Dada: The Original Art Rebels documentary (2016)
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0:03 - 0:05Dada...
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0:05 - 0:07Dada.
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0:07 - 0:11Some words seize the imagination and draw you in,
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0:11 - 0:13inviting you to delve deeper.
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0:14 - 0:18For me, Dada is just one of those words.
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0:18 - 0:22An idea, a call to arms and a way of thinking.
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0:24 - 0:26OK, ready, here we go.
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0:26 - 0:28We're going to embark on a journey.
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0:28 - 0:31I'm going to take you, dear viewer, to a place where
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0:31 - 0:33no television programme has ever been before, but...
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0:33 - 0:37No, what I am going to do is try and persuade you that Dada is
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0:37 - 0:41much, much more than an obscure art movement with a funny name.
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0:41 - 0:42Oh, yes.
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0:43 - 0:47100 years ago, in the midst of a nonsensical war,
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0:47 - 0:50Dada made an art out of the absurd.
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0:52 - 0:55Mocking politicians,
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0:55 - 0:57satirising the media,
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0:57 - 0:59and ridiculing centuries of culture,
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0:59 - 1:03Dada created a new way of looking at the world.
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1:03 - 1:06Sometimes shocking, often anarchic,
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1:06 - 1:11and always difficult to define, its legacy would span a century.
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1:11 - 1:15Dada's tentacles have spread right across our culture,
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1:15 - 1:17from punk
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1:17 - 1:19to the Pythons
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1:19 - 1:20and from Damien Hirst
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1:20 - 1:22to David Bowie.
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1:22 - 1:26The world has gone gaga for Dada.
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1:26 - 1:28Do you want me to shout "Dada" now?
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1:28 - 1:29No.
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1:29 - 1:31Everybody's heard of Dada,
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1:31 - 1:33but no-one seems to know exactly what it is.
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1:33 - 1:36Dada takes delight in contradiction.
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1:36 - 1:40So, to help me pin it down, I've enlisted the help of a few friends.
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1:40 - 1:41Dada!
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1:41 - 1:43Daaaaaaaa-daaaaaaa!
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1:43 - 1:46Da-da, Da-da, Da-da-da.
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1:46 - 1:48Da! Da!
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1:48 - 1:54And, with their assistance, I'll be recreating some Dada performances,
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1:54 - 1:56destroying some artworks,
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1:56 - 1:59and pulling some mischievous stunts.
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1:59 - 2:02There's my Dadaist act for the day.
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2:02 - 2:06And all of this to establish why, out of all the isms, movements and
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2:06 - 2:09manifestos of the 20th century,
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2:09 - 2:12it was the Dadaists who proved the most important,
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2:12 - 2:15giving birth not only to a lot of modern art,
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2:15 - 2:20but also shaping comedy, music and political protest.
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2:20 - 2:24MUSIC: Da Da Da by Trio
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2:29 - 2:31LAIDBACK RUSTIC MUSIC PLAYS
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2:35 - 2:39I first came across Dada at art school in the early '80s.
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2:39 - 2:42It was funnier and more anarchic than anything else I'd
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2:42 - 2:45discovered and it didn't always have to make sense.
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2:45 - 2:49I soon embarked on nonsensical performances of my own.
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2:52 - 2:55I did a performance called I, Kestrel,
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2:55 - 2:59where I dropped potatoes from out of a cardboard box.
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2:59 - 3:03I was in a band that had no name, but we smelt of curry.
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3:03 - 3:07It emerged from flasks at the side of the stage.
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3:08 - 3:12Some people have called some of my performances Dada-esque, and they've
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3:12 - 3:16certainly always flown in the face of logic, leading me to think...
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3:16 - 3:20have I've been subconsciously influenced? Hmmm.
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3:20 - 3:22Maybe.
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3:27 - 3:29- Hmmm.
- Hmmmmm. -
3:33 - 3:36But where did all this Dadaism begin?
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3:39 - 3:41Que es Dada?
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3:44 - 3:48Dada - a word chosen at random from a French-German dictionary.
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3:48 - 3:51"Yes, yes," in Romanian.
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3:53 - 3:55A hobby horse in French.
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3:58 - 4:03Whatever the case, it all began 100 years ago in an unlikely place.
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4:03 - 4:05CUCKOO!
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4:05 - 4:07It wasn't in Berlin
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4:07 - 4:09or Paris,
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4:09 - 4:13or any of your usual hotbeds of Bohemian outrage. No.
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4:13 - 4:17The first artists to scare the hell out of the Establishment
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4:17 - 4:21launched their revolution here in, of all places, Zurich.
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4:22 - 4:24SWISS YODELLING SONG PLAYS
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4:28 - 4:29When you think of Zurich,
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4:29 - 4:33the last thing you think about is a radical, anarchic art movement.
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4:33 - 4:36What you might think about is cheese, clocks,
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4:36 - 4:37or Swiss Army knives.
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4:37 - 4:39But radical art movements? No.
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4:39 - 4:42But it was exactly that "There's nothing to see here"
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4:42 - 4:46reputation, that staying in neutral whilst their neighbours were all
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4:46 - 4:52fighting to the death that made Zurich the breeding ground for Dada.
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4:58 - 5:04In 1916, Europe was tearing itself apart, and some wanted
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5:04 - 5:08no further part in the madness and destruction they saw around them.
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5:10 - 5:14Amidst the violence and upheaval of the First World War, artists, poets
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5:14 - 5:18and freethinkers from both sides of the conflict gathered here in
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5:18 - 5:21Zurich to avoid the horrors of the battlefront.
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5:21 - 5:23MUSIC: Boogie Stop Shuffle by Charles Mingus
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5:23 - 5:26It was a city of exiles, and among them a group of unlikely
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5:26 - 5:31revolutionaries formed a bizarre protest movement - Dada.
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5:31 - 5:34In a world where governments created carnage and the normal order
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5:34 - 5:37had become nonsensical, the Dadaists felt the only appropriate
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5:37 - 5:42artistic response was to be truly and deliberately absurd.
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5:44 - 5:47And like all the best world-changing movements,
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5:47 - 5:50Dada began here in a dirty, dingy underground drinking hole.
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5:55 - 5:59With nothing more than the humble dream of selling extra
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5:59 - 6:04sausages and beer, the proprietor of this place sanctioned a cabaret.
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6:04 - 6:07Little did he know what he was letting himself in for.
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6:08 - 6:13The Cabaret Voltaire, still here 100 years on, kick-started
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6:13 - 6:17a movement that would wreak havoc across Europe and beyond.
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6:18 - 6:21- So, welcome, Jim, to Cabaret Voltaire...
- Thank you, Adrian. -
6:21 - 6:24- ..the birthplace of Dada.
- Cheers. -
6:24 - 6:27So, how did the Cabaret Voltaire start here, then?
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6:27 - 6:31Hugo Ball, who was a writer and a director in the theatre in Munich,
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6:31 - 6:35and Emmy Hennings who was a singer in cafes and bars,
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6:35 - 6:39they came here in 1915 and they were hired in
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6:39 - 6:42a cabaret just down the street, and after a while they thought,
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6:42 - 6:45"We should have our own cabaret."
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6:45 - 6:48They send out an invitation to artists.
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6:48 - 6:50Was there any kind of direction,
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6:50 - 6:52or it was just "Do whatever you want to do?"
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6:52 - 6:54Today, one would say it was an open stage.
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6:54 - 6:56- A free-for-all.
- Yeah, free-for-all.
- Yeah. -
6:56 - 6:58So, the Dadaists mobilised themselves for war,
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6:58 - 7:01but theirs was a battle against reason itself.
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7:01 - 7:03BRAIN WHIMPERS LIKE A DOG
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7:03 - 7:06Hugo Ball appeared in a bizarre bishop's outfit.
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7:09 - 7:13Romanian poet Tristan Tzara cast a Maori tribal spell.
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7:15 - 7:19Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber improvised a dance, wearing
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7:19 - 7:21a cardboard mask.
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7:21 - 7:24And a dozen balalaika players turned up.
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7:24 - 7:29The German poet Richard Huelsenbeck snapped a riding whip, shouting...
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7:33 - 7:36..and was joined by Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco to perform
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7:36 - 7:39in German, English and French all at the same time.
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7:43 - 7:45Sounds like a great show.
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7:45 - 7:48But a bit of a shock for the locals.
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7:48 - 7:50What sort of people did they attract in here, then?
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7:50 - 7:54- People who come to drink beer and eat sausages and...
- And absinthe. -
7:54 - 7:56- ..and absinthe, yeah.
