreating some Dada performances, 39 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,080 destroying some artworks, 40 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,120 and pulling some mischievous stunts. 41 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,520 There's my Dadaist act for the day. 42 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,440 And all of this to establish why, out of all the isms, movements and 43 00:02:06,440 --> 00:02:08,639 manifestos of the 20th century, 44 00:02:08,639 --> 00:02:12,320 it was the Dadaists who proved the most important, 45 00:02:12,320 --> 00:02:14,760 giving birth not only to a lot of modern art, 46 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:19,840 but also shaping comedy, music and political protest. 47 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:24,240 MUSIC: Da Da Da by Trio 48 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:30,760 LAIDBACK RUSTIC MUSIC PLAYS 49 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:38,760 I first came across Dada at art school in the early '80s. 50 00:02:38,760 --> 00:02:41,560 It was funnier and more anarchic than anything else I'd 51 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:45,320 discovered and it didn't always have to make sense. 52 00:02:45,320 --> 00:02:49,320 I soon embarked on nonsensical performances of my own. 53 00:02:52,000 --> 00:02:54,560 I did a performance called I, Kestrel, 54 00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:59,320 where I dropped potatoes from out of a cardboard box. 55 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:03,360 I was in a band that had no name, but we smelt of curry. 56 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,840 It emerged from flasks at the side of the stage. 57 00:03:08,320 --> 00:03:11,920 Some people have called some of my performances Dada-esque, and they've 58 00:03:11,920 --> 00:03:15,840 certainly always flown in the face of logic, leading me to think... 59 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:20,040 have I've been subconsciously influenced? Hmmm. 60 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:21,680 Maybe. 61 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:29,320 - Hmmm. - Hmmmmm. 62 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,840 But where did all this Dadaism begin? 63 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:41,240 Que es Dada? 64 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:48,320 Dada - a word chosen at random from a French-German dictionary. 65 00:03:48,320 --> 00:03:50,760 "Yes, yes," in Romanian. 66 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:55,400 A hobby horse in French. 67 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:03,440 Whatever the case, it all began 100 years ago in an unlikely place. 68 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:05,280 CUCKOO! 69 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:07,080 It wasn't in Berlin 70 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:08,720 or Paris, 71 00:04:08,720 --> 00:04:13,440 or any of your usual hotbeds of Bohemian outrage. No. 72 00:04:13,440 --> 00:04:16,839 The first artists to scare the hell out of the Establishment 73 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:20,959 launched their revolution here in, of all places, Zurich. 74 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:23,920 SWISS YODELLING SONG PLAYS 75 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:29,400 When you think of Zurich, 76 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,680 the last thing you think about is a radical, anarchic art movement. 77 00:04:32,680 --> 00:04:35,680 What you might think about is cheese, clocks, 78 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:37,480 or Swiss Army knives. 79 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:39,240 But radical art movements? No. 80 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:41,840 But it was exactly that "There's nothing to see here" 81 00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:46,400 reputation, that staying in neutral whilst their neighbours were all 82 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:51,880 fighting to the death that made Zurich the breeding ground for Dada. 83 00:04:57,520 --> 00:05:03,680 In 1916, Europe was tearing itself apart, and some wanted 84 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:07,640 no further part in the madness and destruction they saw around them. 85 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:14,240 Amidst the violence and upheaval of the First World War, artists, poets 86 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:17,840 and freethinkers from both sides of the conflict gathered here in 87 00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:21,040 Zurich to avoid the horrors of the battlefront. 88 00:05:21,040 --> 00:05:23,200 MUSIC: Boogie Stop Shuffle by Charles Mingus 89 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:25,880 It was a city of exiles, and among them a group of unlikely 90 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:30,520 revolutionaries formed a bizarre protest movement - Dada. 91 00:05:30,520 --> 00:05:33,800 In a world where governments created carnage and the normal order 92 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,320 had become nonsensical, the Dadaists felt the only appropriate 93 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:41,520 artistic response was to be truly and deliberately absurd. 94 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:46,760 And like all the best world-changing movements, 95 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:50,400 Dada began here in a dirty, dingy underground drinking hole. 96 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,880 With nothing more than the humble dream of selling extra 97 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,680 sausages and beer, the proprietor of this place sanctioned a cabaret. 98 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:07,080 Little did he know what he was letting himself in for. 99 00:06:08,160 --> 00:06:12,760 The Cabaret Voltaire, still here 100 years on, kick-started 100 00:06:12,760 --> 00:06:16,640 a movement that would wreak havoc across Europe and beyond. 101 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:20,720 - So, welcome, Jim, to Cabaret Voltaire... - Thank you, Adrian. 102 00:06:20,720 --> 00:06:23,760 - ..the birthplace of Dada. - Cheers. 103 00:06:23,760 --> 00:06:27,440 So, how did the Cabaret Voltaire start here, then? 104 00:06:27,440 --> 00:06:31,360 Hugo Ball, who was a writer and a director in the theatre in Munich, 105 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:35,240 and Emmy Hennings who was a singer in cafes and bars, 106 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:38,640 they came here in 1915 and they were hired in 107 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:42,120 a cabaret just down the street, and after a while they thought, 108 00:06:42,120 --> 00:06:44,960 "We should have our own cabaret." 109 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:47,560 They send out an invitation to artists. 110 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:49,640 Was there any kind of direction, 111 00:06:49,640 --> 00:06:51,720 or it was just "Do whatever you want to do?" 112 00:06:51,720 --> 00:06:53,680 Today, one would say it was an open stage. 113 00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:55,880 - A free-for-all. - Yeah, free-for-all. - Yeah. 114 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:58,440 So, the Dadaists mobilised themselves for war, 115 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:01,360 but theirs was a battle against reason itself. 116 00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:03,040 BRAIN WHIMPERS LIKE A DOG 117 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:05,840 Hugo Ball appeared in a bizarre bishop's outfit. 118 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:13,120 Romanian poet Tristan Tzara cast a Maori tribal spell. 119 00:07:15,280 --> 00:07:18,520 Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber improvised a dance, wearing 120 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:20,920 a cardboard mask. 121 00:07:20,920 --> 00:07:24,240 And a dozen balalaika players turned up. 122 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:29,240 The German poet Richard Huelsenbeck snapped a riding whip, shouting... 123 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:36,360 ..and was joined by Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco to perform 124 00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:39,280 in German, English and French all at the same time. 125 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:44,880 Sounds like a great show. 126 00:07:44,880 --> 00:07:47,640 But a bit of a shock for the locals. 127 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:50,280 What sort of people did they attract in here, then? 128 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:54,000 - People who come to drink beer and eat sausages and... - And absinthe. 129 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:55,880 - ..and absinthe, yeah. - Yeah. 130 00:07:55,880 --> 00:07:59,840 And they didn't come to see somebody talking about art or reciting poems. 131 00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:03,320 - Yeah. - Basically they had to be better than the absinthe 132 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:05,520 or better than beer and sausages. 133 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:08,080 This really reminds me of where I started off. 134 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,920 - I started off in a pub in Southeast London... - Yeah. 135 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,720 ..which was about the same size as this, the same layout, 136 00:08:14,720 --> 00:08:16,560 and it was the same kind of thing. 137 00:08:16,560 --> 00:08:20,400 - I used to get people out of the audience... - Yeah. - ..and say, "Do you want to do something?" 138 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,200 And it'd be a different show every week, and it was just, like, 139 00:08:23,200 --> 00:08:25,560 strangely so similar. 140 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:28,840 So, did you have some absinthe at that time, maybe, and that's why...? 141 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:31,640 - Didn't have absinth, no. We just had lager. - Lager. 142 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:33,520 THEY LAUGH 143 00:08:33,520 --> 00:08:37,000 For Hugo Ball, language had been hijacked by the warmongers 144 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:40,120 who twisted words to justify their violent acts, 145 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:44,200 so out went words and in came some unusual poetry. 146 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:47,640 A lot of these words, they're made up, aren't they? 147 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:51,680 - Bloiko - I could say that in my accent. Bloiko. - Bloiko. 148 00:08:51,680 --> 00:08:53,360 That's nice, yeah. 149 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:58,240 - Ogrogoooo. What is it, the umlaut? There's an umlaut. - Ogrogoooo. 150 00:08:58,240 --> 00:08:59,960 - Ogrogoooo. - Ogrogoooo. 151 00:08:59,960 --> 00:09:01,760 What's this? Bulomen. 152 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:04,040 I think you can probably get that in a face cream. 