[spectre] Zurich presents Dada East? The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire

[Geert Lovink]

> 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
>  info at cabaretvoltaire.ch
>  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.