- Yeah. -
7:56 - 8:00And they didn't come to see somebody talking about art or reciting poems.
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8:00 - 8:03- Yeah.
- Basically they had to be better than the absinthe -
8:03 - 8:06or better than beer and sausages.
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8:06 - 8:08This really reminds me of where I started off.
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8:08 - 8:12- I started off in a pub in Southeast London...
- Yeah. -
8:12 - 8:15..which was about the same size as this, the same layout,
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8:15 - 8:17and it was the same kind of thing.
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8:17 - 8:20- I used to get people out of the audience...
- Yeah.
- ..and say, "Do you want to do something?" -
8:20 - 8:23And it'd be a different show every week, and it was just, like,
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8:23 - 8:26strangely so similar.
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8:26 - 8:29So, did you have some absinthe at that time, maybe, and that's why...?
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8:29 - 8:32- Didn't have absinth, no. We just had lager.
- Lager. -
8:32 - 8:34THEY LAUGH
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8:34 - 8:37For Hugo Ball, language had been hijacked by the warmongers
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8:37 - 8:40who twisted words to justify their violent acts,
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8:40 - 8:44so out went words and in came some unusual poetry.
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8:44 - 8:48A lot of these words, they're made up, aren't they?
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8:48 - 8:52- Bloiko - I could say that in my accent. Bloiko.
- Bloiko. -
8:52 - 8:53That's nice, yeah.
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8:53 - 8:58- Ogrogoooo. What is it, the umlaut? There's an umlaut.
- Ogrogoooo. -
8:58 - 9:00- Ogrogoooo.
- Ogrogoooo. -
9:00 - 9:02What's this? Bulomen.
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9:02 - 9:04I think you can probably get that in a face cream.
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9:04 - 9:06ADRIAN LAUGHS
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9:06 - 9:09Some of those words may feel a bit familiar.
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9:09 - 9:11Uvavu.
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9:11 - 9:14Well, look, the audience is in and we're ruining it for them,
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9:14 - 9:17really, by still being here, so we should make a dramatic entrance...
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9:17 - 9:20- Yes.
- ..very soon. -
9:20 - 9:23'Tonight I'm going to be re-staging one of the founding moments
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9:23 - 9:27'in the history of Dada, here at its birthplace.
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9:27 - 9:30'For Hugo ball's most iconic performance,
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9:30 - 9:32'he wore his most outlandish outfit.'
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9:33 - 9:38So we'll try and fit Jim into Hugo's costume.
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9:38 - 9:40JIM LAUGHS
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9:40 - 9:42- Pull it off.
- OK. -
9:42 - 9:45You misjudged my bulk.
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9:47 - 9:50'There's a few serious faces in the audience.
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9:50 - 9:53'God knows what they're going to make of my transformation into Hugo Ball.'
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9:53 - 9:56How's that?
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9:56 - 9:58- The words don't make any sense.
- I know. -
9:58 - 10:01- LAUGHTER
- There's only one word. -
10:01 - 10:03- Don't try and understand, just...
- I'm not going to. -
10:03 - 10:07- ..go with the flow.
- Right, start, because my specs are falling off my nose with the sweat. -
10:07 - 10:10Thanks. LAUGHTER
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10:10 - 10:16Gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori.
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10:16 - 10:22Gadjama tuffm i zimzalla binban gligla wowolimai bin beri ban.
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10:24 - 10:30Elifantolim brussala bulomen brussala bulomen tromtata.
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10:31 - 10:36Velo da bang band affalo purzamai affalo purzamai lengado tor.
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10:37 - 10:39LAUGHTER
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10:39 - 10:41I'm getting lost.
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10:41 - 10:43Gaga di bumbalo bumbalo gadjamen.
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10:43 - 10:46Gaga di bling blong.
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10:46 - 10:48Gaga blung.
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10:48 - 10:51APPLAUSE
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10:54 - 10:56I'm collapsing.
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10:57 - 11:00Take this off. LAUGHTER
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11:00 - 11:02Thank you. And there we are.
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11:02 - 11:04Um...
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11:04 - 11:06What was that? LAUGHTER
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11:06 - 11:09APPLAUSE
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11:14 - 11:16- His outfit was ridiculous.
- Yeah. -
11:16 - 11:17JIM LAUGHS
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11:17 - 11:19- I'm not knocking it at all.
- OK. -
11:19 - 11:21Oh, I'm right on it.
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11:21 - 11:24If he's there, doing his poetry in his magic bishop's costume,
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11:24 - 11:29he's already got a congregation, so he's begun a religion.
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11:29 - 11:33Yeah. And so that's why all these people come here, like a pilgrimage.
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11:33 - 11:36- And what a great shrine.
- Yeah.
- What a fantastic place. -
11:36 - 11:41- If you've got to have a religion, I'm going to be in here.
- Yeah. -
11:41 - 11:47'Hugo Ball wrote that, "Everyone has been seized by an indefinable intoxication.
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11:47 - 11:50' "The little cabaret is about to come apart at the seams and is
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11:50 - 11:54' "getting to be a playground for crazy emotions." '
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11:54 - 11:57Are you following me?
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11:57 - 12:00Just five months after it opened, the cabaret closed,
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12:00 - 12:04but Dada was just beginning.
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12:04 - 12:07In July 1916, Hugo Ball delivered the first in
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12:07 - 12:12a series of speeches announcing the Dada Manifestos.
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12:12 - 12:16These speeches parodied the more grandiose written manifestos
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12:16 - 12:18of the time.
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12:18 - 12:24Dada is a new tendency in art. How does one achieve eternal bliss?
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12:24 - 12:26By saying Dada.
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12:26 - 12:30How does one become famous? By saying Dada.
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12:30 - 12:34A line of poetry is a chance to get rid of all the filth that
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12:34 - 12:38clings to this accursed language,
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12:38 - 12:41as if put there by a stockbroker's hands,
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12:41 - 12:45hands wrought smooth by coins.
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12:45 - 12:48Dada is the heart of words.
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12:49 - 12:51So, what were they doing?
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12:51 - 12:53Let's say, with the poetry, the meaningless, pointless,
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12:53 - 12:56senseless words within the poetry,
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12:56 - 12:59was it a reaction against the meaningless, senseless,
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12:59 - 13:01pointless war that was surrounding them?
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13:01 - 13:05Or were they just trying out something new and having fun with it?
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13:05 - 13:06I don't know.
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13:06 - 13:09Do you know?
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13:10 - 13:13In neighbouring Germany, life was becoming increasingly
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13:13 - 13:16desperate as the war drew to a close,
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13:16 - 13:19and nowhere was this more so than in Berlin.
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13:19 - 13:23This devastated city would provide the setting for Dada's new
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13:23 - 13:28incarnation as the German poet Richard Huelsenbeck returned home from Zurich.
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13:31 - 13:35Richard Huelsenbeck wound up the crowd,
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13:35 - 13:38claiming the Zurich Dadaists were pro-war.
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13:38 - 13:41"And Dadaism is still pro-war today.
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13:41 - 13:44"Things are still not cruel enough."
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13:44 - 13:50In Berlin, Club Dada would unleash a fiercely political rage.
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13:50 - 13:53The First International Dada Fair shook Berlin with its
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13:53 - 13:57shocking satire of the German Establishment.
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13:57 - 13:59And it didn't just tease the Establishment -
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13:59 - 14:02it mercilessly mocked the powers that be.
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14:02 - 14:05John Heartfield hung a dummy from the ceiling dressed in German
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14:05 - 14:09military uniform and with a pig's snout for a face.
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14:09 - 14:13And Otto Dix showed veterans disabled by war injuries.
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14:13 - 14:15These artists took genuine risks,
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14:15 - 14:18and many were arrested for their actions.
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14:18 - 14:23But in the male-dominated world of Berlin Dada, Huelsenbeck, Heartfield
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14:23 - 14:26and Dix met their match in Hannah Hoch.
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14:28 - 14:31MALE VOICES SCREAM More than holding her own at the art fair,
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14:31 - 14:34Hoch satirised the entire German Establishment with her
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14:34 - 14:37masterpiece, Cut With The Kitchen Knife,
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14:37 - 14:41pioneering a radically subversive new artform - photomontage.
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14:44 - 14:47Dada's ground-breaking visual techniques would have a huge
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14:47 - 14:51impact on Neville Brody, one of the pioneers of modern graphic design.
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14:53 - 14:56His interest in Dada has seeped into his cutting edge art
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14:56 - 15:00direction for The Face magazine and his iconic post-punk sleeve
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15:00 - 15:03designs for bands like, you guessed it...
