Friday 25 November 2005, 14.00–19.00
Saturday 26 November 2005, 10.30–18.30

Dada was one of the most innovative and influential movements of twentieth-century art. It sprang out of counter-cultural activities during the First World War, and manifested itself in a diverse range of practices such as photomontage, assemblage, performance art and readymades to name but a few. Nonsense, nihilism, fierce intellectual paradox and polemic are qualities readily found in Dada texts and manifestoes.

This conference, convened by David Hopkins and Michael White, has been prompted by a major Dada exhibition that opened in Paris in October 2005 and travels to Washington DC and New York in 2006. This landmark show provides the opportunity for a broader re-reading of the subject. Much of the literature on Dada has focussed narrowly on individuals or on the local groups formed in major cities such as Zurich, New York, Berlin and Paris. The aim of this conference is to try and think about Dada beyond the heavily mythologised narratives that surround the local groups and connect Dada to the recent concerns of humanities scholarship such as issues of identity, theories of the avant-garde and mass culture. Relatively neglected areas of research such as metaphysics and ideologies of race are also considered.

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£30 (£20 concessions), booking recommended
Price includes refreshments

    

Provisional Timings and Paper Titles

Friday 25 November

14.00
Conference begins

14.00–14.30
Opening Remarks
Dada: the state of the debate

First Session: Dadasophy
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

14.30–15.15
Dr Debbie Lewer (University of Glasgow)
Dada and Theology

15.15–16.00
Professor David Hopkins (University of Glasgow)
‘Dust Breeding’: Duchampian Metaphysics

16.00–16.30
Tea and coffee

Second Session: Dada Language
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

16.30–17.15
Professor Eric Robertson (Royal Holloway)
Swallows, parrots and the ‘cacadou supérieur’: Arp's translations

17.15–18.00
Professor Rainer Rumold (Northwestern University)
Kurt Schwitters: Decomposition of Word and Image as Architecture/Texture

18.00–18.30
Panel discussion with all speakers from sessions 1 and 2, chaired by David Hopkins

18.40–19.40
Drinks reception and performance of The greatest ever DaDa show.
East Room, level 7

The greatest ever DaDa show is based on new translations of 1920 Paris DaDa manifestos by André Breton, Louis Aragon, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, Tristan Tzara, Philippe Soupault, Hans Arp, Francis Picabia et al. Susan de Muth, who translated the texts, directs this show which has been developed as a collaboration by the theatre of the absurd. Features: DaDa BOXING, BALLET, PARANOID TRANSVESTITES, ICELANDIC CAR CHOIR, Breton-in-a-box, LIVE psychic channelling, Murderous Chanteuse, NOISICIANS, DaDa-fication, ORGASMS & MORE...

 

Saturday 26 November

Third Session: Groupings/Alignments
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

10.30–11.15
Dr Timothy Benson (Curator, Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Dada Geographies

11.15–12.00
Professor Hubert van den Berg (University of Groningen)
The Margins of Dada: On the Reception of Dada in the Netherlands and Belgium

12.00–13.00
Lunch break

Fourth Session: Montage/Mass Culture
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

13.00–13.45
Dr Brigid Doherty (Princeton University)
Revelation Revisited: Raphael’s ‘Sistine Madonna’ in Grosz’s ‘Germania ohne Hemd’

13.45–14.30
Professor Sherwin Simmons (University of Oregon)
Dada and Kitsch: Cultivation of the Trivial

14.30–15.15
Panel discussion with all speakers from sessions 3 and 4, chaired by Michael White

15.15–15.45
Tea and coffee

Fifth Session: Identity
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

15.45–16.30
Dr Elizabeth Legge (University of Toronto)
Portraits of Tzara

16.30–17.15
Dr Michael White (University of York)
Berlin Dada and Jewish Identity

17.15–18.00
Panel discussion: the Paris Show and Rethinking Dada
Professor Dawn Ades (University of Essex)
Professor Hubert van den Berg (University of Groningen)
Dr Matthew Gale (Tate)
Dr Jon Wood (Henry Moore Institute)