This volume focuses on the unstudied geographic margins of Dada, delving into the roots of Dada in Israel, Romania, Poland, and North America.
Contributors consider some of the practices and experiments that were conceived a century ago, surfaced in art throughout the twentieth century, and are still relevant today. Unearthing its Israeli origins, examining Dadaist expressions in Poland, and shedding light on overlooked facets of Dadaist art in Romania and North America, the authors cast a spotlight on the less-explored geographical peripheries of Dada. The book is organized around four thematic trajectories—space, language, materiality, and reception—which are dissected through the lens of micro-histories. Recognizing the continuing validity of questions raised by Dadaist artists, this volume argues that Dada persists as an ongoing endeavor—a continual reexamination of the fundamental tenets of art and its ever-evolving potential manifestations.
The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, modernism, and history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Introduction Part I: Transcending Disciplinary Boundaries 1. Marcel Janco Architect in Romania 2. The Delirious Specter of Dada: Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven and Her Costumes Using the Lenses of Collage, Assemblage, and Montage 3. Through the Eyes of an Architect, the Soul of an Artist: Marcel Janco and Ein Hod Artist Colony Part II: Reception in Eastern Europe and the Middle East 4. Dada in Romania: How Romanian Avant-Garde Magazines Celebrated Dada 5. Authenticity after Duchamp: On the Reception of the Readymade Legacy in Israel in the 1970s Part III: Disputing Matter and Materiality 6. Acoustic Ecologies: John Cage and Robert Smithson After Hugo Ball’s Unrestrained Nature 7. “Junk Impresario” or The Creaking Jew Part IV: Language and Syntax 8. “Language Dissection” as a Rhetoric of Healing: Yael Bartana and the Spirit of Dada 9. The Alphabet of Forms: Initial Data for a Bottom-up Approach to Architectural Morphogenesis Part V: The Center-Margins Trajectory 10. Interview with Marcel Janco: The Years in Zurich 1914-1919 11. Marcel Janco, Dada and its reverberation and avatars in the 20th century Epilogue: dada after Dada
Ronit Milano is a senior lecturer at the Department of the Arts, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Raya Zommer-Tal is the Director and Chief Curator of the Janco-Dada Museum, Ein Hod, Israel. Noam Gonnen is an associate lecturer at the Department of the Arts, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