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15:03 - 15:05Cabaret Voltaire.
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15:07 - 15:12Neville, here we've got an early bit of photomontage by Hannah Hoch.
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15:12 - 15:14That's the Kaiser, isn't it?
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15:14 - 15:16So, this is his moustache here.
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15:16 - 15:19Well, this is what I like about it, yeah. Oh, it's two wrestlers.
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15:19 - 15:23Well, you've got little Hannah Hoch down here,
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15:23 - 15:25this tiny head is a kind of signature.
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15:25 - 15:30And then these are the countries where women had the right to
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15:30 - 15:31vote at the time.
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15:31 - 15:35This is the first real kind of powerful use of photomontage
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15:35 - 15:37as a real tool of subversion.
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15:37 - 15:41Why was it? Was it because you'd got photos in newspapers?
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15:41 - 15:43The free access of, like,
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15:43 - 15:46printed photographs meant that someone like Hannah Hoch could come
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15:46 - 15:49in, cut it out, combine it all and create a completely new narrative.
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15:49 - 15:51So this is a whole new way of looking.
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15:51 - 15:54- Like a big political cartoon as well, isn't it?
- Yeah. -
15:54 - 15:56This was shocking to the bourgeoisie.
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15:56 - 16:00It was deliberately non-aesthetic. It's not pretty.
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16:00 - 16:03And this is something that we've seen a lot since.
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16:03 - 16:07You know, punk, Jamie Reid, the Sex Pistols covers.
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16:12 - 16:15Punk hijacked Dada's use of photomontage as
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16:15 - 16:16a weapon of subversion,
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16:16 - 16:20from Jamie Reid's Sex Pistols covers to Linder sterling's feminist
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16:20 - 16:23artworks and sleeve designs for bands like the Buzzcocks.
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16:24 - 16:28But punk is only the most obvious child of Dada.
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16:29 - 16:35'Club Dada's striking visuals extended to magazines and journals.
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16:35 - 16:39'I've brought along a copy of the first Dada publication,
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16:39 - 16:42'and I've got a feeling this is going to be right up Neville's street.'
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16:42 - 16:43What is this?
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16:43 - 16:47This is coming directly out of the photomontage approach,
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16:47 - 16:49but now it's typomontage.
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16:49 - 16:52- Yeah, so it's using everything.
- This is really stunning. -
16:52 - 16:56It's an amazing piece of freeform typography.
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16:56 - 16:59This really was ahead of its time.
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16:59 - 17:00Just looks incredibly modern.
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17:00 - 17:03There was a lot of punk stuff that was done that looked like this.
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17:03 - 17:07- A lot of art in the '60s and 70s had this feel, and the '50s.
- Yeah. -
17:07 - 17:10And this had a big influence on my work, directly - the idea of going
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17:10 - 17:15off-grid, nothing lines up, it's all at an angle,
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17:15 - 17:17yet it has so much energy.
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17:17 - 17:19- It is completely haphazard.
- Yeah. -
17:19 - 17:22I actually remember I did a whole record cover where all the type was
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17:22 - 17:26at angles and the printer helped me by straightening them all up again.
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17:26 - 17:29He said, "I've fixed it for you now, young man."
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17:29 - 17:31This is beautiful, though, isn't it?
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17:31 - 17:33It's gorgeous, just an extraordinary piece.
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17:33 - 17:36Makes me want to give it up - it's all been done, really, hasn't it?
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17:36 - 17:38JIM LAUGHS
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17:38 - 17:41'A lot of today's generation of graphic designers think
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17:41 - 17:44'they're nicking ideas from Neville Brody, but what they don't realise
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17:44 - 17:49'is that some of the freshest looking magazine layouts date back to Dada.'
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17:51 - 17:54While Hannah Hoch and others were busy setting the agenda
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17:54 - 17:56for 20th century culture,
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17:56 - 18:00one lone wolf managed to grab all of the world's media attention.
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18:01 - 18:06Architect Johannes Baader was in his own Dada universe.
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18:06 - 18:10He called himself Super Dada, or Dada Chief,
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18:10 - 18:14and announced himself as President Of The Earth.
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18:14 - 18:15No ego problems there, then.
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18:15 - 18:17On April Fools' Day,
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18:17 - 18:20he warned the district of Berlin that Dada forces were on
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18:20 - 18:25their way, and 2,000 people were there to fend off the Dada invasion.
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18:25 - 18:28When the time came, he wrote his own obituary but announced his
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18:28 - 18:31resurrection the following day.
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18:31 - 18:33Richard Huelsenbeck warned,
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18:33 - 18:37"Watch out for Baader, who has nothing to do with our thoughts.
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18:37 - 18:43"He has compromised Dada in Berlin to such an extent with his
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18:43 - 18:47"idiocies that I can't even get a small item into the press."
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18:47 - 18:49MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie
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18:49 - 18:54According to one of the Dada gang, "Dada was a dancing epidemic
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18:54 - 18:58"with simultaneous beginnings in different parts of the world."
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18:59 - 19:03In Zurich, Dada had taken a hammer to language.
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19:03 - 19:06In Berlin, it attacked the political Establishment.
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19:06 - 19:12And now, in New York, Dada took aim at art itself.
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19:13 - 19:14JAZZ PIANO MUSIC PLAYS
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19:17 - 19:21Marcel Duchamp, the king of conceptual art,
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19:21 - 19:24forced the grand old guardians of the art world to ask
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19:24 - 19:28themselves a question they hadn't had to think about before.
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19:28 - 19:32"If you put a toilet in art gallery, does that make it art?"
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19:32 - 19:35And, "Should I start stroking my beard yet?"
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19:37 - 19:42Duchamp caused scandal by presenting a urinal signed "R Mutt"
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19:42 - 19:45to the board of the Society For Independent Artists.
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19:45 - 19:51It was rejected and the story went in Dada journals like The Blind Man.
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19:51 - 19:55It was just one in a series of ready-mades -
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19:55 - 19:58everyday objects exhibited as art -
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19:58 - 20:01a closed window,
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20:01 - 20:03a snow shovel,
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20:03 - 20:05a bottle rack,
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20:05 - 20:07and a bicycle wheel.
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20:09 - 20:12And Duchamp provoked the rage of the art establishment still
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20:12 - 20:17further by defacing an old master.
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20:17 - 20:19A copy at least.
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20:19 - 20:22He called the work Elle A Chaud Au Cul,
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20:22 - 20:24which in French sounds just like,
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20:24 - 20:26"She's got a hot ass."
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20:26 - 20:30For the Dadaists, this series of provocations was enough for
-
20:30 - 20:34Duchamp to gain entry into their club, whether he liked it or not.
-
20:37 - 20:42Artist Cornelia Parker has made art out of everyday objects herself,
-
20:42 - 20:45but not without flattening them first with a steam roller.
-
20:45 - 20:47She's my kind of artist.
-
20:50 - 20:53And, for Cornelia, Duchamp, the reluctant Dadaist,
-
20:53 - 20:55has been a lifelong inspiration.
-
20:56 - 21:00Was Marcel Duchamp a Dadaist?
-
21:00 - 21:03He was a Dadaist by default, I think.
-
21:03 - 21:05The toilet...R Mutt's toilet, that's the thing that everyone knows,
-
21:05 - 21:09- isn't it?
- R Mutt's toilet, yeah, I suppose you introduce the idea of -
21:09 - 21:11anything you just go and buy in the shop becoming an art object.
-
21:11 - 21:14- And he did, and he caused a big stink.
- He did. -
21:14 - 21:17The idea of putting that into a salon where you're supposed
-
21:17 - 21:21to put accepted work seemed to be what it was all about,
-
21:21 - 21:24really, more than the object itself.
-
21:24 - 21:25A lot of things just started with him,
-
21:25 - 21:28because he was just up for anything.
-
21:28 - 21:31Duchamp sort of opened up this seam, you know,
-
21:31 - 21:35in kind of art that was kind of...everything was quite
-
21:35 - 21:37stable and quite...progressing nicely,
-
21:37 - 21:41but he'd just kind of create this big fissure, you know, this
-
21:41 - 21:45fault-line that allowed other people just to be completely maverick.
-
21:47 - 21:50Duchamp's idea for the readymade has inspired generations of
-
21:50 - 21:52artists since,
-
21:52 - 21:55and at the time inspired a collaboration with artist and
-
21:55 - 21:57photographer Man Ray.
-
21:57 - 22:01This is a fantastic photograph by Man Ray of Duchamp's
-
22:01 - 22:06half-finished sculpture which was called The Large Glass.
