Dada in Debate

Friday 25 Nov. 14.00­19.00 and Saturday 26 Nov. 2005, 10.30­18.30

London, Tate Modern

Dada was one of the most innovative and influential movements of
twentieth-century art. It sprang out of counter-cultural activities during
the First World War, and manifested itself in a diverse range of practices
such as photomontage, assemblage, performance art and readymades to name but
a few. Nonsense, nihilism, fierce intellectual paradox and polemic are
qualities readily found in Dada texts and manifestoes.

This conference, convened by David Hopkins and Michael White, has been
prompted by a major Dada exhibition that opened in Paris in October 2005 and
travels to Washington DC and New York in 2006. This landmark show provides
the opportunity for a broader re-reading of the subject. Much of the
literature on Dada has focussed narrowly on individuals or on the local
groups formed in major cities such as Zurich, New York, Berlin and Paris.
The aim of this conference is to try and think about Dada beyond the heavily
mythologised narratives that surround the local groups and connect Dada to
the recent concerns of humanities scholarship such as issues of identity,
theories of the avant-garde and mass culture. Relatively neglected areas of
research such as metaphysics and ideologies of race are also considered.

Supported by The Henry Moore Foundation, The Elephant Trust and the AHRC
Research Centre for Studies of Surrealism and its Legacies

Tate Modern Starr Auditorium
£30 (£20 concessions), booking recommended
Price includes refreshments
For tickets book online or call 020 7887 8888.

Program
Provisional Timings and Paper Titles

Friday, 25 November 2005

14.00 Registration

14.30­15.00 Opening Remarks

First Session: Dadasophy
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

15.00­15.45
Dr Debbie Lewer (University of Glasgow)
Iconoclasm, Asceticism and the 'Uncorrupt Image': Ball, Theology and the
Origins of Dada

15.45­16.30
Professor David Hopkins (University of Glasgow)
'Dust Breeding': Duchampian Metaphysics

16.30­17.00 Tea and coffee

Second Session: Dada Language
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

17.00­17.45
Professor Eric Robertson (Royal Holloway)
Swallows, Parrots and the 'cacadou supérieur': Arp's Translations

17.45­18.30
Professor Rainer Rumold (Northwestern University)
Kurt Schwitters: Decomposition of Word and Image as Architecture / Texture

18.30­19.00
Panel discussion with all speakers from sessions 1 and 2, chaired by Michael
White

19.00­20.00 Drinks reception

Saturday 26 November

Third Session: Groupings / Alignments
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

10.30­11.00
Dr Timothy Benson (Curator, Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
Dada Geographies

11.15­12.00
Professor Hanne Bergius (Burg Giebichenstein Hochschule für Kunst und Design
Halle)
'A Balance of Contradictions': the Polarity of Berlin Dada

12.00­13.00 Lunch break

Fourth Session: Montage / Mass Culture
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

13.00­13.45
Dr Brigid Doherty (Princeton University)
Revelation Revisited: Raphael's 'Sistine Madonna' in Grosz's 'Germania ohne
Hemd'

13.45­14.30 Speaker tbc

14.30­15.15
Professor Sherwin Simmons (University of Oregon)
Dada and Kitsch: Cultivation of the Trivial

15.15­15.45
Panel discussion with all speakers from sessions 3 and 4, chaired by David
Hopkins

15.45­16.15 Tea and coffee

Fifth Session:
Identity
Each paper 30 mins followed by 15 mins questions.

16.15­17.00
Dr Elizabeth Legge (University of Toronto)
Portraits of Tzara

17.00­17.45
Dr Michael White (University of York)
Berlin Dada and Jewish Identity

17.45­18.30
Panel discussion: The Paris Show and Rethinking Dada
Professor Dawn Ades (University of Essex)
Professor Hubert van den Berg (University of Groningen)
Dr Matthew Gale (Tate)
Dr Jon Wood (Henry Moore Foundation)

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/symposia/dadaindebate3953.htm

Posted by Sora Zushi
Interpretation and Education, Tate Modern sora.zushitate.org.uk