153 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:06,080 ADRIAN LAUGHS 154 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:08,680 Some of those words may feel a bit familiar. 155 00:09:08,680 --> 00:09:10,640 Uvavu. 156 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:13,920 Well, look, the audience is in and we're ruining it for them, 157 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:17,000 really, by still being here, so we should make a dramatic entrance... 158 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:19,560 - Yes. - ..very soon. 159 00:09:19,560 --> 00:09:23,160 'Tonight I'm going to be re-staging one of the founding moments 160 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:27,120 'in the history of Dada, here at its birthplace. 161 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:29,560 'For Hugo ball's most iconic performance, 162 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:32,360 'he wore his most outlandish outfit.' 163 00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:37,520 So we'll try and fit Jim into Hugo's costume. 164 00:09:37,520 --> 00:09:39,520 JIM LAUGHS 165 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:42,360 - Pull it off. - OK. 166 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:44,720 You misjudged my bulk. 167 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:49,920 'There's a few serious faces in the audience. 168 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:53,480 'God knows what they're going to make of my transformation into Hugo Ball.' 169 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:55,800 How's that? 170 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,040 - The words don't make any sense. - I know. 171 00:09:58,040 --> 00:10:00,720 - LAUGHTER - There's only one word. 172 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:02,880 - Don't try and understand, just... - I'm not going to. 173 00:10:02,880 --> 00:10:07,000 - ..go with the flow. - Right, start, because my specs are falling off my nose with the sweat. 174 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,680 Thanks. LAUGHTER 175 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:16,400 Gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori. 176 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:22,400 Gadjama tuffm i zimzalla binban gligla wowolimai bin beri ban. 177 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:30,000 Elifantolim brussala bulomen brussala bulomen tromtata. 178 00:10:31,040 --> 00:10:35,960 Velo da bang band affalo purzamai affalo purzamai lengado tor. 179 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:38,960 LAUGHTER 180 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:40,680 I'm getting lost. 181 00:10:40,680 --> 00:10:43,240 Gaga di bumbalo bumbalo gadjamen. 182 00:10:43,240 --> 00:10:45,640 Gaga di bling blong. 183 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:47,960 Gaga blung. 184 00:10:47,960 --> 00:10:51,360 APPLAUSE 185 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:55,680 I'm collapsing. 186 00:10:56,760 --> 00:10:59,920 Take this off. LAUGHTER 187 00:10:59,920 --> 00:11:02,480 Thank you. And there we are. 188 00:11:02,480 --> 00:11:03,840 Um... 189 00:11:03,840 --> 00:11:06,480 What was that? LAUGHTER 190 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:09,200 APPLAUSE 191 00:11:13,560 --> 00:11:15,560 - His outfit was ridiculous. - Yeah. 192 00:11:15,560 --> 00:11:17,440 JIM LAUGHS 193 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:19,400 - I'm not knocking it at all. - OK. 194 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:20,600 Oh, I'm right on it. 195 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:24,280 If he's there, doing his poetry in his magic bishop's costume, 196 00:11:24,280 --> 00:11:29,000 he's already got a congregation, so he's begun a religion. 197 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:32,960 Yeah. And so that's why all these people come here, like a pilgrimage. 198 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:35,600 - And what a great shrine. - Yeah. - What a fantastic place. 199 00:11:35,600 --> 00:11:41,160 - If you've got to have a religion, I'm going to be in here. - Yeah. 200 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:46,880 'Hugo Ball wrote that, "Everyone has been seized by an indefinable intoxication. 201 00:11:46,880 --> 00:11:50,080 ' "The little cabaret is about to come apart at the seams and is 202 00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:53,800 ' "getting to be a playground for crazy emotions." ' 203 00:11:53,800 --> 00:11:56,520 Are you following me? 204 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:59,840 Just five months after it opened, the cabaret closed, 205 00:11:59,840 --> 00:12:03,560 but Dada was just beginning. 206 00:12:03,560 --> 00:12:07,040 In July 1916, Hugo Ball delivered the first in 207 00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:12,160 a series of speeches announcing the Dada Manifestos. 208 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:15,720 These speeches parodied the more grandiose written manifestos 209 00:12:15,720 --> 00:12:17,600 of the time. 210 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:23,560 Dada is a new tendency in art. How does one achieve eternal bliss? 211 00:12:23,560 --> 00:12:25,560 By saying Dada. 212 00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:29,520 How does one become famous? By saying Dada. 213 00:12:29,520 --> 00:12:34,000 A line of poetry is a chance to get rid of all the filth that 214 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:37,600 clings to this accursed language, 215 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:41,280 as if put there by a stockbroker's hands, 216 00:12:41,280 --> 00:12:44,960 hands wrought smooth by coins. 217 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:47,560 Dada is the heart of words. 218 00:12:48,680 --> 00:12:50,640 So, what were they doing? 219 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:53,400 Let's say, with the poetry, the meaningless, pointless, 220 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:55,680 senseless words within the poetry, 221 00:12:55,680 --> 00:12:58,720 was it a reaction against the meaningless, senseless, 222 00:12:58,720 --> 00:13:01,280 pointless war that was surrounding them? 223 00:13:01,280 --> 00:13:04,560 Or were they just trying out something new and having fun with it? 224 00:13:04,560 --> 00:13:06,240 I don't know. 225 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:09,040 Do you know? 226 00:13:10,320 --> 00:13:13,160 In neighbouring Germany, life was becoming increasingly 227 00:13:13,160 --> 00:13:15,560 desperate as the war drew to a close, 228 00:13:15,560 --> 00:13:19,160 and nowhere was this more so than in Berlin. 229 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:22,680 This devastated city would provide the setting for Dada's new 230 00:13:22,680 --> 00:13:27,920 incarnation as the German poet Richard Huelsenbeck returned home from Zurich. 231 00:13:31,480 --> 00:13:34,560 Richard Huelsenbeck wound up the crowd, 232 00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:37,680 claiming the Zurich Dadaists were pro-war. 233 00:13:37,680 --> 00:13:41,000 "And Dadaism is still pro-war today. 234 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,160 "Things are still not cruel enough." 235 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:49,920 In Berlin, Club Dada would unleash a fiercely political rage. 236 00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:53,240 The First International Dada Fair shook Berlin with its 237 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,600 shocking satire of the German Establishment. 238 00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:59,440 And it didn't just tease the Establishment - 239 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:02,120 it mercilessly mocked the powers that be. 240 00:14:02,120 --> 00:14:05,320 John Heartfield hung a dummy from the ceiling dressed in German 241 00:14:05,320 --> 00:14:08,960 military uniform and with a pig's snout for a face. 242 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:12,760 And Otto Dix showed veterans disabled by war injuries. 243 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:15,360 These artists took genuine risks, 244 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,480 and many were arrested for their actions. 245 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:22,760 But in the male-dominated world of Berlin Dada, Huelsenbeck, Heartfield 246 00:14:22,760 --> 00:14:25,800 and Dix met their match in Hannah Hoch. 247 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,240 MALE VOICES SCREAM More than holding her own at the art fair, 248 00:14:31,240 --> 00:14:34,080 Hoch satirised the entire German Establishment with her 249 00:14:34,080 --> 00:14:36,880 masterpiece, Cut With The Kitchen Knife, 250 00:14:36,880 --> 00:14:40,920 pioneering a radically subversive new artform - photomontage. 251 00:14:43,840 --> 00:14:46,840 Dada's ground-breaking visual techniques would have a huge 252 00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,960 impact on Neville Brody, one of the pioneers of modern graphic design. 253 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:55,880 His interest in Dada has seeped into his cutting edge art 254 00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:59,760 direction for The Face magazine and his iconic post-punk sleeve 255 00:14:59,760 --> 00:15:02,640 designs for bands like, you guessed it... 256 00:15:02,640 --> 00:15:04,600 Cabaret Voltaire. 257 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:12,000 Neville, here we've got an early bit of photomontage by Hannah Hoch. 258 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,080 That's the Kaiser, isn't it? 259 00:15:14,080 --> 00:15:16,360 So, this is his moustache here. 260 00:15:16,360 --> 00:15:19,480 Well, this is what I like about it, yeah. Oh, it's two wrestlers. 261 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:22,760 Well, you've got little Hannah Hoch down here, 262 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:25,480 this tiny head is a kind of signature. 263 00:15:25,480 --> 00:15:29,640 And then these are the countries where women had the right to 264 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:31,160 vote at the time. 265 00:15:31,160 --> 00:15:35,240 This is the first real kind of powerful use of photomontage 266 00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:37,320 as a real tool of subversion. 267 00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:40,720 Why was it? Was it because you'd got photos in newspapers? 268 00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:42,880 The free access of, like, 269 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,600 printed photographs meant that someone like Hannah Hoch could come 270 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:49,000 in, cut it out, combine it all and create a completely new narrative. 271 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:51,440 So this is a whole new way of looking. 272 00:15:51,440 --> 00:15:54,160 - Like a big political cartoon as well, isn't it? - Yeah. 273 00:15:54,160 --> 00:15:56,000 This was shocking to the bourgeoisie. 274 00:15:56,000 --> 00:15:59,840 It was deliberately non-aesthetic. It's not pretty. 275 00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:03,200 And this is something that we've seen a lot since. 276 00:16:03,200 --> 00:16:06,680 You know, punk, Jamie Reid, the Sex Pistols covers. 