-
22:06 - 22:09He was allowing dust to accumulate on it,
-
22:09 - 22:12because he wanted to incorporate the dust into the piece,
-
22:12 - 22:14and I think he left a note for the cleaner, cos
-
22:14 - 22:18he had a cleaning lady, saying, you know, "Don't touch, dust breeding."
-
22:18 - 22:24- Did Man Ray come round to his house and then...?
- Spot it and like it?
- And Marcel said, -
22:24 - 22:27"Here, have a look at this, look at all this dust I'm breeding here."
-
22:27 - 22:29And he says, "We'll just take a picture of it, shall we?"
-
22:29 - 22:31- I'm sure it went something like that.
- I bet it is, yeah. -
22:31 - 22:34I think some of the best art is serendipitous.
-
22:34 - 22:38- I quite like the idea of, you know, negligence becoming art.
- CORNELIA LAUGHS -
22:38 - 22:42Yeah. And have you been influenced by Dada?
-
22:42 - 22:45I'm very influenced by Duchamp. I think he's, most probably, if
-
22:45 - 22:49I had to pick one artist to say that he's had the most influence on me.
-
22:49 - 22:51Yeah.
-
22:51 - 22:55Dada managed to be really infantile and outrageous but at the
-
22:55 - 22:58same time made people think about things afresh.
-
22:59 - 23:02I'm off with Cornelia to stage our own Dada intervention.
-
23:02 - 23:05MUSIC: Da Funk by Daft Punk
-
23:05 - 23:08It'll pay tribute to both the politics of Club Dada in Berlin
-
23:08 - 23:10and the irreverence of New York Dada.
-
23:14 - 23:17It's taking us to Bond Street, where war leaders
-
23:17 - 23:20Churchill and Roosevelt hold court.
-
23:26 - 23:28Let's see who gets arrested first.
-
23:28 - 23:32Do you think I'll get arrested... I'm more likely to get arrested with balaclavas?
-
23:32 - 23:35I think you'll get more arrested than me. THEY LAUGH
-
23:35 - 23:38- Here are the boys.
- Right, so, are you ready?
- Yeah. -
23:47 - 23:49There's my Dadaist act for the day.
-
23:49 - 23:51- That's great, don't you think?
- Yeah. -
23:51 - 23:54It looks really menacing.
-
23:54 - 23:57Shall we leave them on for a couple of minutes to see what people think?
-
23:58 - 24:01'I think Cornelia's gone for political Dada -
-
24:01 - 24:03'she's made them into terrorists.'
-
24:04 - 24:08The police don't seem to have noticed yet.
-
24:08 - 24:11'Right, now it's my turn to give these old geezers
-
24:11 - 24:13'a 21st century face-lift.
-
24:13 - 24:17'I'm thinking absurdo-Dada is more my style.'
-
24:17 - 24:20MUSIC: I've Told Every Little Star by Linda Scott
-
24:20 - 24:22'That should bring them down to scale.'
-
24:22 - 24:25- There.
- That's great, I love it. -
24:25 - 24:26These need you on, darling.
-
24:26 - 24:28I think I'll go on here.
-
24:28 - 24:30Oh!
-
24:30 - 24:33- What does it mean then?
- What does it mean?
- What have we done? -
24:33 - 24:36Well, this is almost...well, it's 100 years after Dadaism,
-
24:36 - 24:38- so this is...
- Is it a student prank? -
24:38 - 24:40- I think it's a student prank...
- It kind of feels like it. -
24:40 - 24:42It is a student prank, isn't it?
-
24:42 - 24:45I liked your balaclavas, I think, best.
-
24:45 - 24:48- Did you?
- Yeah. It was more of a striking effect. -
24:48 - 24:52It was slightly more edgy. People enjoy this one more, I think.
-
24:52 - 24:55- Mine was most probably a bit more like...
- SIREN WAILS -
24:55 - 24:57..you know, like Pussy Riot or something.
-
24:57 - 24:58- Do you think so?
- Yes. -
24:58 - 25:01Here come the coppers.
-
25:01 - 25:03- What should we do - just leave it there?
- Well, we could. -
25:03 - 25:06Should we just walk off and leave it?
-
25:11 - 25:15I suppose the whole legacy of Dada means that people
-
25:15 - 25:18have been defacing statues for a long time, haven't they?
-
25:18 - 25:20Usually the traffic cone is the favourite one.
-
25:20 - 25:23Now you've got Banksy.
-
25:23 - 25:26It's not just being cheeky. No. CORNELIA LAUGHS
-
25:26 - 25:28No, it's a bit more, I don't know,
-
25:28 - 25:30it came out of a more political time, didn't it?
-
25:30 - 25:33For some reason I always thought Dadaism was
-
25:33 - 25:37a little less benign than Surrealism.
-
25:38 - 25:41'Well, that's its brilliance for me.
-
25:41 - 25:44'Dada can be the provocative dangerous artform Cornelia is
-
25:44 - 25:47'drawn to, but it's also the original inspiration for mindless
-
25:47 - 25:49'student pranks.'
-
25:55 - 26:00Back in Zurich, Tristan Tzara, who we last saw casting a tribal spell
-
26:00 - 26:05at the Cabaret Voltaire, was taking Dada in a radical new direction.
-
26:06 - 26:09With new publications springing up by the second,
-
26:09 - 26:14Dada's next target was the world of mass communication.
-
26:14 - 26:19Tzara planned to trick the papers with a fake press release.
-
26:21 - 26:24Tzara was using Dada's subversive energy
-
26:24 - 26:27to mock the new media culture.
-
26:27 - 26:30NEWS JINGLE PLAYS
-
26:33 - 26:37There was a pistol duel yesterday on the Rehalp near Zurich, between
-
26:37 - 26:42Tristan Tzara, familiar founder of Dada, and Dada painter Hans Arp.
-
26:42 - 26:45Four rounds were fired and, in the fourth exchange,
-
26:45 - 26:47Arp was slightly grazed on his left thigh.
-
26:49 - 26:51Armando Iannucci.
-
26:51 - 26:53How do you respond to this?
-
26:53 - 26:56- Well, this is literally news to me.
- Yeah. -
26:56 - 26:58- I'm going to put the hands down.
- Yeah, I'm going to stop doing this. -
26:58 - 27:00This was an article,
-
27:00 - 27:03this was written by the Dadaists and sent out
-
27:03 - 27:06to various publications and newspapers, and was printed.
-
27:06 - 27:07It was all made up. It was fake.
-
27:07 - 27:11And that is something that is very contemporary,
-
27:11 - 27:14because nowadays, you know, there's so much,
-
27:14 - 27:17you know, 24-hour media and newspapers that have websites
-
27:17 - 27:21- that need filling, so if you sent them a press release now...
- Yeah. -
27:21 - 27:25..it will appear as a story, even though it's word-for-word
-
27:25 - 27:27quoting the press release that you sent out.
-
27:27 - 27:32I mean, what Dada is saying is that something that sounds very
-
27:32 - 27:36serious and true might not be serious and might not be true.
-
27:36 - 27:40I remember, about 20 years ago, we did a show called On The Hour, which
-
27:40 - 27:44was like a false news programme, but we actually did a...we made a report
-
27:44 - 27:47about an abattoir where the cows were actually rising from the dead.
-
27:47 - 27:49I remember it.
-
27:49 - 27:53..and it nearly got on the Today programme.
-
27:53 - 27:57We submitted it as from a Bristol reporter for BBC Bristol,
-
27:57 - 27:58and it was all lined up,
-
27:58 - 28:01and John Humphrys had written his introduction and everything,
-
28:01 - 28:04and we came seconds away from it being played live.
-
28:04 - 28:09Armando Iannucci has made an art out of Dadaist manipulation with
-
28:09 - 28:11shows like The Day Today.
-
28:11 - 28:12News.
-
28:12 - 28:15London Transport say they may have to close the Underground
-
28:15 - 28:18system due to an infestation of horses.
-
28:18 - 28:20A report described the conditions in the equine plague as
-
28:20 - 28:23"like an abattoir in a power cut".
-
28:23 - 28:27To inspire other would-be Dadaists, Tristan Tzara published
-
28:27 - 28:31a set of instructions on how to tear up newspaper articles and
-
28:31 - 28:32reassemble them.
-
28:34 - 28:37Take a newspaper. Take some scissors.
-
28:37 - 28:39Choose from this paper an article.
-
28:39 - 28:43Next, carefully cut out each of the words that make up this
-
28:43 - 28:46article and put them all together in a bag.
