Dada - Hatred of the good for being the good

Perhaps the most influential art movement of the 20th century, Dadaism was started by a group of so-called “artists” who were shocked by the horrors of the first world war in Europe. they gathered up in the famous “Cabaret Voltaire” in Zurich, Switzerland which was of course a neutral county. The Dada movement was far from coherent. it included artists from all over Europe, particularly France and Germany. some were sculptors, some were painters and others were play writers. but what was common to them all was their distrust of the human mind. They thought that the war was a result of technological progress, and man’s heavy reliance on logic and reason. 

“Collage with squares arranged according to the laws of chance” - Jean Arp, 1917

The movement was very much influenced by German voluntarists [1] philosophers like Schopenhauer and Nitzsche and existentialist writers like Kafka, Dostoyevsky and many others. On the actual meaning of the word “Dada” much has been said: “Dada comes from the dictionary. It is terribly simple. In French, it means "hobby horse." In German, it means "good-bye," "Get off my back," "Be seeing you sometime." In Romanian: "Yes, indeed, you are right, that's it. But of course, yes, definitely, right." And so forth. An International word. Just a word, and the word a movement.” [2] 

Many manifestos have been written, attempting to describe the meaning or rather the meaning of the meaninglessness of the Dada movement: “I write a manifesto and I want nothing, yet I say certain things, and in principle I am against manifestos, as I am also against principles (half-pints to measure the moral value of every phrase too too convenient; approximation was invented by the impressionists). I write this manifesto to show that people can perform contrary actions together while taking one fresh gulp of air; I am against action; for continuous contradiction, for affirmation too, I am neither for nor against and I do not explain because I hate common sense.” [3] The irrationality of Dada was well aware of itself. the dadaists gained great pleasure in uttering the nonsensical and showcasing the ugly. Almost all of them were communists. let us take a look more closely at some dada creations. 

“Mechanical Head (The Spirit of Our Time)”. 1920, Raoul Hausmann.

“Mechanical head” is an assemblage mostly made of wood in order to symbolize that man’s mind is hollow. instead of ears, the man uses some “technological” devices that will determine the man’s actions. I do not need to elaborate on how this is a spit in the face to the intellect. That is, of course, self-evident. What is much more destructive is that this was considered art by most art critics of the time. This Dada movement was considered by most influential intellectuals a legitimate part of the art world. 

In 1917 Marcel Duchamp has placed a urinal in the Grand Central Palace art exhibition in New York City. This event is a powerful symbol of the end of art. instead of denouncing and condemning this “work”, art critics praised Duchamp for his “courageous and revolutionary” work of Avant-Garde. This urinal which Duchamp aptly called “Fountain” is a very good concretization of West's aesthetic and philosophical bankruptcy. Art intellectuals were completely unable to differentiate between art and non-art. They could not see good and evil. Contrast the fountain and the statue of David. Which culture is healthier: The one which worships man’s heroism or the one that worships man’s urine? 

The dadaists were revolutionary indeed. They turned the art world-table upside down. but they were completely nihilistic. They had nothing positive to hold unto and therefore the movement quickly vanished from the world in the early 1920s, but their voluntarist and charlatanic ideology of “if I call it art it is art” survived up until our very times. 

“Comedian” - Maurizio Cattelan, 2019. 

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[1] Voluntarism - any metaphysics that views will (man’s will, or other) as a metaphysical primary 

[2] Dada Manifesto (1916, Hugo Ball)

[3] Dada Manifesto (1918, Tristan Tzara)