277 00:16:11,640 --> 00:16:14,520 Punk hijacked Dada's use of photomontage as 278 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:16,320 a weapon of subversion, 279 00:16:16,320 --> 00:16:19,840 from Jamie Reid's Sex Pistols covers to Linder sterling's feminist 280 00:16:19,840 --> 00:16:23,120 artworks and sleeve designs for bands like the Buzzcocks. 281 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:27,600 But punk is only the most obvious child of Dada. 282 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:34,720 'Club Dada's striking visuals extended to magazines and journals. 283 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:38,880 'I've brought along a copy of the first Dada publication, 284 00:16:38,880 --> 00:16:41,680 'and I've got a feeling this is going to be right up Neville's street.' 285 00:16:41,680 --> 00:16:43,200 What is this? 286 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:47,000 This is coming directly out of the photomontage approach, 287 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,200 but now it's typomontage. 288 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,160 - Yeah, so it's using everything. - This is really stunning. 289 00:16:52,160 --> 00:16:56,160 It's an amazing piece of freeform typography. 290 00:16:56,160 --> 00:16:58,600 This really was ahead of its time. 291 00:16:58,600 --> 00:16:59,960 Just looks incredibly modern. 292 00:16:59,960 --> 00:17:02,760 There was a lot of punk stuff that was done that looked like this. 293 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:06,560 - A lot of art in the '60s and 70s had this feel, and the '50s. - Yeah. 294 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,240 And this had a big influence on my work, directly - the idea of going 295 00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:14,560 off-grid, nothing lines up, it's all at an angle, 296 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:16,839 yet it has so much energy. 297 00:17:16,839 --> 00:17:18,920 - It is completely haphazard. - Yeah. 298 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:21,640 I actually remember I did a whole record cover where all the type was 299 00:17:21,640 --> 00:17:26,000 at angles and the printer helped me by straightening them all up again. 300 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:28,720 He said, "I've fixed it for you now, young man." 301 00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:30,560 This is beautiful, though, isn't it? 302 00:17:30,560 --> 00:17:33,240 It's gorgeous, just an extraordinary piece. 303 00:17:33,240 --> 00:17:36,080 Makes me want to give it up - it's all been done, really, hasn't it? 304 00:17:36,080 --> 00:17:38,400 JIM LAUGHS 305 00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:41,000 'A lot of today's generation of graphic designers think 306 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,440 'they're nicking ideas from Neville Brody, but what they don't realise 307 00:17:44,440 --> 00:17:48,680 'is that some of the freshest looking magazine layouts date back to Dada.' 308 00:17:50,840 --> 00:17:53,680 While Hannah Hoch and others were busy setting the agenda 309 00:17:53,680 --> 00:17:55,520 for 20th century culture, 310 00:17:55,520 --> 00:17:59,920 one lone wolf managed to grab all of the world's media attention. 311 00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:05,520 Architect Johannes Baader was in his own Dada universe. 312 00:18:05,520 --> 00:18:09,880 He called himself Super Dada, or Dada Chief, 313 00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:13,800 and announced himself as President Of The Earth. 314 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:15,480 No ego problems there, then. 315 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:16,720 On April Fools' Day, 316 00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:20,240 he warned the district of Berlin that Dada forces were on 317 00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:25,040 their way, and 2,000 people were there to fend off the Dada invasion. 318 00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:28,480 When the time came, he wrote his own obituary but announced his 319 00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:31,160 resurrection the following day. 320 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,080 Richard Huelsenbeck warned, 321 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:37,040 "Watch out for Baader, who has nothing to do with our thoughts. 322 00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:42,720 "He has compromised Dada in Berlin to such an extent with his 323 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:47,240 "idiocies that I can't even get a small item into the press." 324 00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:49,480 MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie 325 00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:53,560 According to one of the Dada gang, "Dada was a dancing epidemic 326 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:58,320 "with simultaneous beginnings in different parts of the world." 327 00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:02,880 In Zurich, Dada had taken a hammer to language. 328 00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:06,480 In Berlin, it attacked the political Establishment. 329 00:19:06,480 --> 00:19:11,560 And now, in New York, Dada took aim at art itself. 330 00:19:12,760 --> 00:19:14,320 JAZZ PIANO MUSIC PLAYS 331 00:19:16,920 --> 00:19:20,920 Marcel Duchamp, the king of conceptual art, 332 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:24,200 forced the grand old guardians of the art world to ask 333 00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:27,920 themselves a question they hadn't had to think about before. 334 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:32,040 "If you put a toilet in art gallery, does that make it art?" 335 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:35,120 And, "Should I start stroking my beard yet?" 336 00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:41,880 Duchamp caused scandal by presenting a urinal signed "R Mutt" 337 00:19:41,880 --> 00:19:45,080 to the board of the Society For Independent Artists. 338 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:50,800 It was rejected and the story went in Dada journals like The Blind Man. 339 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:54,880 It was just one in a series of ready-mades - 340 00:19:54,880 --> 00:19:58,480 everyday objects exhibited as art - 341 00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:00,880 a closed window, 342 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,400 a snow shovel, 343 00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,400 a bottle rack, 344 00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:07,440 and a bicycle wheel. 345 00:20:08,760 --> 00:20:12,240 And Duchamp provoked the rage of the art establishment still 346 00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:16,600 further by defacing an old master. 347 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,280 A copy at least. 348 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:21,920 He called the work Elle A Chaud Au Cul, 349 00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:24,200 which in French sounds just like, 350 00:20:24,200 --> 00:20:26,320 "She's got a hot ass." 351 00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,640 For the Dadaists, this series of provocations was enough for 352 00:20:29,640 --> 00:20:34,000 Duchamp to gain entry into their club, whether he liked it or not. 353 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:41,600 Artist Cornelia Parker has made art out of everyday objects herself, 354 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:45,160 but not without flattening them first with a steam roller. 355 00:20:45,160 --> 00:20:47,000 She's my kind of artist. 356 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:52,720 And, for Cornelia, Duchamp, the reluctant Dadaist, 357 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:54,840 has been a lifelong inspiration. 358 00:20:56,400 --> 00:20:59,760 Was Marcel Duchamp a Dadaist? 359 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:02,600 He was a Dadaist by default, I think. 360 00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:05,320 The toilet...R Mutt's toilet, that's the thing that everyone knows, 361 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:08,520 - isn't it? - R Mutt's toilet, yeah, I suppose you introduce the idea of 362 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:11,040 anything you just go and buy in the shop becoming an art object. 363 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:13,680 - And he did, and he caused a big stink. - He did. 364 00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:16,880 The idea of putting that into a salon where you're supposed 365 00:21:16,880 --> 00:21:20,960 to put accepted work seemed to be what it was all about, 366 00:21:20,960 --> 00:21:23,520 really, more than the object itself. 367 00:21:23,520 --> 00:21:25,480 A lot of things just started with him, 368 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:27,800 because he was just up for anything. 369 00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,520 Duchamp sort of opened up this seam, you know, 370 00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:34,720 in kind of art that was kind of...everything was quite 371 00:21:34,720 --> 00:21:37,440 stable and quite...progressing nicely, 372 00:21:37,440 --> 00:21:40,680 but he'd just kind of create this big fissure, you know, this 373 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:45,240 fault-line that allowed other people just to be completely maverick. 374 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:50,200 Duchamp's idea for the readymade has inspired generations of 375 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,360 artists since, 376 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:55,160 and at the time inspired a collaboration with artist and 377 00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,400 photographer Man Ray. 378 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:01,440 This is a fantastic photograph by Man Ray of Duchamp's 379 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:05,640 half-finished sculpture which was called The Large Glass. 380 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:09,200 He was allowing dust to accumulate on it, 381 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:11,560 because he wanted to incorporate the dust into the piece, 382 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:13,880 and I think he left a note for the cleaner, cos 383 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,760 he had a cleaning lady, saying, you know, "Don't touch, dust breeding." 384 00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:23,840 - Did Man Ray come round to his house and then...? - Spot it and like it? - And Marcel said, 385 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,720 "Here, have a look at this, look at all this dust I'm breeding here." 386 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:29,120 And he says, "We'll just take a picture of it, shall we?" 387 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:31,320 - I'm sure it went something like that. - I bet it is, yeah. 388 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:33,840 I think some of the best art is serendipitous. 