-
28:46 - 28:49Shake gently.
-
28:49 - 28:52Next, take out each cutting, one after the other.
-
28:52 - 28:56Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
-
28:56 - 28:59- OK.
- Right, so tip it out.
- Right. -
28:59 - 29:00So, let's...
-
29:00 - 29:02This is the way they've fallen out.
-
29:02 - 29:04"We're updating squeaky-voiced felt."
-
29:05 - 29:07Hang on.
-
29:07 - 29:12"The Cumberbatch appeared correct where cardboard catchphrases,
-
29:12 - 29:16"occasionally sometimes correct," it says.
-
29:16 - 29:20- Which kind of sums up random words.
- Yeah. -
29:20 - 29:24I think what they were beginning to explore was that idea that,
-
29:24 - 29:30you know, we take so much of what we're being told for granted.
-
29:30 - 29:33We're seeing it as the voice of authority and infallible,
-
29:33 - 29:37- and they're saying it's not, really.
- Yeah.
- It's just words. -
29:38 - 29:40Thank you, thank you.
-
29:40 - 29:43We've been recording a music video, and it goes like this.
-
29:43 - 29:46# I'm hardcore and I know the score
-
29:46 - 29:48# I am disgusted by the poor
-
29:48 - 29:51# And my chums matter more because we are the law
-
29:51 - 29:54# And I've made sure we're ready for class war. #
-
29:54 - 29:57Cut-up, today, is such a prevalent form.
-
29:57 - 30:02Deconstructing what you think of as true and telling you it's just,
-
30:02 - 30:06you know, it's just an assembly of information which you could
-
30:06 - 30:09put out in another combination.
-
30:09 - 30:12Any source of any information can be cut and connected...
-
30:12 - 30:16- But this is a random combination.
- Yeah.
- That's the difference. -
30:16 - 30:18I think what's happening now is people are trying to do
-
30:18 - 30:20something more coherent with it.
-
30:20 - 30:24So this is Tristan Tzara's unpatented idea,
-
30:24 - 30:28- but it's led to fridge magnet poetry.
- Fridge magnet poetry. -
30:28 - 30:31And it's led to the whole of the internet, which consists
-
30:31 - 30:37mostly of people cutting up bits of film and television.
-
30:37 - 30:39The idea that we can all reedit -
-
30:39 - 30:41one day this is how all programmes will be made.
-
30:44 - 30:46That's great. Thank you.'
-
30:46 - 30:47THEY CHUCKLE
-
30:47 - 30:49DRAMATIC NEWS SHOW MUSIC
-
30:51 - 30:55Dada poets and artists jumped on the creative opportunities
-
30:55 - 31:00provided by cut-up, using the process for more than just satire.
-
31:00 - 31:04Sometimes, a painting doesn't go the way you want it to go.
-
31:04 - 31:06Damn you, fine artwork!
-
31:06 - 31:12And this happened to artist Jean Arp, who was so frustrated,
-
31:12 - 31:18he ripped up the painting and let the pieces land on the floor and
-
31:18 - 31:22where they landed, he decided that
-
31:22 - 31:25this was exactly what he wanted
-
31:25 - 31:27in the first place.
-
31:30 - 31:34That's not bad, actually. It's pretty good.
-
31:34 - 31:36And Arp's wasn't too bad either.
-
31:36 - 31:38Hello. Yes. Hello. Thank you. Yes.
-
31:38 - 31:42This Dadaist principle of tearing everything up re-emerged in
-
31:42 - 31:46'60s counter culture and nowhere more so than with
-
31:46 - 31:49William Burroughs, who made an art out of chance happening with
-
31:49 - 31:55his fragmented poetry, tape cut-ups, and even randomly reassembled films.
-
31:55 - 31:59Hello. Yes. Where are we? Hello. Yes.
-
31:59 - 32:01Hello. Yes.
-
32:01 - 32:03Burroughs' artistic experiments would trigger
-
32:03 - 32:07a new wave of cut-up in the second half of the century, passing on
-
32:07 - 32:11his Dadaist technique to musicians, from Paul McCartney to David Bowie.
-
32:13 - 32:18What I've used it for more than anything else is igniting
-
32:18 - 32:20anything that might be in my imagination.
-
32:20 - 32:23I've tried doing it with diaries and things and I was finding out
-
32:23 - 32:27amazing things about me and what I'd done and where I was going.
-
32:27 - 32:30And a lot of the things that I'd done, it seemed that it would
-
32:30 - 32:34predict things about the future, or tell me a lot about the past.
-
32:34 - 32:36I don't know, let's see what happens.
-
32:41 - 32:45# I'm an alligator
-
32:45 - 32:47# I'm a momma-papa... #
-
32:47 - 32:50From our pop stars to our counter cultural heroes,
-
32:50 - 32:53we're all a little bit under the influence of Dada.
-
32:55 - 32:58In 1919, the Dada epidemic hit Cologne.
-
32:58 - 33:02Each time it spread, Dada mutated and evolved.
-
33:04 - 33:09Zurich Dada had introduced absurdist nonsense, Berlin Dada had targeted
-
33:09 - 33:14the political establishment, and New York Dadaists sent up the art world.
-
33:14 - 33:19Now, in Cologne, it was all about shock for shock's sake.
-
33:19 - 33:22A Cologne publication called the Berlin Dadaists
-
33:22 - 33:26counterfeits of Dada for their strongly held beliefs.
-
33:26 - 33:31It claimed, they can neither shit nor pee without ideologies.
-
33:33 - 33:38What Cologne Dada lacked in politics, it made up for in anarchy.
-
33:39 - 33:43The Dada early spring exhibition incensed audiences with an
-
33:43 - 33:47entrance via a public urinal of a beer hall and on the way in,
-
33:47 - 33:50the public were showered with obscenities.
-
33:50 - 33:52BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.
-
33:52 - 33:58Audiences were so incensed that they destroyed artworks in fits of rage.
-
33:58 - 34:02And Max Ernst, the leader of Cologne Dada, actively encouraged
-
34:02 - 34:06this destruction, displaying a sculpture with an axe attached.
-
34:06 - 34:10The police said, "Enough is enough!" and closed down the show.
-
34:14 - 34:18To find out what all this anarchy and destruction was about,
-
34:18 - 34:20I'm going to meet Michael Landy,
-
34:20 - 34:24one of the mischievous Young British Artists who introduced
-
34:24 - 34:27Dada's shock tactics to a new generation in the '90s.
-
34:33 - 34:37Michael is best known for destroying all of his possessions
-
34:37 - 34:38in the name of art.
-
34:38 - 34:40Hello?
-
34:40 - 34:42And judging by the look of his house,
-
34:42 - 34:44he hasn't replaced many of them since.
-
34:46 - 34:48DRAMATIC WESTERN STYLE MUSIC
-
34:58 - 35:02In Cologne, Max Ernst had a wooden sculpture with an axe
-
35:02 - 35:05attached to it, so that they could destroy it.
-
35:05 - 35:07- Oh, yeah.
- What do you know about that? -
35:07 - 35:10Destruction in art has kind of, like, a long history, really.
-
35:10 - 35:15And I think Dada was like, it brought, like, destruction...
-
35:15 - 35:19It's not necessarily nihilistic, it can also be creative.
-
35:19 - 35:20Yeah.
-
35:20 - 35:23Picasso talks about having, like, every time you make a painting,
-
35:23 - 35:26in a sense, it's a kind of mini-destruction.
-
35:26 - 35:31You know, you've got to take things apart to recreate, in a sense.
-
35:31 - 35:34You've got to take the previous generation apart, in a sense.
-
35:34 - 35:38You've got to almost, like, dismiss what they do and kind of
-
35:38 - 35:41recreate yourself with a whole new set of values.
-
35:41 - 35:43Cos you did your destruction...
-
35:43 - 35:46Yeah, I destroyed all my worldly belongings, yeah.
-
35:46 - 35:50- Was it absolutely everything?
- At the time, yeah, at the age of 37. -
35:50 - 35:52And how did you destroy it?
-
35:52 - 35:54We didn't get an axe to it or anything like that.
-
35:54 - 35:57It was actually a quite methodical way of doing it.
-
35:57 - 35:59So did you destroy your artwork as well?
-
35:59 - 36:02Yeah, I destroyed my artwork, I destroyed my friends' artwork.
-
36:02 - 36:06So would you say that was a Dadaist thing to do?
-
36:06 - 36:07Yeah, in some respects, yeah.
