on view

DADA AFRIKA
A Trans-Disciplinary
Exhibition Project
By Michaela Oberhofer, Esther Tisa Francini, and Ralf Burmeister

Dada AfHka is the first exhibition devoted spe- FIG. 1 ( r i g h t ) : V i e w o f the

e n t r y o f Dada Afrika.
cifically to the interest of Dada artists in the arts and Museum Rietberg, Zurich.

cultures of Alrica, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. It Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.

contributes in a unique way to the celebration of the

centenary of the Dada movement in Zurich, which was
born there at the Cabaret Voltaire on February 5.1916.
Like Pablo Picasso, Ernst Ludwig Kreimer, and Emil
Moide, Dada artists such as Marcel Janco, Sophie Taeu-

tut
ber-Arp, Man Ray, and Hannah Hoch had a keen inter-
est in other cultures. Inspired by the artifacts of Africa
and Oceania, they created works out of materials that
had never before been used in Western art. In the area of
literature, authors such as Hugo Ball, Richard Huelsen-
beck, and Tristan Tzara found inspiration for their ex-
perimentation with language in the African and Austra-
lian oral traditions, which were accessible to them as
transcriptions taken from ethnological works. However,
the Dadaists were not satisfied with merely copying or
adapting exotic elements. Instead their intention was to
exceed the limits both of their art and their language, in
part by drawing inspiration from non-Western cultures.
Consisting of more than 100 works drawn from
twenty international museums and various private col-
lections, the exhibition and its accompanying catalog are
FIG. 2 ( a b o v e ) : Raoul
the fruit of a collaboration between the Rietberg Mu- H a u s m a n n , OFFEAH, 1918.

seum, located in the country where Dada was born, and The confrontation of the artifacts in this show methodi- Poster with poem printed on orange

a Berlin institution, the Berlinische Galerie, from which cally follows the principles of equivalence and contempo- paper.
Berlinische Galerie, BC-C 7224/93.

a highly politicized form of Dadaism emerged. The as- raneousness. The fertile dialog between the Dadaist works Berlinische Galerie.
Photo: Anja Elisabeth Witte.

sociation of these two art centers with such different col- and the non-Western ones is complemented by an audio 201G ProLitteris, Zurich.

lections also supports the exhibition's trans-disciplinary station featuring Dadaist poems (fig. 2) and the non-West-
approach to its subject, which is explored from the per- ern counterparts that inspired them. For example, Tristan
spectives of ethnology, art, history, and literature. Com- Tzara's phonetic poem Toto Vom is juxtaposed with its

bined, these give meaning to the dialog that arises from original source, a Maori song called Toto Waka. A German
the juxtaposition of Dadaist works with art from other translation of the latter by a missionary is also presented.
Tristan Tzara used the text as a Dadaist "ready-made."
parts of the world.