389 00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:38,480 - I quite like the idea of, you know, negligence becoming art. - CORNELIA LAUGHS 390 00:22:38,480 --> 00:22:41,720 Yeah. And have you been influenced by Dada? 391 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:44,720 I'm very influenced by Duchamp. I think he's, most probably, if 392 00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:48,560 I had to pick one artist to say that he's had the most influence on me. 393 00:22:48,560 --> 00:22:50,520 Yeah. 394 00:22:50,520 --> 00:22:54,600 Dada managed to be really infantile and outrageous but at the 395 00:22:54,600 --> 00:22:57,920 same time made people think about things afresh. 396 00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:02,480 I'm off with Cornelia to stage our own Dada intervention. 397 00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:04,600 MUSIC: Da Funk by Daft Punk 398 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:07,560 It'll pay tribute to both the politics of Club Dada in Berlin 399 00:23:07,560 --> 00:23:09,680 and the irreverence of New York Dada. 400 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,120 It's taking us to Bond Street, where war leaders 401 00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:19,960 Churchill and Roosevelt hold court. 402 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:28,400 Let's see who gets arrested first. 403 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:31,880 Do you think I'll get arrested... I'm more likely to get arrested with balaclavas? 404 00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:35,000 I think you'll get more arrested than me. THEY LAUGH 405 00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:38,400 - Here are the boys. - Right, so, are you ready? - Yeah. 406 00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:49,200 There's my Dadaist act for the day. 407 00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:51,320 - That's great, don't you think? - Yeah. 408 00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:53,720 It looks really menacing. 409 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:56,920 Shall we leave them on for a couple of minutes to see what people think? 410 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,680 'I think Cornelia's gone for political Dada - 411 00:24:00,680 --> 00:24:02,680 'she's made them into terrorists.' 412 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:07,560 The police don't seem to have noticed yet. 413 00:24:07,560 --> 00:24:10,720 'Right, now it's my turn to give these old geezers 414 00:24:10,720 --> 00:24:12,760 'a 21st century face-lift. 415 00:24:12,760 --> 00:24:16,720 'I'm thinking absurdo-Dada is more my style.' 416 00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:20,080 MUSIC: I've Told Every Little Star by Linda Scott 417 00:24:20,080 --> 00:24:21,960 'That should bring them down to scale.' 418 00:24:21,960 --> 00:24:24,560 - There. - That's great, I love it. 419 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:26,400 These need you on, darling. 420 00:24:26,400 --> 00:24:28,320 I think I'll go on here. 421 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:29,960 Oh! 422 00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,040 - What does it mean then? - What does it mean? - What have we done? 423 00:24:33,040 --> 00:24:35,880 Well, this is almost...well, it's 100 years after Dadaism, 424 00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:37,920 - so this is... - Is it a student prank? 425 00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,320 - I think it's a student prank... - It kind of feels like it. 426 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:42,400 It is a student prank, isn't it? 427 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,560 I liked your balaclavas, I think, best. 428 00:24:44,560 --> 00:24:48,040 - Did you? - Yeah. It was more of a striking effect. 429 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:51,720 It was slightly more edgy. People enjoy this one more, I think. 430 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,960 - Mine was most probably a bit more like... - SIREN WAILS 431 00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:56,880 ..you know, like Pussy Riot or something. 432 00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:58,280 - Do you think so? - Yes. 433 00:24:58,280 --> 00:25:00,600 Here come the coppers. 434 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,240 - What should we do - just leave it there? - Well, we could. 435 00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:05,720 Should we just walk off and leave it? 436 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,720 I suppose the whole legacy of Dada means that people 437 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,600 have been defacing statues for a long time, haven't they? 438 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:20,160 Usually the traffic cone is the favourite one. 439 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:22,640 Now you've got Banksy. 440 00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:26,200 It's not just being cheeky. No. CORNELIA LAUGHS 441 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:28,320 No, it's a bit more, I don't know, 442 00:25:28,320 --> 00:25:30,440 it came out of a more political time, didn't it? 443 00:25:30,440 --> 00:25:33,160 For some reason I always thought Dadaism was 444 00:25:33,160 --> 00:25:36,640 a little less benign than Surrealism. 445 00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:40,560 'Well, that's its brilliance for me. 446 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:43,600 'Dada can be the provocative dangerous artform Cornelia is 447 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:46,880 'drawn to, but it's also the original inspiration for mindless 448 00:25:46,880 --> 00:25:49,040 'student pranks.' 449 00:25:55,440 --> 00:26:00,040 Back in Zurich, Tristan Tzara, who we last saw casting a tribal spell 450 00:26:00,040 --> 00:26:04,680 at the Cabaret Voltaire, was taking Dada in a radical new direction. 451 00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:09,080 With new publications springing up by the second, 452 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:13,960 Dada's next target was the world of mass communication. 453 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:18,560 Tzara planned to trick the papers with a fake press release. 454 00:26:21,360 --> 00:26:24,200 Tzara was using Dada's subversive energy 455 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:26,680 to mock the new media culture. 456 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:29,760 NEWS JINGLE PLAYS 457 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:37,040 There was a pistol duel yesterday on the Rehalp near Zurich, between 458 00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:41,880 Tristan Tzara, familiar founder of Dada, and Dada painter Hans Arp. 459 00:26:41,880 --> 00:26:44,640 Four rounds were fired and, in the fourth exchange, 460 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:47,440 Arp was slightly grazed on his left thigh. 461 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:51,040 Armando Iannucci. 462 00:26:51,040 --> 00:26:53,400 How do you respond to this? 463 00:26:53,400 --> 00:26:55,800 - Well, this is literally news to me. - Yeah. 464 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:58,480 - I'm going to put the hands down. - Yeah, I'm going to stop doing this. 465 00:26:58,480 --> 00:27:00,320 This was an article, 466 00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:02,600 this was written by the Dadaists and sent out 467 00:27:02,600 --> 00:27:05,640 to various publications and newspapers, and was printed. 468 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:07,440 It was all made up. It was fake. 469 00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:10,880 And that is something that is very contemporary, 470 00:27:10,880 --> 00:27:14,080 because nowadays, you know, there's so much, 471 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,160 you know, 24-hour media and newspapers that have websites 472 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:21,200 - that need filling, so if you sent them a press release now... - Yeah. 473 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:25,040 ..it will appear as a story, even though it's word-for-word 474 00:27:25,040 --> 00:27:27,160 quoting the press release that you sent out. 475 00:27:27,160 --> 00:27:31,840 I mean, what Dada is saying is that something that sounds very 476 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:35,880 serious and true might not be serious and might not be true. 477 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:39,600 I remember, about 20 years ago, we did a show called On The Hour, which 478 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:43,760 was like a false news programme, but we actually did a...we made a report 479 00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:47,320 about an abattoir where the cows were actually rising from the dead. 480 00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:49,240 I remember it. 481 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:52,600 ..and it nearly got on the Today programme. 482 00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:56,560 We submitted it as from a Bristol reporter for BBC Bristol, 483 00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,360 and it was all lined up, 484 00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:01,000 and John Humphrys had written his introduction and everything, 485 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,440 and we came seconds away from it being played live. 486 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:08,840 Armando Iannucci has made an art out of Dadaist manipulation with 487 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,080 shows like The Day Today. 488 00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:12,320 News. 489 00:28:12,320 --> 00:28:15,000 London Transport say they may have to close the Underground 490 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:17,720 system due to an infestation of horses. 491 00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,440 A report described the conditions in the equine plague as 492 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,440 "like an abattoir in a power cut". 493 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:27,280 To inspire other would-be Dadaists, Tristan Tzara published 494 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:30,520 a set of instructions on how to tear up newspaper articles and 495 00:28:30,520 --> 00:28:32,160 reassemble them. 496 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,880 Take a newspaper. Take some scissors. 497 00:28:36,880 --> 00:28:39,480 Choose from this paper an article. 498 00:28:39,480 --> 00:28:43,040 Next, carefully cut out each of the words that make up this 499 00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:46,480 article and put them all together in a bag. 500 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:48,560 Shake gently. 501 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:52,000 Next, take out each cutting, one after the other. 502 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,320 Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag. 503 00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,640 - OK. - Right, so tip it out. - Right. 