-
36:07 - 36:10I would say it's a pretty absurd thing to do.
-
36:10 - 36:12Yeah, and it did get up people's noses because obviously
-
36:12 - 36:16- people work their whole lives to acquire things, don't they?
- Yeah. -
36:16 - 36:19And there I was, destroying them all.
-
36:19 - 36:23Michael Landy and his mates shocked the art world in the
-
36:23 - 36:26'90s with the notorious Sensation exhibition.
-
36:26 - 36:30There was Damien Hirst with his shark,
-
36:30 - 36:34Tracey Emin with her unmade bed,
-
36:34 - 36:37and Marcus Harvey with his portrait of serial killer Myra Hindley,
-
36:37 - 36:40made with child handprints.
-
36:40 - 36:44But while Cologne Dada had its show shut down by the police,
-
36:44 - 36:47the YBA's just provoked a few headlines in the tabloids.
-
36:50 - 36:53You were involved in the Sensation show, weren't you?
-
36:53 - 36:54Hands up, I was, yeah.
-
36:54 - 36:59I mean, Sensation is like a collection of Charles Saatchi's.
-
36:59 - 37:02I mean, Dada is like...
-
37:02 - 37:05They're a group of artists who create manifestos, you know.
-
37:05 - 37:08They have like shared ideologies.
-
37:08 - 37:11I think the only similarity would be the media.
-
37:11 - 37:15Dada was being more provocative than I am and their audience is
-
37:15 - 37:19very conservative. I mean, what people think of art is like
-
37:19 - 37:22a nice landscape painting or a nice cherub in bronze.
-
37:22 - 37:24They don't think, you know,
-
37:24 - 37:26a mannequin with a light bulb on its head is art.
-
37:26 - 37:29- Yeah.
- So they're trying to shock people, aren't they?
- Yeah, they are. -
37:29 - 37:33That's what they're trying to... Get up their noses and make them angry.
-
37:33 - 37:37Yeah. So, any final thoughts on Dada?
-
37:37 - 37:41I'd just like to thank Dada really for paving the way for people
-
37:41 - 37:43like me to come along.
-
37:43 - 37:46- Yeah. Thank you, Dada.
- Thank you, Dada. -
37:46 - 37:49HE CHUCKLES
-
37:49 - 37:52I've brought a piece of artwork along with me for you.
-
37:52 - 37:56- Do you know the history of me and artwork?
- I know, yeah. -
37:56 - 37:58It's one of my prized possessions.
-
37:58 - 38:01- Well, now, you're making me feel bad. You can take it home.
- No. -
38:01 - 38:03No, I want you to do what you've got to do with it.
-
38:03 - 38:05I could make you do it. I'd feel much better.
-
38:05 - 38:08- You can follow my instructions.
- Have you got any ideas? -
38:08 - 38:11- Maybe show it to me first.
- So I'll go and get the plate.
- OK. -
38:11 - 38:14And then we'll talk about how to destroy.
-
38:14 - 38:17- How we're going to get rid of it.
- Yeah, here it is.
- Aw. -
38:17 - 38:20It's a wedding plate for Bill and Cath.
-
38:20 - 38:22William and you know...the royals.
-
38:25 - 38:26So the classic way,
-
38:26 - 38:29I suppose of destroying it is the Grecian way, isn't it?
-
38:29 - 38:31- I like the idea of poking it off something.
- OK. -
38:31 - 38:33You could poke it off the top of my head.
-
38:33 - 38:37- We could balance on top of my head and you could push it off.
- Yeah. -
38:37 - 38:41- You know where your broom...
- I've got a flat head. I'll go and get the broom. -
38:47 - 38:51- OK, I'll try and balance on my head.
- Yeah. Right, are you ready? -
38:54 - 38:56LOUD CLATTER
-
38:56 - 38:57- Did that break?
- Yeah. -
38:57 - 38:59There.
-
38:59 - 39:02- That looks nice now, I like that.
- Yeah, that looks nice. -
39:02 - 39:04- Yeah, I like that as well.
- I could sellotape that back together. -
39:04 - 39:07- Are you going to sweep that up and put it in a poitrine?
- In a latrine? -
39:07 - 39:12- In a poitrine, yeah. Not a latrine.
- Put a cloche over it. -
39:12 - 39:13- A what?
- A cloche. -
39:13 - 39:16THEY CHUCKLE
-
39:16 - 39:18'When I do silly things in my comedy,
-
39:18 - 39:20'it's a bit of throwaway fun,
-
39:20 - 39:23'but when I do them with an esteemed Young British Artist, I am
-
39:23 - 39:27'surely creating a piece of Dadaist performance art!'
-
39:27 - 39:31You find me, several tenths of my way through this journey and
-
39:31 - 39:33exploration into what is Dada.
-
39:33 - 39:35I've spoken to several people,
-
39:35 - 39:40all of which seem to have varying ideas about Dada.
-
39:40 - 39:43Was it political, anarchic? Was it comedy? What was it?
-
39:43 - 39:46It was probably all of those things and more.
-
39:46 - 39:48But what I can say is since the beginning,
-
39:48 - 39:51I thought I had quite a good idea about what Dada is.
-
39:51 - 39:53I think I'm probably more confused now,
-
39:53 - 39:59so I shall continue my journey and find out what exactly is Dada.
-
40:00 - 40:01SQUEALING
-
40:03 - 40:04UM!
-
40:05 - 40:09To help me answer that question, I'm meeting the man who updated
-
40:09 - 40:12Dada's absurdist style for my generation.
-
40:15 - 40:17FANFARE
-
40:19 - 40:21Now, where is he?
-
40:21 - 40:23FANFARE
-
40:26 - 40:30- Strangers meeting in the night.
- I never expected to see you here.
- No. -
40:30 - 40:33- Take a seat.
- What are you doing here?
- I don't know. -
40:33 - 40:36- What are you doing here?
- I don't know. A car brought me. -
40:36 - 40:37I know nothing!
-
40:37 - 40:39Let's find out!
-
40:39 - 40:43Well, Terry, what does Dada mean to you, if anything?
-
40:45 - 40:50I've never seriously thought about what it means to me. It just is.
-
40:50 - 40:52- Do you know what it is?
- Yeah. I do. -
40:52 - 40:56I think what was interesting, the fact that it was anti-war,
-
40:56 - 40:59it was a reaction to the First World War,
-
40:59 - 41:05a reaction to bourgeois society, and these very boring tastes.
-
41:05 - 41:07I think the anger is what's interesting about it,
-
41:07 - 41:11how they were angry about the world nightmare they were living in
-
41:11 - 41:14and yet, you deal with it in different ways.
-
41:14 - 41:17And it's the humour side that we always went for.
-
41:17 - 41:20Is that what it was? Was there a war going on,
-
41:20 - 41:23so we're going to have to have fun and lighten the situation?
-
41:23 - 41:26Or you go absurd. You go totally Absurdist.
-
41:26 - 41:30If we're in an absurd situation, a complete nightmare out there,
-
41:30 - 41:34well, let's create nightmares and throw it back at society and
-
41:34 - 41:36see if you can shake it up.
-
41:36 - 41:40- That's a really good point cos it really was just madness.
- Yeah. -
41:40 - 41:43I mean, I left America because of the Vietnam War and all of
-
41:43 - 41:45that and I realised I was more...
-
41:45 - 41:49I was more Dadaist than I realised
-
41:49 - 41:54because completely against the war, I hated the way society was
-
41:54 - 41:57structured and behaving, and I wanted to make people laugh.
-
41:57 - 42:00- Yeah.
- Bah-boom! -
42:00 - 42:02MUMBLING SINGING WAGNER
-
42:05 - 42:06BLESSING IN LATIN
-
42:11 - 42:15What interests me is how many artists that I've always been
-
42:15 - 42:19either copying, admiring, or being influenced by,
-
42:19 - 42:25were the Dadaists, and George Melly wrote a review of Python and
-
42:25 - 42:32he referred to me as a product of Max Ernst. Wow!
-
42:32 - 42:36- So you weren't aware before...?
- I was only aware of his paintings. -
42:36 - 42:38I wasn't aware of his collages.
-
42:44 - 42:48This is a film by Hans Richter, who was a Dadaist.
-
42:48 - 42:49Look at this.
-
42:49 - 42:52It's called Ghosts Before Breakfast.
-
42:58 - 43:02- The silly walk!
- It is, look. That's it. Isn't it?
- Yup! -
43:02 - 43:04So, who saw that then?
-
43:04 - 43:07- Probably nobody.
