DLADLA100

“‘50 francs reward to the person who finds the best way to explain DADA to us,’ read the leaflet Dada souleve tout (Dada Stirs Up Everything), published in Paris in 1921 and signed by all prominent Dadaists. The leaflet is a typical Dada-paradox: anyone who actually responds to the call evidently does not grasp the teasing Dadaist gesture built into it and therefore has no real concept of what Dada is. Consequently, s/he who really understands Dada would not come forward with an answer—and indeed, we have no record of any respondents.

However, with its inherent challenge, the task set by the leaflet is still tempting even today: if taken seriously, it is a rather difficult puzzle, made to be so by the Dadaists themselves.” These are the opening sentences of András Kappanyos’ online Dada Anthology that attempts to create a collaged unity out of textual excerpts and tries to define Dada while at the same time acknowledging the fundamentally contradictory nature of this task.

The group exhibition DLADLA100 carries on the tradition of this paradoxical attempt at definition. The works on view in the Barcsay Hall were selected from works submitted (or requested by the organizers) in the framework of an open call involving students and alumni of the University of Fine Arts’ Doctoral School. The Doctoral School Board announced the call to commemorate the centenary of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich, and was looking for artworks that represent the ongoing influence of Dada as an artistic movement, and its contemporary reinterpretations and possible criticisms.

The exhibited works present the legacy of Dada in various ways and on different levels, from an elaboration of certain aspects of Dada’s history (1), through a contemporary application of the motifs (2) and artistic toolkit (3) typical of Dadaism, to an interpretation of the literary and typographic characteristics of the movement (4).

A few examples:
1. Before the First World War, women only had the right to vote in very few countries, they were not allowed to attend universities, could not freely choose a career, and were in a subordinate position within the home as well. Andrea Fajgerné Dudás’ work DADA DOLL (2016) reflects on the (still unfinished) emancipatory projects characteristic of the era and the role of women in the Dada movement. Péter Hecker’s Prosthetic Beard (2016) can also be interpreted in this context. Hecker created a wooden replica of the beards of the First World War’s most prominent figures (Franz Joseph I, Nicholas II, George V, Nedeljko Čabrinović, and Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin). With the beard prostheses that can be worn by anyone regardless of age and gender, Hecker circumvents the stereotypes attached to the image of a bearded man (wisdom, sexual performance, power).

2. Katalin Haász’s Chess Variety (1997-2016) is a peepshow box that was part of her diploma work in 1997. The box can be peeked into from two sides, showing an interior divided by a “chess doily” and lit with a single bulb. As a result of the interior lighting and the two peeping holes, the scene inside the box has two different, opposing views. Haász’s thesis is closely related to Chess Variety; its focus is a photograph of Duchamp playing chess with a naked Eve Babitz.

3. The project by K.U.T.A.Cs. (Kivezető Utak Tapasztalatain Alapuló Csoport—Group Based on the Experience of Egresses, Miklós Mécs & Csaba Vándor) and VirágJudit Galeri (Virág Bogyó & Judit Fischer) is based on the two groups’ shared experiences as art teachers. In Huff Huff Time (2016-), the legacy of Dada resurfaced in a program carried out at the Zöld Kakas Líceum (Green Cock Lyceum), in a special learning environment that gives a second chance to failing secondary school students. The topic of the classes is determined by events of the week, festivities, and the kids’ current obsessions. They had “fart day”, “protest and bomb day”, “birth day”, and “mammon day”. These occasions are like holidays turned inside out /upside down.

4. Márton Fernezelyi, András Kappanyos, Imre Lepsényi, and Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák’s Instant Phono-Visual Poetrizator (Pseudo-Chaotic Dadamaton) (2016) reinterprets the tradition of Dadaist image poetry and “free” typography in an interactive form. The starting point of the work is the Dadaist attempt (itself a continuation of the Futurist tradition of parole liberta) to set down or transcribe the emotional dynamics of oral presentation. Instant Phono-Visual Poetrizator is based on digital speech recognition: it identifies words or speech fragments uttered nearby, and turns them into typographic signs. Depending on the way the identified word (or the letters contained in it, to be precise) sounds, an algorithm pairs it up with a matching typographical pattern and displays it on the screen.

The DLADLA100 exhibition is therefore similar to the Dada Anthology referred to above, but instead of a compilation of textual excerpts, it is an overview of contemporary artworks that provides a collage-like image of what Dada means for Hungarian DLA alumni and students in 2016.

Exhibiting artists: Lőrinc Borsos, Loránd Bögös, Jivens O. Breewenses, Igor & Ivan Buharov, Andrea Fajgerné Dudás, Márton Fernezelyi & András Kappanyos & Imre Lepsényi & Zoltán Szegedy-Maszák, Katalin Haász, Péter Hecker, Előd Izsák, Balázs Kicsiny, Margit Koller, István Kovács, Frigyes Kőnig, K.U.T.A.Cs. (Group Based on the Experience of Egresses, Miklós Mécs & Csaba Vándor) & VirágJudit Galeri (Virág Bogyó & Judit Fischer), Juli Laczkó, Anna Peternák, Katerina Šević & Technika Schweiz (Gergely László & Péter Rákosi), Lellé Szelley, Kornél Szilágyi & Csaba Vándor, Zsuzsa Sztruhár, Edit Tangl, József Tasnádi