504 00:28:58,640 --> 00:28:59,960 So, let's... 505 00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:01,920 This is the way they've fallen out. 506 00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:04,240 "We're updating squeaky-voiced felt." 507 00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:06,960 Hang on. 508 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:11,840 "The Cumberbatch appeared correct where cardboard catchphrases, 509 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,760 "occasionally sometimes correct," it says. 510 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:20,120 - Which kind of sums up random words. - Yeah. 511 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,480 I think what they were beginning to explore was that idea that, 512 00:29:24,480 --> 00:29:29,600 you know, we take so much of what we're being told for granted. 513 00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:33,000 We're seeing it as the voice of authority and infallible, 514 00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:36,680 - and they're saying it's not, really. - Yeah. - It's just words. 515 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:39,760 Thank you, thank you. 516 00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,280 We've been recording a music video, and it goes like this. 517 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:45,520 # I'm hardcore and I know the score 518 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:47,840 # I am disgusted by the poor 519 00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:50,600 # And my chums matter more because we are the law 520 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:53,560 # And I've made sure we're ready for class war. # 521 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,760 Cut-up, today, is such a prevalent form. 522 00:29:56,760 --> 00:30:01,800 Deconstructing what you think of as true and telling you it's just, 523 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:06,120 you know, it's just an assembly of information which you could 524 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:08,520 put out in another combination. 525 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,840 Any source of any information can be cut and connected... 526 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:15,640 - But this is a random combination. - Yeah. - That's the difference. 527 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:18,160 I think what's happening now is people are trying to do 528 00:30:18,160 --> 00:30:20,440 something more coherent with it. 529 00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:24,320 So this is Tristan Tzara's unpatented idea, 530 00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:28,000 - but it's led to fridge magnet poetry. - Fridge magnet poetry. 531 00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:30,800 And it's led to the whole of the internet, which consists 532 00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:36,560 mostly of people cutting up bits of film and television. 533 00:30:36,560 --> 00:30:38,760 The idea that we can all reedit - 534 00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:41,440 one day this is how all programmes will be made. 535 00:30:43,920 --> 00:30:45,920 That's great. Thank you.' 536 00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:47,480 THEY CHUCKLE 537 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:49,200 DRAMATIC NEWS SHOW MUSIC 538 00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,720 Dada poets and artists jumped on the creative opportunities 539 00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:59,720 provided by cut-up, using the process for more than just satire. 540 00:30:59,720 --> 00:31:04,000 Sometimes, a painting doesn't go the way you want it to go. 541 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,360 Damn you, fine artwork! 542 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:11,880 And this happened to artist Jean Arp, who was so frustrated, 543 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:17,800 he ripped up the painting and let the pieces land on the floor and 544 00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:21,560 where they landed, he decided that 545 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:24,960 this was exactly what he wanted 546 00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:27,400 in the first place. 547 00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:33,560 That's not bad, actually. It's pretty good. 548 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:36,240 And Arp's wasn't too bad either. 549 00:31:36,240 --> 00:31:38,440 Hello. Yes. Hello. Thank you. Yes. 550 00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:41,920 This Dadaist principle of tearing everything up re-emerged in 551 00:31:41,920 --> 00:31:45,840 '60s counter culture and nowhere more so than with 552 00:31:45,840 --> 00:31:49,000 William Burroughs, who made an art out of chance happening with 553 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:55,400 his fragmented poetry, tape cut-ups, and even randomly reassembled films. 554 00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:58,520 Hello. Yes. Where are we? Hello. Yes. 555 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,600 Hello. Yes. 556 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:03,360 Burroughs' artistic experiments would trigger 557 00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,800 a new wave of cut-up in the second half of the century, passing on 558 00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:11,280 his Dadaist technique to musicians, from Paul McCartney to David Bowie. 559 00:32:12,520 --> 00:32:17,680 What I've used it for more than anything else is igniting 560 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,120 anything that might be in my imagination. 561 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:23,440 I've tried doing it with diaries and things and I was finding out 562 00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:27,160 amazing things about me and what I'd done and where I was going. 563 00:32:27,160 --> 00:32:30,360 And a lot of the things that I'd done, it seemed that it would 564 00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,720 predict things about the future, or tell me a lot about the past. 565 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:35,840 I don't know, let's see what happens. 566 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:45,160 # I'm an alligator 567 00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,040 # I'm a momma-papa... # 568 00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,280 From our pop stars to our counter cultural heroes, 569 00:32:50,280 --> 00:32:53,160 we're all a little bit under the influence of Dada. 570 00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,440 In 1919, the Dada epidemic hit Cologne. 571 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:01,880 Each time it spread, Dada mutated and evolved. 572 00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:09,240 Zurich Dada had introduced absurdist nonsense, Berlin Dada had targeted 573 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:14,240 the political establishment, and New York Dadaists sent up the art world. 574 00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:18,840 Now, in Cologne, it was all about shock for shock's sake. 575 00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:21,640 A Cologne publication called the Berlin Dadaists 576 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:26,400 counterfeits of Dada for their strongly held beliefs. 577 00:33:26,400 --> 00:33:30,800 It claimed, they can neither shit nor pee without ideologies. 578 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:37,960 What Cologne Dada lacked in politics, it made up for in anarchy. 579 00:33:39,040 --> 00:33:42,840 The Dada early spring exhibition incensed audiences with an 580 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:46,760 entrance via a public urinal of a beer hall and on the way in, 581 00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,000 the public were showered with obscenities. 582 00:33:50,000 --> 00:33:52,080 BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP. 583 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:57,880 Audiences were so incensed that they destroyed artworks in fits of rage. 584 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,640 And Max Ernst, the leader of Cologne Dada, actively encouraged 585 00:34:01,640 --> 00:34:06,040 this destruction, displaying a sculpture with an axe attached. 586 00:34:06,040 --> 00:34:09,600 The police said, "Enough is enough!" and closed down the show. 587 00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:17,920 To find out what all this anarchy and destruction was about, 588 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:20,040 I'm going to meet Michael Landy, 589 00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:24,440 one of the mischievous Young British Artists who introduced 590 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,120 Dada's shock tactics to a new generation in the '90s. 591 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:36,760 Michael is best known for destroying all of his possessions 592 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:38,080 in the name of art. 593 00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:39,960 Hello? 594 00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:42,000 And judging by the look of his house, 595 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,199 he hasn't replaced many of them since. 596 00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:48,280 DRAMATIC WESTERN STYLE MUSIC 597 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:02,080 In Cologne, Max Ernst had a wooden sculpture with an axe 598 00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:04,680 attached to it, so that they could destroy it. 599 00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:06,920 - Oh, yeah. - What do you know about that? 600 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,400 Destruction in art has kind of, like, a long history, really. 601 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:15,320 And I think Dada was like, it brought, like, destruction... 602 00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:19,080 It's not necessarily nihilistic, it can also be creative. 603 00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:20,280 Yeah. 604 00:35:20,280 --> 00:35:23,480 Picasso talks about having, like, every time you make a painting, 605 00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:25,880 in a sense, it's a kind of mini-destruction. 606 00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:30,760 You know, you've got to take things apart to recreate, in a sense. 607 00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:34,160 You've got to take the previous generation apart, in a sense. 608 00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:38,320 You've got to almost, like, dismiss what they do and kind of 609 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,320 recreate yourself with a whole new set of values. 610 00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:43,400 Cos you did your destruction... 611 00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:46,320 Yeah, I destroyed all my worldly belongings, yeah. 612 00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:50,120 - Was it absolutely everything? - At the time, yeah, at the age of 37. 