- Is it just a coincidence? -
43:07 - 43:11But that's what I love about things, how coincidental things can be.
-
43:11 - 43:14- Yeah.
- We were just doing it. We weren't aware of what we were doing. -
43:14 - 43:18There's a bubbling pot, isn't there? Where Dadaists pop out like
-
43:18 - 43:23bubbles and they're not aware that they are being called Dadaists!
-
43:23 - 43:24Yeah. I know.
-
43:24 - 43:29I think it was easier when we were doing Python, certainly for me,
-
43:29 - 43:33coming to this country, the categories are more clear.
-
43:33 - 43:36You know, the bankers, City guys, pin stripe suits,
-
43:36 - 43:40bowler hats, working class, look like working class,
-
43:40 - 43:42the middle class was the middle class.
-
43:42 - 43:45Now, I think it's harder to be Dadaist right now.
-
43:45 - 43:48Maybe it's ripe for a new uprising of Dadaism.
-
43:48 - 43:53I think it's really hard to get to grips with cos you can't find
-
43:53 - 43:55what the enemy is.
-
43:55 - 43:58You can't react against it cos it's so atomised now.
-
43:58 - 44:01SWANEE WHISTLE
-
44:08 - 44:11In the early '20s, with the war over,
-
44:11 - 44:14the global outposts of Dada converged in Paris.
-
44:16 - 44:19First, Tristan Tzara from Zurich,
-
44:19 - 44:22then Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray from New York...
-
44:22 - 44:23Oi, Marcel!
-
44:23 - 44:27..and then, Max Ernst from Cologne.
-
44:29 - 44:32A new supergroup was formed.
-
44:35 - 44:39Paris Dada offered its groupies more spectacle and more sheer
-
44:39 - 44:42silliness than anything that had gone before.
-
44:42 - 44:45It was Dada with bells on.
-
44:45 - 44:46BELLS SHAKE
-
44:48 - 44:50HE HUMS FLORAL DANCE
-
44:54 - 44:57By way of self-promotion,
-
44:57 - 45:00the Dadaists plastered stickers across the city.
-
45:03 - 45:09BELL RINGS AND DROWNS OUT SPEECH
-
45:20 - 45:26Francis Picabia made a drawing on a blackboard and then erased it
-
45:26 - 45:29at the exhibition.
-
45:30 - 45:35And to announce the opening of a Man Ray exhibition,
-
45:35 - 45:37the space was filled
-
45:37 - 45:41with balloons and the Dadaists popped them as people came in.
-
45:42 - 45:45Paris audiences were so outraged,
-
45:45 - 45:48they threw tomatoes and raw meat at them.
-
45:48 - 45:52Now, I'm meeting an artist who knows exactly how it feels to be on
-
45:52 - 45:55the receiving end of groceries.
-
45:55 - 45:58Martin Creed's Turner Prize-winning show,
-
45:58 - 46:01The Lights Going On And Off, which consisted of the lights going
-
46:01 - 46:05on and off, invited the question - is this art?
-
46:05 - 46:09And prompted some gallery goers to throw eggs at the wall.
-
46:09 - 46:14- So this is your studio?
- Yeah.
- Well, show us around?
- Well, so there's... -
46:14 - 46:18- These are paintings.
- Oh, yeah. I've heard about them. -
46:18 - 46:22- That's a bag.
- Yeah.
- That's a bag, that says... -
46:22 - 46:24That actually says "whatever".
-
46:26 - 46:29- Oh, yeah.
- There's some boxes here.
- Yeah. -
46:29 - 46:33- What's this?
- A knitting thing with the stripes getting bigger. -
46:33 - 46:36- What's it going to be?
- No, that is what it is. -
46:36 - 46:39- Oh, is it?
- This is a pair of trousers -
46:39 - 46:41I've been working on.
-
46:41 - 46:44- What are you going to do with them?
- Well, just erm... -
46:46 - 46:49- ..wear them.
- JIM CHUCKLES -
46:49 - 46:52- Wow!
- That is a hat. -
46:52 - 46:54- How does it look?
- Looks good. -
46:54 - 46:55Aye.
-
46:57 - 47:00- What is that?
- That's a Panda. A Fiat Panda. -
47:02 - 47:04So what about Dada?
-
47:04 - 47:07You got anything that's Dadaesque in here?
-
47:07 - 47:10Er, I don't, well, I don't know about, I don't know,
-
47:10 - 47:17- maybe a lot of it is because I think it's sort of a bit stupid.
- Yeah. -
47:17 - 47:19You know? I think that's...
-
47:19 - 47:21- That's what Dada is.
- Aye, like being stupid. -
47:21 - 47:25But there's political meaning and then you've got to balance that
-
47:25 - 47:28- with the daftness or the stupidness.
- Right, aye. -
47:28 - 47:30Cos I'd probably fall on the daft side.
-
47:30 - 47:33I would go...I think I would definitely fall on the stupid side.
-
47:33 - 47:36You'd be even further, right the other end!
-
47:36 - 47:39- Yeah.
- Yeah. -
47:39 - 47:42Cos I think it's like more, you know,
-
47:42 - 47:46- it's more like life, cos life's stupid.
- Yeah. -
47:47 - 47:52'Like the Dadaists, Martin filled the gallery half full with balloons.
-
47:52 - 47:55'His works are starting to feel rather familiar.'
-
47:55 - 47:59- That was your idea, wasn't it? Balloons.
- I didn't know about that. -
47:59 - 48:01This is what I've been finding,
-
48:01 - 48:05the Dadaists did have a lot of ideas for the first time.
-
48:05 - 48:08- Yeah, it looks like it, aye.
- And, um... -
48:08 - 48:11- and then you had them later.
- Right! -
48:11 - 48:13THEY LAUGH
-
48:13 - 48:16I'm just wandering about here.
-
48:16 - 48:19I mean, who knows what they were really trying to do, those people?
-
48:19 - 48:21- I don't know.
- I don't know. -
48:21 - 48:23No, I don't.
-
48:25 - 48:28And I don't know either, but, aye, I don't know.
-
48:28 - 48:31- I don't know.
- I don't know. -
48:31 - 48:33Well, there we are then, that's the answer to that, isn't it?
-
48:36 - 48:38Is there any reason behind any of your stuff?
-
48:38 - 48:41Maybe it's trying to do what you're not supposed to do.
-
48:41 - 48:44When I did this film of people being sick,
-
48:44 - 48:46and one of people shitting as well,
-
48:46 - 48:53just cos it's a taboo of our, like, British society.
-
48:53 - 48:58And are you allowed to go into a gallery and laugh your head off.
-
48:58 - 49:01Yeah, well, I would have thought so, aye.
-
49:01 - 49:04- That's what I encourage whenever I have my shows.
- Aye. -
49:07 - 49:12'Martin's invited me to join him in his latest nonsensical idea,
-
49:12 - 49:14'blind painting.
-
49:14 - 49:17'So I'm going to do a portrait with absolutely no idea
-
49:17 - 49:19'what it's going to look like.'
-
49:21 - 49:24- It is weird, isn't it?
- It is weird. -
49:52 - 49:54- I think I'm done.
- Yeah, I think I have. -
49:54 - 49:56- Right.
- So we're going to... -
49:56 - 49:59- What are we going to do, just show?
- Oh, aye, OK. -
49:59 - 50:00Whoa!
-
50:00 - 50:02Oh, yeah.
-
50:02 - 50:03THEY LAUGH
-
50:06 - 50:08- Oh, God.
- Oh, it's dripping. -
50:08 - 50:10Put them down on here.
-
50:10 - 50:13Aye. Don't want it to drip. Amazing.
-
50:15 - 50:17So has this got anything to do with Dada?
-
50:17 - 50:19I suppose it's just a new idea.
-
50:19 - 50:21Maybe cos it's like trying to do it the way you're not
-
50:21 - 50:24supposed to do it, cos you find that if you're going to do
-
50:24 - 50:26- a picture of something you should...
- So it's getting rid of -
50:26 - 50:28- all conventions.
- ..at least look at what your... -
50:28 - 50:31I feel like, you know, if you try to control things
-
50:31 - 50:34- it doesn't necessarily make them better, you know?
- Yeah. -
50:34 - 50:36This has got no bearing on anything.
-
50:50 - 50:54In Paris Tristan Tzara achieved his dream by gathering together
-
50:54 - 50:59all the Dadaists to form a movement, Movement Dada.
-
50:59 - 51:03It was the culmination of all the nonsense of Dada,
-
51:03 - 51:07and for a brief moment Dada was the talk of the town.
-
51:09 - 51:13But for some, like Max Ernst and Man Ray, the nonsense was wearing thin.
-
51:13 - 51:18They'd begun searching for meaning through dreams and the subconscious.
-
51:19 - 51:24Man Ray famously took a metronome, cut out an eye from a photograph,
-
51:24 - 51:28put them together and made a new work, Object To Be Destroyed.
-
51:28 - 51:31I think I might have a go myself.
-
51:34 - 51:36Connect and print. Is that what I do?
-
51:36 - 51:38Enter the password.
-
51:38 - 51:40Shove a little bit of light music on.
-
51:42 - 51:45MUSIC: Left Bank Two by The Noveltones
-
51:49 - 51:51There is something blurry happening.
-
51:53 - 51:57Then you cut out an eye.
-
52:01 - 52:05And then he stuck the eye on the metronome
-
52:05 - 52:07and there...
-
52:07 - 52:10he had a new work,
-
52:10 - 52:12Object To Be Destroyed.
-
52:22 - 52:25So with all the Dadaists all going off in different directions
-
52:25 - 52:29there was nothing holding this movement together
-
52:29 - 52:32and, what's more, egos were taking over.
-
52:33 - 52:37So Tristan Tzara, right, he wanted to be the leader of the Dadaists.
-
52:37 - 52:40"Oh, look at me, I want to be the king of the Dadaists!"
-
52:40 - 52:43In fact they used to call him Tzar Tristan.
-
52:43 - 52:46But soon Dada had rivals in the Paris art world,
-
52:46 - 52:49including the French poet Andre Breton, and he was
-
52:49 - 52:53getting up the noses of other poets as well, like Paul Eluard.
-
52:53 - 52:57Dada was about to reach its bitter end in July 1923
-
52:57 - 53:01at the Soiree Of The Bearded Heart.
-
53:02 - 53:06So early on in the evening, Andre Breton takes offence at some
-
53:06 - 53:10performer and whacks him with his cane and gets thrown out, then
-
53:10 - 53:15a bit later on, just before Tristan Tzara's play The Gas Heart
-
53:15 - 53:19is on, there's like a rumpus going on in the stalls.
-
53:19 - 53:20Then who is it?
-
53:20 - 53:24It's Paul Eluard, the poet. He demands to see Tristan Tzara,
-
53:24 - 53:26so Tristan Tzara comes out, they have a pushing and shoving match
-
53:26 - 53:30and then Paul Eluard lamps Tristan Tzara,
-
53:30 - 53:34he goes down and that was it, you know, it was kind of all over
-
53:34 - 53:37by then really, so we went off to the boozer to talk about it,
-
53:37 - 53:39and had a right old laugh.
-
53:39 - 53:41Dada had died a death.
-
53:41 - 53:45But some Dadaists, like Max Ernst and Man Ray,
-
53:45 - 53:46found another gang to join,
-
53:46 - 53:50jumping ship to Andre Breton's new art movement,
-
53:50 - 53:52Surrealism.
-
53:53 - 53:56But I don't know if anyone really, really and honestly knew
-
53:56 - 53:59what Dada was all about yet.
-
53:59 - 54:02And to be honest, neither do I.
-
54:04 - 54:07But perhaps if I look out on this historic city,
-
54:07 - 54:13take in its atmosphere, I might get a feel for Dada
-
54:13 - 54:20and finally get to grips with this contradictory movement.
-
54:22 - 54:24No, Paris didn't do much for Dadaism,
-
54:24 - 54:27and, to be honest, it's not doing a lot for me either.
-
54:27 - 54:29I'm off.
-
54:35 - 54:37Terry! Terry!
-
54:38 - 54:40What is... What is Dada?
-
54:40 - 54:42Come on, what is Dada?
-
54:42 - 54:45- Leave me alone! Leave me alone!
- What is it? -
54:47 - 54:49- What is Dada?
- I'm not going to tell him, I'm not going to tell him. -
54:52 - 54:55What is Dada?
-
54:56 - 54:59Everyone needs a shed to go to when all else has failed.
-
55:01 - 55:02What is Dada?
-
55:02 - 55:06What is Dada? What...is Dada?
-
55:06 - 55:08- VOICE ECHOES:
- Eh, what do you reckon? -
55:08 - 55:12Turkey. Tutankhamen.
-
55:12 - 55:14- Hello.
- What? -
55:14 - 55:18Moon River, wider than a mile.
-
55:18 - 55:20Hello.
-
55:20 - 55:21Hello.
-
55:21 - 55:23Yes, Arthur Smith at your service here.
-
55:23 - 55:27What exactly is Dada?
-
55:27 - 55:32Dada is a virgin microbe that fills up all the space
-
55:32 - 55:35that reason cannot with its convention.
-
55:35 - 55:38Good, glad you sorted that out for me, then.
-
55:38 - 55:39Yeah, I mean, in a sense, you know,
-
55:39 - 55:43if you start trying to analyse it then you'll end up
-
55:43 - 55:46disappearing up your own bottom, and it recognises that.
-
55:46 - 55:50So some people reckon is political, some people think it's just
-
55:50 - 55:55stupid absurdist comedy, or is it all of it? What is it?
-
55:55 - 56:00You've got to defy convention and logic in order to amaze
-
56:00 - 56:03and stimulate people, I suppose.
-
56:03 - 56:07Dada gave a licence for people to be stupid and in some sense
-
56:07 - 56:12it is the founder of modern comedy and you've definitely acted on
-
56:12 - 56:18your licence to be stupid, and Vic and all your mates, so well done.
-
56:18 - 56:20Thanks.
-
56:20 - 56:22Well, I'm stuck here alone in my bar,
-
56:22 - 56:24and you're stuck there alone in your bar,
-
56:24 - 56:29and yet we're together, Jim, that's a kind of Dadaism all by itself.
-
56:29 - 56:31That's beautiful.
-
56:31 - 56:34'Right, where do I go from here?'
-
56:43 - 56:46We're nearly at the end of our voyage, and have we discovered anything?
-
56:46 - 56:50Yes, I think we have. I think we know a little bit more about Dada.
-
56:50 - 56:53Do you know more about Dada? Do I know more about Dada?
-
56:53 - 56:55I do, but do you?
-
56:55 - 56:57I don't and you do.
-
56:57 - 57:01And I think one thing that we have learned is that a bloke
-
57:01 - 57:04from the BBC, that's me, sitting on a pedestal,
-
57:04 - 57:06can't tell you what to think.
-
57:06 - 57:08They'll put it all together in the edit anyway.
-
57:08 - 57:10Dada is...
-
57:10 - 57:11- Completely...
- Maverick... -
57:11 - 57:14- Deconstructing...
- This serious idea about... -
57:14 - 57:17- Art...
- It's just an assembly... -
57:17 - 57:20- Of artists who create...
- Art that was...
- Incredibly modern... -
57:20 - 57:21- Very...
- Coincidental... -
57:21 - 57:24- Free-form...
- Negligence... -
57:24 - 57:27- They were a bit stupid...
- And want to make people laugh... -
57:27 - 57:29- The spirit of Dada...
- Was about... -
57:29 - 57:31- A whole new set of...
- Extraordinary...
- Ideologies... -
57:31 - 57:34- They were angry about...
- Convention and... -
57:34 - 57:36- People being sick...
- It's like a big political... -
57:36 - 57:39- Shake it up.
- I would say it's pretty absurd... -
57:39 - 57:41- It just is...
- More like life... -
57:41 - 57:44- Nonsensical anyway...
- More provocative... -
57:44 - 57:46- Than beer and sausages...
- I'm sure it's something like that. -
58:15 - 58:17Thank you.
-
58:17 - 58:20LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE
- Title:
- Dada: The Original Art Rebels documentary (2016)
- Description:
-
On the 100th anniversary of Dada, Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) goes on an irreverent trip into the world of the influential avant-garde art movement.
»»﴿───► See more on the Artists and Art Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIZqvqbtz9I3Awxq23UZKyGAzqzAJiUhN
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Share this video!Absurd, provocative and subversive, Dada began as a response to the madness of World War I. But its radical way of looking at the world inspired generations of artists, writers and musicians, from Monty Python to punk, Bowie to Banksy.
Jim restages an early Dada performance in Zurich's Cabaret Voltaire, where the movement began. Among those joining him in his playful celebration of the Dadaists and their impact are Armando Iannucci, Terry Gilliam, designer Neville Brody and artists Michael Landy and Cornelia Parker.
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 57:13
drmyers edited English subtitles for Dada: The Original Art Rebels documentary (2016) |