Cannibalizing the Canon
Dada Techniques in East-Central Europe
Published on 31. January 2024
Book
Hardback
664 pages
978-90-04-52673-0 (ISBN)
Description
This rich, in-depth exploration of Dada's roots in East-Central Europe is a vital addition to existing research on Dada and the avant-garde. Through deeply researched case studies and employing novel theoretical approaches, the volume rewrites the history of Dada as a story of cultural and political hybridity, border-crossings, transitions, and transgressions, across political, class and gender lines. Dismantling prevailing notions of Dada as a "Western" movement, the contributors to this volume present East-Central Europe as the locus of Dada activity and techniques. The articles explore how artists from the region pre-figured Dada as well as actively "cannibalized", that is, reabsorbed and further hybridized, a range of avant-garde techniques, thus challenging "Western" cultural hegemony.
Reviews / Votes
Cannibalizing the Canon has the merit of shedding light on under-researched territories and overlooked issues in avant-garde historiography, restoring the contributions of those artists who did not figure in the canonical constructions of Dadaism and incorporating ephemeral art forms. Using new theoretical approaches and methodological frameworks, the volume challenges the singularity of Dadaism and its founding myths. The focus on the connections between local avant-gardes, employing transmedial and transnational perspectives, corrects and nuances some directions from avant-garde histories, contesting the hegemony of the West and a hierarchical system. Thus, the volume brings a significant contribution to the Dada movement and to the research of the avant-garde.More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 37 mm
Weight
1093 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-04-52673-0 (9789004526730)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Oliver Botar is a Professor of Art History and Associate Director of the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. His research focuses on early 20th-century Central European Modernism, particularly the work of Moholy-Nagy, with concentrations on art in alternative media, and "Biocentrism" and Modernism in early-to-mid 20th-century art.
Irina Denischenko is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on 20th-century literature and visual art--especially the avant-garde, on critical theory, as well as on women's contributions to avant-garde and modernist aesthetics in Central and Eastern Europe.
Gabor Dobo is a research fellow at the Kassak Museum in Budapest. He is the principal investigator of a project focusing on the artist couple Lajos Kassak and Jolan Simon. In 2022, he was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University.
Merse Pal Szeredi is department head at the Kassak Museum. His research focuses on Hungarian avant-garde art and the history of Lajos Kassak's magazine Ma in Vienna between 1920 and 1925, with special emphasis on its international networks.
Irina Denischenko is an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. Her research focuses on 20th-century literature and visual art--especially the avant-garde, on critical theory, as well as on women's contributions to avant-garde and modernist aesthetics in Central and Eastern Europe.
Gabor Dobo is a research fellow at the Kassak Museum in Budapest. He is the principal investigator of a project focusing on the artist couple Lajos Kassak and Jolan Simon. In 2022, he was a Fulbright visiting scholar at Columbia University.
Merse Pal Szeredi is department head at the Kassak Museum. His research focuses on Hungarian avant-garde art and the history of Lajos Kassak's magazine Ma in Vienna between 1920 and 1925, with special emphasis on its international networks.
Content
List of Illustrations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: "Dada Is more than Dada"
?Oliver A. I. Botar, Irina Denischenko, Gabor Dobo and Merse Pal Szeredi
Part 1:Topographies
1 An Exchange Point in a Network: Prague and Dada, 1918-1922
?Jindrich Toman
2 Becoming Avant-Garde: Romanian Appropriations of Dada Techniques through East-Central European Networking
?Emanuel Modoc
3 Polish Responses to Dadaism: The Voices on Dada, Contacts and Interpretations
?Przemyslaw Strozek
4 The Dada Entr'acte of Dragan Aleksic
?Jasna Jovanov
5 Hungarian Dada: the Missing Link
?Andras Kappanyos
Part 2: In/Exclusions
6 Celine Arnauld, the "Nomadic" Avant-Garde Writer: a Transnational Approach to Her Life and Work
?Iulia Dondorici
7 Two Mysterious "Mademoiselles": Jeanne Rigaud and Maria Cantarelli
?A Multilingual Multi-Layered Dada Pun Unravelled?
?Hubert van den Berg
8 Dada as an Avant-Garde Movement and as Invective
?Karoly Kokai
9 "Dada Is the Best Paying Concern of the Day": Consumer Culture, Performativity, and the Avant-Garde in Romania
?Alexandra Chiriac
Part 3: Performativities
10 Marcel Breuer and Dada Performance: Remade Readymade Self and Furniture
?Edit Toth
11 Mira Holzbachova: Embodying the Avant-Garde
?Meghan Forbes
12 To Write with Dots or Not to Write at All? Dada Ideas in Polish Interwar Literature
?Michalina Kmiecik
13 Green Donkey Theatre: a Case Study on Theatrical Innovations in the Name of Dadaism
?Sara Bagdi and Judit Galacz
Part 4: Trans(pos)itions
14 The Genesis of Dada: Futurist Influences in Germany, Romania and at the Cabaret Voltaire
?Guenter Berghaus
15 Revolt and Authority: From Kassak to Erdely
?Dada in the Hungarian Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde
?Eva Forgacs
16 Dada, not Dada: Moholy-Nagy in Berlin, 1920-1921
?Oliver A. I. Botar
17 Words, Sounds, Images, Theories: the Authors of the Magazine IS in the Context of Dadaism
?Imre Jozsef Balazs
18 Self-Positioning in the International Avant-Garde: Kassak's Strategic Use of Dada and Constructivism in the Book of New Artists
?Krisztina Zsofia Csaba
Part 5: Hybridentities
19 Raoul Hausmann and the Welteislehre: Science and Identity
?Arndt Niebisch
20 Dada Lingua Franca: The Linguistic Fate of Tristan Tzara and Raoul Hausmann
?Alexandru Bar and Michael White
21 Crossovers and Transgressions: Dada as a Life Strategy in Emil Szittya's Works
?Magdolna Gucsa
22 Android, Cyborg, Dandy and Woman
?Representations of the Body in the Decadent and Dada Imaginations: The Hungarian and International Contexts
?Gyoergyi Foeldes
23 The New Man, According to Sandor Bortnyik
?Merse Pal Szeredi
Index
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: "Dada Is more than Dada"
?Oliver A. I. Botar, Irina Denischenko, Gabor Dobo and Merse Pal Szeredi
Part 1:Topographies
1 An Exchange Point in a Network: Prague and Dada, 1918-1922
?Jindrich Toman
2 Becoming Avant-Garde: Romanian Appropriations of Dada Techniques through East-Central European Networking
?Emanuel Modoc
3 Polish Responses to Dadaism: The Voices on Dada, Contacts and Interpretations
?Przemyslaw Strozek
4 The Dada Entr'acte of Dragan Aleksic
?Jasna Jovanov
5 Hungarian Dada: the Missing Link
?Andras Kappanyos
Part 2: In/Exclusions
6 Celine Arnauld, the "Nomadic" Avant-Garde Writer: a Transnational Approach to Her Life and Work
?Iulia Dondorici
7 Two Mysterious "Mademoiselles": Jeanne Rigaud and Maria Cantarelli
?A Multilingual Multi-Layered Dada Pun Unravelled?
?Hubert van den Berg
8 Dada as an Avant-Garde Movement and as Invective
?Karoly Kokai
9 "Dada Is the Best Paying Concern of the Day": Consumer Culture, Performativity, and the Avant-Garde in Romania
?Alexandra Chiriac
Part 3: Performativities
10 Marcel Breuer and Dada Performance: Remade Readymade Self and Furniture
?Edit Toth
11 Mira Holzbachova: Embodying the Avant-Garde
?Meghan Forbes
12 To Write with Dots or Not to Write at All? Dada Ideas in Polish Interwar Literature
?Michalina Kmiecik
13 Green Donkey Theatre: a Case Study on Theatrical Innovations in the Name of Dadaism
?Sara Bagdi and Judit Galacz
Part 4: Trans(pos)itions
14 The Genesis of Dada: Futurist Influences in Germany, Romania and at the Cabaret Voltaire
?Guenter Berghaus
15 Revolt and Authority: From Kassak to Erdely
?Dada in the Hungarian Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde
?Eva Forgacs
16 Dada, not Dada: Moholy-Nagy in Berlin, 1920-1921
?Oliver A. I. Botar
17 Words, Sounds, Images, Theories: the Authors of the Magazine IS in the Context of Dadaism
?Imre Jozsef Balazs
18 Self-Positioning in the International Avant-Garde: Kassak's Strategic Use of Dada and Constructivism in the Book of New Artists
?Krisztina Zsofia Csaba
Part 5: Hybridentities
19 Raoul Hausmann and the Welteislehre: Science and Identity
?Arndt Niebisch
20 Dada Lingua Franca: The Linguistic Fate of Tristan Tzara and Raoul Hausmann
?Alexandru Bar and Michael White
21 Crossovers and Transgressions: Dada as a Life Strategy in Emil Szittya's Works
?Magdolna Gucsa
22 Android, Cyborg, Dandy and Woman
?Representations of the Body in the Decadent and Dada Imaginations: The Hungarian and International Contexts
?Gyoergyi Foeldes
23 The New Man, According to Sandor Bortnyik
?Merse Pal Szeredi
Index