613 00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:51,760 And how did you destroy it? 614 00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:54,000 We didn't get an axe to it or anything like that. 615 00:35:54,000 --> 00:35:56,720 It was actually a quite methodical way of doing it. 616 00:35:56,720 --> 00:35:58,840 So did you destroy your artwork as well? 617 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:02,400 Yeah, I destroyed my artwork, I destroyed my friends' artwork. 618 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:05,800 So would you say that was a Dadaist thing to do? 619 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:07,480 Yeah, in some respects, yeah. 620 00:36:07,480 --> 00:36:09,680 I would say it's a pretty absurd thing to do. 621 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,320 Yeah, and it did get up people's noses because obviously 622 00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,920 - people work their whole lives to acquire things, don't they? - Yeah. 623 00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:18,680 And there I was, destroying them all. 624 00:36:18,680 --> 00:36:22,640 Michael Landy and his mates shocked the art world in the 625 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:26,400 '90s with the notorious Sensation exhibition. 626 00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:30,280 There was Damien Hirst with his shark, 627 00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:33,520 Tracey Emin with her unmade bed, 628 00:36:33,520 --> 00:36:37,400 and Marcus Harvey with his portrait of serial killer Myra Hindley, 629 00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:39,760 made with child handprints. 630 00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,640 But while Cologne Dada had its show shut down by the police, 631 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:46,840 the YBA's just provoked a few headlines in the tabloids. 632 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,840 You were involved in the Sensation show, weren't you? 633 00:36:52,840 --> 00:36:54,280 Hands up, I was, yeah. 634 00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:58,720 I mean, Sensation is like a collection of Charles Saatchi's. 635 00:36:58,720 --> 00:37:01,640 I mean, Dada is like... 636 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:05,040 They're a group of artists who create manifestos, you know. 637 00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:07,680 They have like shared ideologies. 638 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:11,240 I think the only similarity would be the media. 639 00:37:11,240 --> 00:37:15,400 Dada was being more provocative than I am and their audience is 640 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,880 very conservative. I mean, what people think of art is like 641 00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:22,200 a nice landscape painting or a nice cherub in bronze. 642 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:23,760 They don't think, you know, 643 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:26,280 a mannequin with a light bulb on its head is art. 644 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:29,440 - Yeah. - So they're trying to shock people, aren't they? - Yeah, they are. 645 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,840 That's what they're trying to... Get up their noses and make them angry. 646 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:37,160 Yeah. So, any final thoughts on Dada? 647 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:40,560 I'd just like to thank Dada really for paving the way for people 648 00:37:40,560 --> 00:37:42,600 like me to come along. 649 00:37:42,600 --> 00:37:46,040 - Yeah. Thank you, Dada. - Thank you, Dada. 650 00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:48,720 HE CHUCKLES 651 00:37:48,720 --> 00:37:52,360 I've brought a piece of artwork along with me for you. 652 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:55,720 - Do you know the history of me and artwork? - I know, yeah. 653 00:37:55,720 --> 00:37:57,600 It's one of my prized possessions. 654 00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:00,520 - Well, now, you're making me feel bad. You can take it home. - No. 655 00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,040 No, I want you to do what you've got to do with it. 656 00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:05,160 I could make you do it. I'd feel much better. 657 00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:07,840 - You can follow my instructions. - Have you got any ideas? 658 00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:11,400 - Maybe show it to me first. - So I'll go and get the plate. - OK. 659 00:38:11,400 --> 00:38:13,880 And then we'll talk about how to destroy. 660 00:38:13,880 --> 00:38:16,760 - How we're going to get rid of it. - Yeah, here it is. - Aw. 661 00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:19,720 It's a wedding plate for Bill and Cath. 662 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:22,320 William and you know...the royals. 663 00:38:24,600 --> 00:38:25,800 So the classic way, 664 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:28,720 I suppose of destroying it is the Grecian way, isn't it? 665 00:38:28,720 --> 00:38:31,360 - I like the idea of poking it off something. - OK. 666 00:38:31,360 --> 00:38:33,480 You could poke it off the top of my head. 667 00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,720 - We could balance on top of my head and you could push it off. - Yeah. 668 00:38:36,720 --> 00:38:40,760 - You know where your broom... - I've got a flat head. I'll go and get the broom. 669 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:50,720 - OK, I'll try and balance on my head. - Yeah. Right, are you ready? 670 00:38:53,800 --> 00:38:56,160 LOUD CLATTER 671 00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:57,400 - Did that break? - Yeah. 672 00:38:57,400 --> 00:38:58,960 There. 673 00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:01,600 - That looks nice now, I like that. - Yeah, that looks nice. 674 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:04,480 - Yeah, I like that as well. - I could sellotape that back together. 675 00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,480 - Are you going to sweep that up and put it in a poitrine? - In a latrine? 676 00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:11,680 - In a poitrine, yeah. Not a latrine. - Put a cloche over it. 677 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,400 - A what? - A cloche. 678 00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:16,040 THEY CHUCKLE 679 00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,320 'When I do silly things in my comedy, 680 00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:19,760 'it's a bit of throwaway fun, 681 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:23,160 'but when I do them with an esteemed Young British Artist, I am 682 00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:26,800 'surely creating a piece of Dadaist performance art!' 683 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,600 You find me, several tenths of my way through this journey and 684 00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,160 exploration into what is Dada. 685 00:39:33,160 --> 00:39:35,480 I've spoken to several people, 686 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:39,840 all of which seem to have varying ideas about Dada. 687 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:42,880 Was it political, anarchic? Was it comedy? What was it? 688 00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:45,520 It was probably all of those things and more. 689 00:39:45,520 --> 00:39:47,880 But what I can say is since the beginning, 690 00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:50,880 I thought I had quite a good idea about what Dada is. 691 00:39:50,880 --> 00:39:53,120 I think I'm probably more confused now, 692 00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:58,600 so I shall continue my journey and find out what exactly is Dada. 693 00:40:00,160 --> 00:40:01,200 SQUEALING 694 00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:04,000 UM! 695 00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:08,760 To help me answer that question, I'm meeting the man who updated 696 00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:12,400 Dada's absurdist style for my generation. 697 00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:16,640 FANFARE 698 00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:21,440 Now, where is he? 699 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:23,200 FANFARE 700 00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:30,120 - Strangers meeting in the night. - I never expected to see you here. - No. 701 00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:32,880 - Take a seat. - What are you doing here? - I don't know. 702 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:35,560 - What are you doing here? - I don't know. A car brought me. 703 00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:36,920 I know nothing! 704 00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:38,960 Let's find out! 705 00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:42,840 Well, Terry, what does Dada mean to you, if anything? 706 00:40:44,920 --> 00:40:49,520 I've never seriously thought about what it means to me. It just is. 707 00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:51,840 - Do you know what it is? - Yeah. I do. 708 00:40:51,840 --> 00:40:56,080 I think what was interesting, the fact that it was anti-war, 709 00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:58,560 it was a reaction to the First World War, 710 00:40:58,560 --> 00:41:04,840 a reaction to bourgeois society, and these very boring tastes. 711 00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:07,440 I think the anger is what's interesting about it, 712 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:10,880 how they were angry about the world nightmare they were living in 713 00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:14,040 and yet, you deal with it in different ways. 714 00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,160 And it's the humour side that we always went for. 715 00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:19,600 Is that what it was? Was there a war going on, 716 00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:23,120 so we're going to have to have fun and lighten the situation? 717 00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:26,200 Or you go absurd. You go totally Absurdist. 718 00:41:26,200 --> 00:41:30,040 If we're in an absurd situation, a complete nightmare out there, 719 00:41:30,040 --> 00:41:33,720 well, let's create nightmares and throw it back at society and 720 00:41:33,720 --> 00:41:35,560 see if you can shake it up. 721 00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:39,760 - That's a really good point cos it really was just madness. - Yeah. 722 00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:43,360 I mean, I left America because of the Vietnam War and all of 723 00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:45,480 that and I realised I was more... 724 00:41:45,480 --> 00:41:49,400 I was more Dadaist than I realised 725 00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:53,880 because completely against the war, I hated the way society was 726 00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:57,360 structured and behaving, and I wanted to make people laugh. 