Page 43 - Studio International - April 1971

meetings, and at night the noise of machine- present; it is not about the black and white on uproar. Like a tension, never unilaterally
guns in the Centre, where 'they' were barricaded one particular piece of paper. The word : we controlled, in the ruins of expression; all the
in the huge `Lokalanzeiger' building. have changed and relaxed all its meanings, same an important expansion of underlying
And should one write good rhyming poetry, introverted its significance; and I myself have formal consideration, with no ethical leap, on a
paint still-lives or female nudes ? Hell, no. posted it on walls which without the walls of limited foundation: dada art is the plan with the
One ill-fated day, the news broke of the poster-poems of letter types cry out bare and new, appearance of conflicts, is the insolence of the
assassination of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa During this period, I invented a way of creator who protests. Art, the non-contingent
Luxemburg. The proletariat acted as if paralysed writing about everyday nonsense which I called illusion, showing even to the point of farce a
and remained in its state of lethargy. `Banalitaten' to ridicule psychology and quasi-inner necessity, never has any deeper
Then, it was necessary to concentrate Dada literature itself. meaning than the nonsense of narcissism taken
activity against a world which had not itself Prefabricated literature, poetic assemblage— I seriously by pure innocents, crossing games with
reacted energetically against these unforgivable practised them with Baader the Ober-Dada : we complex tragedies.
horrors. were in the habit of speaking a psycho-analytic The painter paints like the cow bellows; this
Why had we, in the Freie Strasse Society cacophony, by reading loudly at the same time solemn insolence of stiff croupiers, this
around Franz Jung, undergone a very severe some incoherent passages of no matter what commotion with a profound meaning, has given
and merciless education where no one could masterpiece of 'world' literature.3 rise to game reserves chiefly for German art
even move a muscle without being taken aside This was the expression of our total disdain critics ...'
and where one had to answer at every moment for all the 'Fausts' and all the `Raubers' ... and The reveille of infra-sonic cells sounded for
for the slightest irregularity, aberration or for the German soldier's respect for this me so that I might do thoughtful work in collage.
deviation either psychological or neuralgic ? `spiritual nourishment', which was the only I assembled unusual materials of all kinds
In order to be capable of the greatest possible reading-matter in his haversack. and my mind, following the rhythm of the
self-control and to overcome oneself, to be Weimar was no more than a lie, the disguise cranial bell, directed my hands which at no
without self-pity. To have the right to consider of Teutonic barbarism. time resisted following the intentions of an
things objectively and to have the power to As for painting, I could not neglect this internal vision which formed itself in the
judge them and then abolish them where it was imposture as painters practised it : already in inward infra-black light of unconscious toil.
necessary. April 1918 I had written in my manifesto Das Clearly, Club Dada was to have been what it
A host of these occasions existed in this neue Material in der Malerei: 'Whoever wants it neither could be nor desired to be, a true
bourgeois civilization, in its behaviour, in its art. will support established conventions. Formerly `brotherhood'. Not all its members had gone
In this abstruse atmosphere, in this life seemed to us like an immense and total through the Freie Strasse school. The Ober-
insensible destruction, one could no longer be an
honest kind of conventional artist.
Then, forward Dada!
Even the prudent Dada, the tentative, so
rarely decisive, approach of Zurich no longer
sufficed us, confound it. But we took up the
disadvantages of a free and independent gesture.
We left aside the folly of good taste.
It is also necessary to think about the death
of God and furthermore to publicise it. 'Who is
Jesus Christ to you ? he is just like you,
indifferent!' Thus exclaimed Baader, the Ober-
Dada, on the 17 November in Berlin Cathedral,
interrupting the preacher, Dr Dryander.2
Halted, escorted to the guard-house,
accused of a crime against God.
Very well, that creates a stir. Action, action!
Gone the time of poetry on grubby paper, of
individual conceit.
And the art in there ? Take heed, art itself also
becomes active.
With aesthetics abolished, I no longer know
the rules of either 'Truth' or `Beauty'; I seek a
new direction prescribed by the organization of
my body.
Engaged in a great struggle, a tremendous
rebellion, I free myself from old remains, I
disintoxicate myself; but even on this
disintoxication, even on all this liberty, I spit!
I want EVERYTHING, and consequently I
want NOTHING!
These manifestos, one writes them to be
better understood, but it would be better to
write nothing.
The Ober-Dada and myself carried literature
or poetry into the street, in the real meaning of
the word. The word is itself a signal in the
street. The word is not of the future, it is the
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