Subject: cabaret voltaire, Dada – Zurich presents Dada East? The
Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire
09/16/06
cabaret voltaire, Dada – Zurich
Dada East?
The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire
Dada Est? Românii de la Cabaret Voltaire
Opening:September 20, 2006 6 p.m.
Exhibtion: September 20, 2006 – February 22, 2007
Conference: October 28, 2006
cabaret voltaire, Dada – Zurich
Spiegelgasse 1
CH-8001 Zurich
http://www.cabaretvoltaire.ch
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
T: +41 43 268 57 20
Artists: Mircea Cantor (RO), Stefan Constantinescu (RO), Harun Faroki
(CZ) and Andrei Ujica (RO), Ion Grigorescu (RO), Marcel Janco (RO),
Sebastian Moldovan (RO), Ciprian Muresan (RO), Dan Perjovschi (RO),
Lia Perjovschi (RO), Cristi Pogacean (RO) and Tristan Tzara (RO).
Curator: Adrian Notz in cooperation with Raimund Meyer and Juri
Steiner.
Officially, Dada was born on the 5th of February 1916 when Hugo Ball
and Emmy Hennings opened the literary-artistic Cabaret Voltaire in the
restaurant Meierei at Spiegelgasse 1 in Zürich. In his journal “Flight
out of Time“, Hugo Ball writes: “… a deputation of four oriental
looking little men appeared, carrying portfolios and paintings; they
kept bowing discreetly. They introduced themselves: Marcel Janco the
painter, Tristan Tzara, George Janco, and a gentleman whose name I
missed.” These four little men, still being youngsters – the fourth
must have been Jancos brother Jules – had all been running away from
Romania. Tristan Tzara, this “dompteur des acrobats”, and Marcel
Janco, the well-tempered artistic experimenter would become an
important influence for Dada Zurich.
We can find numerous mental cartographies of the forerunners and
precursors of Dada. However, the developments in Eastern Europe have
gained only very little attention. It is also the merit of Tom
Sandqvist’s book “Dada East; The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire”,
published in spring 2006, that a focus has been set on Romania and
that cultural and historical context, which might have had particular
impact on the activities in Zurich. Sandqvist also reckons that the
relationship to East European Yiddish tradition was particularly
significant and accordingly influential: all of the “Romanians of the
Cabaret Voltaire”, including Arthur Segal, had been brought up within
Jewish culture and tradition.
In a historical search for traces, the cabaret voltaire exhibition
deals critically with the artistic and personal context of Tristan
Tzara and Marcel Janco. We interpret the indicators suggested by Tom
Sandqvist, we inquire the dadaist precondition – and its meaning for
the history of Dada and cabaret voltaire today. We will refine this
historical nucleus of the exhibition with a little homage to Janco and
Tzara, we will show works which were made by them in the wake of the
Zurich Dada Seasons – and there is one pearl which has not seen
daylight ever since.
We also use the indicators as an occasion to inquire how the topic
could be debated in contemporary context and, even more, to look for
the potential and meaning of “Dada East” for the cultural scene of
Romania. It is today’s perspective. We want to find out why people who
are currently engaged in cultural work, are interested in the dada
from the past. This is one of the main questions which cabaret
voltaire keeps asking and instigating.
The contemporary Romanian artists offer possible answers.
Mircea Cantor and Dan Perjovschi have developed works especially for
the exhibition “Dada East? The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire” which
reveal their relationship to Dada and the Romanian avant-garde. In
addition to that, the works by Stefan Constantinescu, Harun Faroki and
Andrei Ujica, Ion Grigorescu, Sebastian Moldovan, Ciprian Muresan, Lia
Perjovschi and Cristi Pogacean open new possible perspectives on the
conception of Dada.
With great support of Michael Ilk, Nicolae Tzone, the Embassy of
Romania in Switzerland and the Romanian Cultural Institute in
Bucharest.
Scenography and realization by Kunstumsetzung GmbH, Zurich.
Special thanks to Ion Pop and Tom Sandqvist.
Supported by: The City of Zurich and The Swatch Group.
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