727 00:41:57,360 --> 00:41:59,640 - Yeah. - Bah-boom! 728 00:41:59,640 --> 00:42:01,600 MUMBLING SINGING WAGNER 729 00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:06,480 BLESSING IN LATIN 730 00:42:11,200 --> 00:42:15,360 What interests me is how many artists that I've always been 731 00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:19,200 either copying, admiring, or being influenced by, 732 00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:24,720 were the Dadaists, and George Melly wrote a review of Python and 733 00:42:24,720 --> 00:42:31,520 he referred to me as a product of Max Ernst. Wow! 734 00:42:31,520 --> 00:42:35,760 - So you weren't aware before...? - I was only aware of his paintings. 735 00:42:35,760 --> 00:42:38,000 I wasn't aware of his collages. 736 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:47,560 This is a film by Hans Richter, who was a Dadaist. 737 00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,440 Look at this. 738 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:51,640 It's called Ghosts Before Breakfast. 739 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:01,840 - The silly walk! - It is, look. That's it. Isn't it? - Yup! 740 00:43:01,840 --> 00:43:03,920 So, who saw that then? 741 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:06,720 - Probably nobody. - Is it just a coincidence? 742 00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:11,000 But that's what I love about things, how coincidental things can be. 743 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:14,480 - Yeah. - We were just doing it. We weren't aware of what we were doing. 744 00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:18,120 There's a bubbling pot, isn't there? Where Dadaists pop out like 745 00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:22,800 bubbles and they're not aware that they are being called Dadaists! 746 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:24,040 Yeah. I know. 747 00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:28,960 I think it was easier when we were doing Python, certainly for me, 748 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:33,480 coming to this country, the categories are more clear. 749 00:43:33,480 --> 00:43:36,280 You know, the bankers, City guys, pin stripe suits, 750 00:43:36,280 --> 00:43:39,800 bowler hats, working class, look like working class, 751 00:43:39,800 --> 00:43:41,640 the middle class was the middle class. 752 00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:45,200 Now, I think it's harder to be Dadaist right now. 753 00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:48,000 Maybe it's ripe for a new uprising of Dadaism. 754 00:43:48,000 --> 00:43:52,880 I think it's really hard to get to grips with cos you can't find 755 00:43:52,880 --> 00:43:54,600 what the enemy is. 756 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:58,080 You can't react against it cos it's so atomised now. 757 00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:01,000 SWANEE WHISTLE 758 00:44:08,160 --> 00:44:10,840 In the early '20s, with the war over, 759 00:44:10,840 --> 00:44:14,480 the global outposts of Dada converged in Paris. 760 00:44:15,640 --> 00:44:18,640 First, Tristan Tzara from Zurich, 761 00:44:18,640 --> 00:44:21,880 then Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray from New York... 762 00:44:21,880 --> 00:44:23,480 Oi, Marcel! 763 00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:27,080 ..and then, Max Ernst from Cologne. 764 00:44:29,400 --> 00:44:31,880 A new supergroup was formed. 765 00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:38,840 Paris Dada offered its groupies more spectacle and more sheer 766 00:44:38,840 --> 00:44:42,160 silliness than anything that had gone before. 767 00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:45,000 It was Dada with bells on. 768 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:46,240 BELLS SHAKE 769 00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:49,800 HE HUMS FLORAL DANCE 770 00:44:54,320 --> 00:44:56,640 By way of self-promotion, 771 00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:59,640 the Dadaists plastered stickers across the city. 772 00:45:03,440 --> 00:45:08,960 BELL RINGS AND DROWNS OUT SPEECH 773 00:45:20,360 --> 00:45:26,000 Francis Picabia made a drawing on a blackboard and then erased it 774 00:45:26,000 --> 00:45:28,600 at the exhibition. 775 00:45:30,320 --> 00:45:35,160 And to announce the opening of a Man Ray exhibition, 776 00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:37,120 the space was filled 777 00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:40,600 with balloons and the Dadaists popped them as people came in. 778 00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:45,200 Paris audiences were so outraged, 779 00:45:45,200 --> 00:45:48,440 they threw tomatoes and raw meat at them. 780 00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:52,480 Now, I'm meeting an artist who knows exactly how it feels to be on 781 00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,160 the receiving end of groceries. 782 00:45:55,160 --> 00:45:57,600 Martin Creed's Turner Prize-winning show, 783 00:45:57,600 --> 00:46:01,400 The Lights Going On And Off, which consisted of the lights going 784 00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:04,880 on and off, invited the question - is this art? 785 00:46:04,880 --> 00:46:09,160 And prompted some gallery goers to throw eggs at the wall. 786 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:14,240 - So this is your studio? - Yeah. - Well, show us around? - Well, so there's... 787 00:46:14,240 --> 00:46:18,240 - These are paintings. - Oh, yeah. I've heard about them. 788 00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:21,920 - That's a bag. - Yeah. - That's a bag, that says... 789 00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:24,000 That actually says "whatever". 790 00:46:25,560 --> 00:46:29,080 - Oh, yeah. - There's some boxes here. - Yeah. 791 00:46:29,080 --> 00:46:33,120 - What's this? - A knitting thing with the stripes getting bigger. 792 00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:36,240 - What's it going to be? - No, that is what it is. 793 00:46:36,240 --> 00:46:39,000 - Oh, is it? - This is a pair of trousers 794 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:40,760 I've been working on. 795 00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:44,000 - What are you going to do with them? - Well, just erm... 796 00:46:45,960 --> 00:46:49,240 - ..wear them. - JIM CHUCKLES 797 00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:52,080 - Wow! - That is a hat. 798 00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:53,800 - How does it look? - Looks good. 799 00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:55,080 Aye. 800 00:46:56,960 --> 00:46:59,600 - What is that? - That's a Panda. A Fiat Panda. 801 00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:04,040 So what about Dada? 802 00:47:04,040 --> 00:47:06,640 You got anything that's Dadaesque in here? 803 00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:09,880 Er, I don't, well, I don't know about, I don't know, 804 00:47:09,880 --> 00:47:17,120 - maybe a lot of it is because I think it's sort of a bit stupid. - Yeah. 805 00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:18,800 You know? I think that's... 806 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:21,480 - That's what Dada is. - Aye, like being stupid. 807 00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:24,760 But there's political meaning and then you've got to balance that 808 00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:27,720 - with the daftness or the stupidness. - Right, aye. 809 00:47:27,720 --> 00:47:29,520 Cos I'd probably fall on the daft side. 810 00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:33,400 I would go...I think I would definitely fall on the stupid side. 811 00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:36,320 You'd be even further, right the other end! 812 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:38,720 - Yeah. - Yeah. 813 00:47:38,720 --> 00:47:42,160 Cos I think it's like more, you know, 814 00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:45,600 - it's more like life, cos life's stupid. - Yeah. 815 00:47:47,000 --> 00:47:51,720 'Like the Dadaists, Martin filled the gallery half full with balloons. 816 00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:54,960 'His works are starting to feel rather familiar.' 817 00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:58,840 - That was your idea, wasn't it? Balloons. - I didn't know about that. 818 00:47:58,840 --> 00:48:01,120 This is what I've been finding, 819 00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:05,040 the Dadaists did have a lot of ideas for the first time. 820 00:48:05,040 --> 00:48:08,320 - Yeah, it looks like it, aye. - And, um... 821 00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:10,720 - and then you had them later. - Right! 822 00:48:10,720 --> 00:48:13,160 THEY LAUGH 823 00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:15,720 I'm just wandering about here. 824 00:48:15,720 --> 00:48:18,760 I mean, who knows what they were really trying to do, those people? 825 00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,000 - I don't know. - I don't know. 826 00:48:21,000 --> 00:48:22,640 No, I don't. 827 00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:28,280 And I don't know either, but, aye, I don't know. 828 00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:30,600 - I don't know. - I don't know. 829 00:48:30,600 --> 00:48:33,480 Well, there we are then, that's the answer to that, isn't it? 830 00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:38,440 Is there any reason behind any of your stuff? 831 00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:41,320 Maybe it's trying to do what you're not supposed to do. 832 00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:43,600 When I did this film of people being sick, 833 00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:46,440 and one of people shitting as well, 834 00:48:46,440 --> 00:48:53,080 just cos it's a taboo of our, like, British society. 835 00:48:53,080 --> 00:48:58,040 And are you allowed to go into a gallery and laugh your head off. 836 00:48:58,040 --> 00:49:00,920 Yeah, well, I would have thought so, aye. 837 00:49:00,920 --> 00:49:03,720 - That's what I encourage whenever I have my shows. - Aye. 838 00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:12,080 'Martin's invited me to join him in his latest nonsensical idea, 839 00:49:12,080 --> 00:49:14,400 'blind painting. 840 00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:17,360 'So I'm going to do a portrait with absolutely no idea 841 00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:19,120 'what it's going to look like.' 842 00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:23,640 - It is weird, isn't it? - It is weird. 843 00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:53,960 - I think I'm done. - Yeah, I think I have. 844 00:49:53,960 --> 00:49:55,920 - Right. - So we're going to... 845 00:49:55,920 --> 00:49:58,560 - What are we going to do, just show? - Oh, aye, OK. 846 00:49:58,560 --> 00:50:00,440 Whoa! 847 00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:01,760 Oh, yeah. 848 00:50:01,760 --> 00:50:03,400 THEY LAUGH 849 00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,040 - Oh, God. - Oh, it's dripping. 