84

FIG. 3 (left): Photographer
unknown, Sophie Taeuber-
Arp: Dance in "cubist"
costume. Zurich, 1916/17?
Copy photo.
Stiftung Arp E.V. Berlin/
Rolandswerth
The archival material and the quotes that punctuate
the exhibition supply historical context for the experience
with the "Other" which the Dada artists experienced at
the beginning of the twentieth century. The sources for
this included literary, visual, audio, and plastic sources,
such as postcards, colonial journals, and ethnological
museums, to give but a few concrete examples. Dado
Afrika exhibits this varied documentation in a four-part
Presentation.
DADA AFRIKA
FIG. 4 (left): Marcel Janco,
draft for a poster announcing
the Dada event Le Chant
Negre on March 21,1916.
Charcoal on paper fixed on card.
Kunsthaus Zrich, Vereinigung Zrcher
Kunstfreunde, Inv. 1980/42.
Kunsthaus Zurich 2016, ProLitteris,
Zurich.
FIG. 5 (below):
Male figure, lefem. Bangwa,
Grassfields, Cameroon.
Early 20th century.
Wood.
Ex Han Coray.
Vlkerkundemuseum der Universitt
Zurich, inv. 10084
Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.
DADA PERFORMANCE
The exhibition opens with an examination of the at-
tempts made to experiment with and to immerse them-
selves in non-Western cultures by Dadaisls in their
performances. Music, literature, and the arts of Africa
and Oceania were the stuff of the "Soirees Aegres~ they
produced at the Cabaret Voltaire and Galerie Dada in
Zurich. Dada artists used sound-poems, drums, and
pseudo-African dances as a form of provocation and i n -
novation (fig. 3). These tumultuous spectacles were in-
tended to shock and alienate their audiences. They were
also meant to test the artists' physical and mental limits
and to liberate the emotional and irrational forces within
them through that contact with the cultures of "Others."
The Dadaists used those cultures to invoke what they
saw as an "authentic" state of consciousness in which
man and the cosmos would be one, and art and reality
operated as a whole.
The primitivist drawing by Marcel Janco that would
become the poster for the first "Clianl Negre" presen-
tation at the Cabaret Voltaire has become recognized
as a major work (fig. 4). Janco, a Romanian-born
Dada artist, was manifestly inspired by African wood-
en statuary such as that of the Bangwa of the Camer-
oonian Grasslands (fig. 5). The gestural dynamic and
the aggressive expressivity of those works unleash an
untethered vitalitya state of mind and being that
was much sought after at the Dada soirees.
85
 FIG. 6 (left): Installation In addition to the sound-poems, music, and dances,
view showing the dialog masks and costumes were also vital components of
between a Dada mask
the Dada soirees in Zurich (fig. 6). I n 1927 Hugo Ball
by Marcel Janco and a
Ltschental mask. reminisced about the mask's first appearance: " I t had
Museum Rietberg, Zurich. a pathetic expression, a nearly insane look to i t . " The
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.
near-magical performative powers that Dada artists
conferred on the mask were similar to those that the
practices of non-European societies bestowed on their
equivalents. Although Dada masks are often described
as "African," the materials and techniques used to
FIG. 7 (right): Marcel Janco, make them related them more closely to Oceanic
poster for the first exhibition
masks. Popular art was also very much in demand,
Dada: Cubistes, Art Negre at
and some of Janco's creations are reminiscent of Swiss
Galerie Corray, 1917.
Paper.
< GALEK1E carnival masks or of those worn at masked parades in

S BAHNHOFSTRfl.
cowuy
Kunsthaus Zrich, Dada Collection,
inv. V:4S / B 51 B 1 .
his native Romania.
Kunsthaus Zurich, 2 0 1 6 ,
Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber-Arp was primarily in-
ProLitteris, Zurich.
spired by the Hopi kachina dolls of Arizona, which she
FIG. 8 (below): Installation
view of a costume by Sophie <T TICiENiHOFL u saw for the first time thanks to her sister, Erika Schle-
Taeuber-Arp and two kachina gel, who worked as a librarian for C. G. Jung. The
figures.
Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
1IXP0SI internationally famous psychoanalyst had brought

Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.

^ T10N DAD/V a number- of them back with h i m when he returned
from his travels in America. In creating the costume
seen in figure 8, she first created a detailed sketch on
^ OUVEKT10 U 2 - 6 paper. The result was a vividly colored outfit with ab-

K CONFERENCE stract and geometric designs, representative of this

versatile artist's work, which, influenced as it was by
r.> slflVKri'MIIMAP, that of other cultures, was exemplary of the Dada as-
^ TMSTA.NTZABA piration of non-elitist art that is without borders.

J
GALERIE DADA FIG. 9 (right): Male figure
Baule, Cote d'lvoire. Late
Dada Afrika has its roots in the first Dada exhibition,
19th-early 20th century.
which was held at Han Corey's gallery in Zurich in Ex Paul Guillaume; Leon Bachelier.
Private collection.
1917 under the title Dada. Cubisles. Art Negre. A first
Philippe Fuzeau.
in Switzerland, the event featured works of African
art shown side by side with the creations of the Euro-
pean avant-garde, inviting reflection on the relation-
ships in art that transcend the cultura
origins of the individual pieces (fig. 7).
I Ian Coray (sometimes spelled Corray,
1880-1974), a progressive Swiss edu-
cator with a passion for African ai t, ran
a gallery in 1916 and 1917. He was
close with the Dada artists and made
his space available to the movement.
Galerie Coray thus became the center
of Dadaist activity after the Cabaret
Voltaire closed, and Coray himself be-
came known as one of the main play-
ers in "the birth of Dada" (fig. 10).
This phase was marked by a shift-
ing of the artists' interest from per-
formance soirees to the organization
of exhibitions and debates about art.
Events of this kind were most nota-
bly supported by Tristan Tzara, who
served as spokesman for the interna-
tional movement, and by Paul Guil-
laume, who lent African pieces to the first exhibition
in 1917 (fig. 9). Dada thus became a catalyst for
the African art market and contributed to the birth
and development of private collections of African
art. These collectors included Tzara. the author of
Poimes Negres, as well as that of Coray, who was
one of the major Swiss collectors of his time and
from whom the Rietberg Museum still has some 250
unique pieces (fig. 11).
The reciprocal influences that the avant-garde and
tribal art markets had on one another is also palpable
in the field of photography, as is demonstrated by
Man Ray. He settled in Paris in 1921 and produced
a singular corpus of works, many of which featured
African art objects that Paul Cuillaume had lent him.
These photographs have now achieved the status of
icons in art history. In addition to photography, Man
Ray also created "ready-mades" using found objects.
The Fisherman's Idol, illustrated in figure 12, for ex-
ample, was made using floating objects. Its forms are
reminiscent of those of Easter Island statues, as seen
in figure 13.

87
FIG. 11 ( l e f t ) :

S t a n d i n g f i g u r e . H e m b a , DR

C o n g o . Early 2 0 t h c e n t u r y .

Wood.
Museum Rietberg Zurich, inv. RAC
105, Han Coray Collection.
Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.

FIG. 12 ( l e f t ) :

M a n Ray, Fisherman's Idol,

1926.
Cork.
Private collection, courtesy Galerie
1900-2000, Paris .
Xavier Grandsart, 2016, ProLitteris,
Zurich.

FIG. 13 ( a b o v e ) :

A n c e s t o r f i g u r e . Easter

Island, Chile. 1 9 t h c e n t u r y .

Wood, shell
Museum Rietberg, Zurich, inv. RPO
309. Collected by Walter Knoche in
1911 and donated by Eduard von
der Heydt.
Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.

FIG. 1 4 ( f a c i n g page l e f t ) :

Installation v i e w s h o w i n g

w o r k s by Raoul H a u s m a n n

a n d H a n n a h H o c h in d i a l o g

w i t h n o n - W e s t e r n artifacts.
Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.
 DADA AFRIKA

DADA MAGIC
The collages and assemblages of Hannah Hoch and
Raoul Hausmann, mostly produced in the 1920s, are

___r _v
another one of the exhibition's strong points (lig. 14).
In Berlin, unlike in Zurich, tlie Dada movement was
fueled by a culture of revolt that emanated from street
lighting and the rampant nationalism and militarism
of the post-war period. Here, the creative zeal of Da-
daism in Zurich took the form of political critique and
social discourse.

In this context, Hch's Dadaist creations illustrate
the magical effects obtained through the juxtaposition
of familiar and foreign images. For her series of col-
lages Aus einem ethnographischen Museum (From an
Ethnographic Museum), the Berlin artist cut up news-
papers and fashion magazines, as well as Alfred Flech-
theim's avant-garde journal Der Querschnitt. Phis j
illustrated modern paintings and scenes of daily life
alongside photographs of non-European objects, the
latter including pieces acquired by the founder of the
Rietberg Museum, collector Eduard von der Heydt.

FIG. 15 (above):
I Inch assembled these elements to create a new kind of
Hannah Hoch, untitled,
aesthetic. This exhibition presents her disturbing col-
from the series Aus einem
lages side by side with the original works from Africa, ethnographischen Museum,
Asia, and Oceania for the first time (ligs. 15 and 16). 1930.
Collage.
I loch's photomontages have been interpreted as a Museum fr Kunst und Gewerbe,
Hamburg, 2016, ProLitteris, Zurich.
critique of ideas on modern femininity, on the familiar
and the foreign, as well as on identity and the concept FIG. 16 (left): Torso of
the goddess Uma. Khmer
ol "otherness." The Denkmal I collage from the series
empire, Cambodia.
Au s einem ethnographischen Museum, which is also i l - Late 9th-10th century.
lustrated on the catalog cover and on the exhibition Sandstone.
Museum Rietberg, Zurich, inv. RHI 5,
poster, is a good example (figs. 17 and 18). The central donated by Eduard von der Heydt,
ex C. T. Loo, Paris.
element of this composite is a photo of a mask by the Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.
Master of Bouafle, which was illustrated in Der Quer-
schnitt in 1924. This object was the property ofAmeri-

8S
can collector Albert Barnes, who had purchased it from
Paul Guillauine, the same source as the Rietberg M u -
seum piece that Han Coray had once owned. African
art is often perceived to be the work of anonymous
artists, but in the case of these two masks, the hand of
a single individual, known as the Master of Bouafle, is
clearly apparent in many details: the rounded profile,
high forehead, oblique eyes, and smiling mouth.
Along with the image of the mask in her collage, Hoch
used a photo of the statue of the goddess Taweret of

Thebes, also extracted from Der Querschnitt. The left

leg wearing a white sock comes from the photo of an
actress that appeared in the Berliner ttlustrirte Zeitung
(1928). With its multiple references, all treated with the
same care on a visual level, this collage, like all of Hchts
work, manifests an artistic approach that takes a stand
against the idea of a hierarchy between cultures.

DADA CONTROVERSY
In the fourth part of the exhibition, Carl Einstein's
Western vision of African art is contrasted with the
post - colonial African position. This juxtaposition serves
the exhibition's and the accompanying publication's
goal of investigating the relationship with the "Other
from the standpoint of academic theory and reflection,
and to present the avant-garde as a trans-cultural and alike, who sell oranges in the streets and at bus stops in FIG. 17 (facing page left):
Hannah Hoch, Denkmal
trans-historical phenomenon. Ghana. Through its use of these objects that are part of
I (Monument I), from
In his 1915 book,Negerplastik, Einstein became one the women's economy, the installation works as a kind
the series Aus einem
of the lirst to characterize African masks and sculp- of ironic counterpoint to the arguably phallic symbolism ethnographischen Museum,
tures as "art." The illustrations in the book, which i n - of Marcel Duchamps' 1914 Porte-bouleilles while also no. VIII, 1924-1928
Collage on cardboard.
clude some objects that are exhibited in this Rietberg symbolizing modern urban Africa. Berlinische Galerie.

Museum show (lig. 19), were enthusiastically received What emerges above all from Dada Afrika is the idea Berlinische Galerie.
Photo: Anja Elisabeth W i t t e
by avant-garde artists such as Hoch and Hausmann. of an equality of artistic manifestations, whatever their
2016 ProLitteris, Zurich.
Coray also owned a copy of Negerplastik. At the time, origin. In that, this show distinguishes itself clearly FIG. 18 (facing page right);
the call for an aesthetic renewal through African art's from "Primitwism" in the 20lh Century, curated by Horned mask, gu,
attributed to the Master
cubist forms also had a political and social dimension. William Rubin at MOMA in 1984. Dada Afrika is not
of Bouafle. Guro, Cte
Einslein saw African art not only as the foundation for restricted to a presentation of formal affinities between d'lvoire. 19th century.
the emergence of a new kind of artist, but also more the major names of modernism and the avant-garde Wood.
Museum Rietberg, Zurich, inv. RAF
broadly for that of a new kind of individual. and the Oceanic and African objects that are identified 466, acquired f r o m Han Coray,
ex Paul Guillaume.
The aesthetic and political importance attributed to to the visitor as the more or less demonstrable exotic Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.
African artifacts at the dawn of the twentieth century sources of their inspiration. Instead it seeks to establish
has not been much considered since then; however, the and present a dialog of equals. As is so often the case in FIG. 19 (above left):
Mask, nyangbai. Torna,
Western conception of Africa as a continent that is with- matters involving human communication, that dialog
Guinea. 19th century.
out history, without dynamism, and anchored in tradi- as it developed was not entirey exempt from prejudice W o o d , black pigment.
M u s e u m Rietberg, Zurich,
tion continues to persist. The exhibition contests this, and misunderstanding, but in the case of the Dada art-
inv. RAF 2 1 , donated by Eduard v o n

notably through the inclusion of Pork's Oranges (Orange ists, it was entered into with respect and recognition der Heydt.
Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
Carriers) (lig. 20), a work by Senam Okudzeto (Ghana, for the importance of non-Western cultures. Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.

United Kingdom, and United States), whose approach Dada Afrika FIG. 20 (above):
is to explore practices and techniques that she refers to Through 17 July 2016 Installation view of Portes
Rietberg Museum Oranges by Senam
as "Afro-Dada." Like the Dadaists before her, Okudzeto
rietberg.ch Okudzeto.
infuses objects of daily life with new meanings and uses Museum Rietberg, Zurich.
5 August - 7 November 2016 Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger.
them as "ready-mades." Portes Oranges is marie up of
Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art
metal orange carriers used by women, young and old berlinischegalerie.de