850 00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:09,600 Put them down on here. 851 00:50:09,600 --> 00:50:13,240 Aye. Don't want it to drip. Amazing. 852 00:50:15,120 --> 00:50:17,440 So has this got anything to do with Dada? 853 00:50:17,440 --> 00:50:19,280 I suppose it's just a new idea. 854 00:50:19,280 --> 00:50:21,360 Maybe cos it's like trying to do it the way you're not 855 00:50:21,360 --> 00:50:23,560 supposed to do it, cos you find that if you're going to do 856 00:50:23,560 --> 00:50:25,960 - a picture of something you should... - So it's getting rid of 857 00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:28,120 - all conventions. - ..at least look at what your... 858 00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:31,200 I feel like, you know, if you try to control things 859 00:50:31,200 --> 00:50:34,200 - it doesn't necessarily make them better, you know? - Yeah. 860 00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:35,960 This has got no bearing on anything. 861 00:50:50,360 --> 00:50:54,400 In Paris Tristan Tzara achieved his dream by gathering together 862 00:50:54,400 --> 00:50:59,000 all the Dadaists to form a movement, Movement Dada. 863 00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:02,680 It was the culmination of all the nonsense of Dada, 864 00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:06,840 and for a brief moment Dada was the talk of the town. 865 00:51:08,800 --> 00:51:13,160 But for some, like Max Ernst and Man Ray, the nonsense was wearing thin. 866 00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:18,160 They'd begun searching for meaning through dreams and the subconscious. 867 00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:23,880 Man Ray famously took a metronome, cut out an eye from a photograph, 868 00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:28,120 put them together and made a new work, Object To Be Destroyed. 869 00:51:28,120 --> 00:51:30,560 I think I might have a go myself. 870 00:51:33,920 --> 00:51:36,240 Connect and print. Is that what I do? 871 00:51:36,240 --> 00:51:38,160 Enter the password. 872 00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:40,360 Shove a little bit of light music on. 873 00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:45,360 MUSIC: Left Bank Two by The Noveltones 874 00:51:49,200 --> 00:51:51,120 There is something blurry happening. 875 00:51:53,200 --> 00:51:57,480 Then you cut out an eye. 876 00:52:00,760 --> 00:52:04,800 And then he stuck the eye on the metronome 877 00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,240 and there... 878 00:52:07,240 --> 00:52:09,840 he had a new work, 879 00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:12,480 Object To Be Destroyed. 880 00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:25,320 So with all the Dadaists all going off in different directions 881 00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:28,680 there was nothing holding this movement together 882 00:52:28,680 --> 00:52:31,880 and, what's more, egos were taking over. 883 00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:36,880 So Tristan Tzara, right, he wanted to be the leader of the Dadaists. 884 00:52:36,880 --> 00:52:39,800 "Oh, look at me, I want to be the king of the Dadaists!" 885 00:52:39,800 --> 00:52:42,520 In fact they used to call him Tzar Tristan. 886 00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:46,160 But soon Dada had rivals in the Paris art world, 887 00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:49,000 including the French poet Andre Breton, and he was 888 00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:52,880 getting up the noses of other poets as well, like Paul Eluard. 889 00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:57,200 Dada was about to reach its bitter end in July 1923 890 00:52:57,200 --> 00:53:01,080 at the Soiree Of The Bearded Heart. 891 00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:06,320 So early on in the evening, Andre Breton takes offence at some 892 00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:10,280 performer and whacks him with his cane and gets thrown out, then 893 00:53:10,280 --> 00:53:14,720 a bit later on, just before Tristan Tzara's play The Gas Heart 894 00:53:14,720 --> 00:53:18,720 is on, there's like a rumpus going on in the stalls. 895 00:53:18,720 --> 00:53:20,280 Then who is it? 896 00:53:20,280 --> 00:53:23,600 It's Paul Eluard, the poet. He demands to see Tristan Tzara, 897 00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:26,280 so Tristan Tzara comes out, they have a pushing and shoving match 898 00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:30,040 and then Paul Eluard lamps Tristan Tzara, 899 00:53:30,040 --> 00:53:33,680 he goes down and that was it, you know, it was kind of all over 900 00:53:33,680 --> 00:53:36,680 by then really, so we went off to the boozer to talk about it, 901 00:53:36,680 --> 00:53:38,960 and had a right old laugh. 902 00:53:38,960 --> 00:53:41,400 Dada had died a death. 903 00:53:41,400 --> 00:53:44,520 But some Dadaists, like Max Ernst and Man Ray, 904 00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:46,400 found another gang to join, 905 00:53:46,400 --> 00:53:50,320 jumping ship to Andre Breton's new art movement, 906 00:53:50,320 --> 00:53:52,280 Surrealism. 907 00:53:53,280 --> 00:53:56,440 But I don't know if anyone really, really and honestly knew 908 00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,480 what Dada was all about yet. 909 00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:02,160 And to be honest, neither do I. 910 00:54:03,560 --> 00:54:07,040 But perhaps if I look out on this historic city, 911 00:54:07,040 --> 00:54:12,960 take in its atmosphere, I might get a feel for Dada 912 00:54:12,960 --> 00:54:20,360 and finally get to grips with this contradictory movement. 913 00:54:21,760 --> 00:54:24,320 No, Paris didn't do much for Dadaism, 914 00:54:24,320 --> 00:54:27,480 and, to be honest, it's not doing a lot for me either. 915 00:54:27,480 --> 00:54:28,640 I'm off. 916 00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:36,800 Terry! Terry! 917 00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:40,160 What is... What is Dada? 918 00:54:40,160 --> 00:54:42,360 Come on, what is Dada? 919 00:54:42,360 --> 00:54:45,080 - Leave me alone! Leave me alone! - What is it? 920 00:54:46,760 --> 00:54:49,320 - What is Dada? - I'm not going to tell him, I'm not going to tell him. 921 00:54:51,880 --> 00:54:54,640 What is Dada? 922 00:54:56,000 --> 00:54:59,480 Everyone needs a shed to go to when all else has failed. 923 00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:02,320 What is Dada? 924 00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:06,080 What is Dada? What...is Dada? 925 00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:08,040 - VOICE ECHOES: - Eh, what do you reckon? 926 00:55:08,040 --> 00:55:11,880 Turkey. Tutankhamen. 927 00:55:11,880 --> 00:55:14,160 - Hello. - What? 928 00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:18,080 Moon River, wider than a mile. 929 00:55:18,080 --> 00:55:19,680 Hello. 930 00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:21,000 Hello. 931 00:55:21,000 --> 00:55:23,240 Yes, Arthur Smith at your service here. 932 00:55:23,240 --> 00:55:26,920 What exactly is Dada? 933 00:55:26,920 --> 00:55:31,600 Dada is a virgin microbe that fills up all the space 934 00:55:31,600 --> 00:55:35,200 that reason cannot with its convention. 935 00:55:35,200 --> 00:55:37,680 Good, glad you sorted that out for me, then. 936 00:55:37,680 --> 00:55:39,360 Yeah, I mean, in a sense, you know, 937 00:55:39,360 --> 00:55:42,560 if you start trying to analyse it then you'll end up 938 00:55:42,560 --> 00:55:45,840 disappearing up your own bottom, and it recognises that. 939 00:55:45,840 --> 00:55:50,480 So some people reckon is political, some people think it's just 940 00:55:50,480 --> 00:55:54,560 stupid absurdist comedy, or is it all of it? What is it? 941 00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:59,800 You've got to defy convention and logic in order to amaze 942 00:55:59,800 --> 00:56:03,080 and stimulate people, I suppose. 943 00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:06,960 Dada gave a licence for people to be stupid and in some sense 944 00:56:06,960 --> 00:56:11,880 it is the founder of modern comedy and you've definitely acted on 945 00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:18,040 your licence to be stupid, and Vic and all your mates, so well done. 946 00:56:18,040 --> 00:56:19,640 Thanks. 947 00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:21,880 Well, I'm stuck here alone in my bar, 948 00:56:21,880 --> 00:56:24,200 and you're stuck there alone in your bar, 949 00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:28,840 and yet we're together, Jim, that's a kind of Dadaism all by itself. 950 00:56:28,840 --> 00:56:30,760 That's beautiful. 951 00:56:30,760 --> 00:56:34,160 'Right, where do I go from here?' 952 00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:46,480 We're nearly at the end of our voyage, and have we discovered anything? 953 00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:49,760 Yes, I think we have. I think we know a little bit more about Dada. 954 00:56:49,760 --> 00:56:52,760 Do you know more about Dada? Do I know more about Dada? 955 00:56:52,760 --> 00:56:55,040 I do, but do you? 956 00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:57,200 I don't and you do. 957 00:56:57,200 --> 00:57:01,320 And I think one thing that we have learned is that a bloke 958 00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:03,920 from the BBC, that's me, sitting on a pedestal, 959 00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:05,640 can't tell you what to think. 960 00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:08,360 They'll put it all together in the edit anyway. 961 00:57:08,360 --> 00:57:09,920 Dada is... 962 00:57:09,920 --> 00:57:11,360 - Completely... - Maverick... 963 00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:14,360 - Deconstructing... - This serious idea about... 964 00:57:14,360 --> 00:57:17,040 - Art... - It's just an assembly... 965 00:57:17,040 --> 00:57:19,760 - Of artists who create... - Art that was... - Incredibly modern... 966 00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:21,200 - Very... - Coincidental... 967 00:57:21,200 --> 00:57:23,600 - Free-form... - Negligence... 968 00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:26,640 - They were a bit stupid... - And want to make people laugh... 969 00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:28,520 - The spirit of Dada... - Was about... 970 00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:31,200 - A whole new set of... - Extraordinary... - Ideologies... 971 00:57:31,200 --> 00:57:33,800 - They were angry about... - Convention and... 972 00:57:33,800 --> 00:57:36,360 - People being sick... - It's like a big political... 973 00:57:36,360 --> 00:57:38,720 - Shake it up. - I would say it's pretty absurd... 974 00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:41,040 - It just is... - More like life... 975 00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:43,600 - Nonsensical anyway... - More provocative... 976 00:57:43,600 --> 00:57:46,240 - Than beer and sausages... - I'm sure it's something like that. 977 00:58:15,240 --> 00:58:17,080 Thank you. 978 00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:19,720 LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE