0:00:02 > 0:00:05Dada...
0:00:05 > 0:00:06Dada.
0:00:06 > 0:00:10Some words seize the imagination and draw you in,
0:00:10 > 0:00:12inviting you to delve deeper.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17For me, Dada is just one of those words.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21An idea, a call to arms and a way of thinking.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26OK, ready, here we go.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28We're going to embark on a journey.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30I'm going to take you, dear viewer, to a place where
0:00:30 > 0:00:33no television programme has ever been before, but...
0:00:33 > 0:00:37No, what I am going to do is try and persuade you that Dada is
0:00:37 > 0:00:40much, much more than an obscure art movement with a funny name.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Oh, yes.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47100 years ago, in the midst of a nonsensical war,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49Dada made an art out of the absurd.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Mocking politicians,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56satirising the media,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59and ridiculing centuries of culture,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03Dada created a new way of looking at the world.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Sometimes shocking, often anarchic,
0:01:06 > 0:01:11and always difficult to define, its legacy would span a century.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14Dada's tentacles have spread right across our culture,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17from punk
0:01:17 > 0:01:18to the Pythons
0:01:18 > 0:01:20and from Damien Hirst
0:01:20 > 0:01:22to David Bowie.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26The world has gone gaga for Dada.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28Do you want me to shout "Dada" now?
0:01:28 > 0:01:29No.
0:01:29 > 0:01:30Everybody's heard of Dada,
0:01:30 > 0:01:33but no-one seems to know exactly what it is.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35Dada takes delight in contradiction.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40So, to help me pin it down, I've enlisted the help of a few friends.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41Dada!
0:01:41 > 0:01:43Daaaaaaaa-daaaaaaa!
0:01:43 > 0:01:45Da-da, Da-da, Da-da-da.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48Da! Da!
0:01:48 > 0:01:53And, with their assistance, I'll be recreating some Dada performances,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56destroying some artworks,
0:01:56 > 0:01:59and pulling some mischievous stunts.
0:01:59 > 0:02:01There's my Dadaist act for the day.
0:02:01 > 0:02:06And all of this to establish why, out of all the isms, movements and
0:02:06 > 0:02:08manifestos of the 20th century,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12it was the Dadaists who proved the most important,
0:02:12 > 0:02:14giving birth not only to a lot of modern art,
0:02:14 > 0:02:19but also shaping comedy, music and political protest.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24MUSIC: Da Da Da by Trio
0:02:28 > 0:02:30LAIDBACK RUSTIC MUSIC PLAYS
0:02:34 > 0:02:38I first came across Dada at art school in the early '80s.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41It was funnier and more anarchic than anything else I'd
0:02:41 > 0:02:45discovered and it didn't always have to make sense.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49I soon embarked on nonsensical performances of my own.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54I did a performance called I, Kestrel,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59where I dropped potatoes from out of a cardboard box.
0:02:59 > 0:03:03I was in a band that had no name, but we smelt of curry.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06It emerged from flasks at the side of the stage.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11Some people have called some of my performances Dada-esque, and they've
0:03:11 > 0:03:15certainly always flown in the face of logic, leading me to think...
0:03:15 > 0:03:20have I've been subconsciously influenced? Hmmm.
0:03:20 > 0:03:21Maybe.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29- Hmmm.- Hmmmmm.
0:03:32 > 0:03:35But where did all this Dadaism begin?
0:03:39 > 0:03:41Que es Dada?
0:03:43 > 0:03:48Dada - a word chosen at random from a French-German dictionary.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50"Yes, yes," in Romanian.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55A hobby horse in French.
0:03:57 > 0:04:03Whatever the case, it all began 100 years ago in an unlikely place.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05CUCKOO!
0:04:05 > 0:04:07It wasn't in Berlin
0:04:07 > 0:04:08or Paris,
0:04:08 > 0:04:13or any of your usual hotbeds of Bohemian outrage. No.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16The first artists to scare the hell out of the Establishment
0:04:16 > 0:04:20launched their revolution here in, of all places, Zurich.
0:04:22 > 0:04:23SWISS YODELLING SONG PLAYS
0:04:27 > 0:04:29When you think of Zurich,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32the last thing you think about is a radical, anarchic art movement.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35What you might think about is cheese, clocks,
0:04:35 > 0:04:37or Swiss Army knives.
0:04:37 > 0:04:39But radical art movements? No.
0:04:39 > 0:04:41But it was exactly that "There's nothing to see here"
0:04:41 > 0:04:46reputation, that staying in neutral whilst their neighbours were all
0:04:46 > 0:04:51fighting to the death that made Zurich the breeding ground for Dada.
0:04:57 > 0:05:03In 1916, Europe was tearing itself apart, and some wanted
0:05:03 > 0:05:07no further part in the madness and destruction they saw around them.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14Amidst the violence and upheaval of the First World War, artists, poets
0:05:14 > 0:05:17and freethinkers from both sides of the conflict gathered here in
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Zurich to avoid the horrors of the battlefront.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23MUSIC: Boogie Stop Shuffle by Charles Mingus
0:05:23 > 0:05:25It was a city of exiles, and among them a group of unlikely
0:05:25 > 0:05:30revolutionaries formed a bizarre protest movement - Dada.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33In a world where governments created carnage and the normal order
0:05:33 > 0:05:37had become nonsensical, the Dadaists felt the only appropriate
0:05:37 > 0:05:41artistic response was to be truly and deliberately absurd.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46And like all the best world-changing movements,
0:05:46 > 0:05:50Dada began here in a dirty, dingy underground drinking hole.
0:05:55 > 0:05:58With nothing more than the humble dream of selling extra
0:05:58 > 0:06:03sausages and beer, the proprietor of this place sanctioned a cabaret.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07Little did he know what he was letting himself in for.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12The Cabaret Voltaire, still here 100 years on, kick-started
0:06:12 > 0:06:16a movement that would wreak havoc across Europe and beyond.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20- So, welcome, Jim, to Cabaret Voltaire...- Thank you, Adrian.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23- ..the birthplace of Dada.- Cheers.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27So, how did the Cabaret Voltaire start here, then?
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Hugo Ball, who was a writer and a director in the theatre in Munich,
0:06:31 > 0:06:35and Emmy Hennings who was a singer in cafes and bars,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38they came here in 1915 and they were hired in
0:06:38 > 0:06:42a cabaret just down the street, and after a while they thought,
0:06:42 > 0:06:44"We should have our own cabaret."
0:06:44 > 0:06:47They send out an invitation to artists.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49Was there any kind of direction,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51or it was just "Do whatever you want to do?"
0:06:51 > 0:06:53Today, one would say it was an open stage.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55- A free-for-all. - Yeah, free-for-all.- Yeah.
0:06:55 > 0:06:58So, the Dadaists mobilised themselves for war,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01but theirs was a battle against reason itself.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03BRAIN WHIMPERS LIKE A DOG
0:07:03 > 0:07:05Hugo Ball appeared in a bizarre bishop's outfit.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13Romanian poet Tristan Tzara cast a Maori tribal spell.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Swiss artist Sophie Taeuber improvised a dance, wearing
0:07:18 > 0:07:20a cardboard mask.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24And a dozen balalaika players turned up.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29The German poet Richard Huelsenbeck snapped a riding whip, shouting...
0:07:33 > 0:07:36..and was joined by Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco to perform
0:07:36 > 0:07:39in German, English and French all at the same time.
0:07:43 > 0:07:44Sounds like a great show.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47But a bit of a shock for the locals.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50What sort of people did they attract in here, then?
0:07:50 > 0:07:54- People who come to drink beer and eat sausages and...- And absinthe.
0:07:54 > 0:07:55- ..and absinthe, yeah.- Yeah.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59And they didn't come to see somebody talking about art or reciting poems.
0:07:59 > 0:08:03- Yeah.- Basically they had to be better than the absinthe
0:08:03 > 0:08:05or better than beer and sausages.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08This really reminds me of where I started off.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11- I started off in a pub in Southeast London...- Yeah.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14..which was about the same size as this, the same layout,
0:08:14 > 0:08:16and it was the same kind of thing.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20- I used to get people out of the audience...- Yeah.- ..and say, "Do you want to do something?"
0:08:20 > 0:08:23And it'd be a different show every week, and it was just, like,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25strangely so similar.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28So, did you have some absinthe at that time, maybe, and that's why...?
0:08:28 > 0:08:31- Didn't have absinth, no. We just had lager.- Lager.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33THEY LAUGH
0:08:33 > 0:08:37For Hugo Ball, language had been hijacked by the warmongers
0:08:37 > 0:08:40who twisted words to justify their violent acts,
0:08:40 > 0:08:44so out went words and in came some unusual poetry.
0:08:44 > 0:08:47A lot of these words, they're made up, aren't they?
0:08:47 > 0:08:51- Bloiko - I could say that in my accent. Bloiko.- Bloiko.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53That's nice, yeah.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58- Ogrogoooo. What is it, the umlaut? There's an umlaut.- Ogrogoooo.
0:08:58 > 0:08:59- Ogrogoooo.- Ogrogoooo.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01What's this? Bulomen.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04I think you can probably get that in a face cream.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06ADRIAN LAUGHS
0:09:06 > 0:09:08Some of those words may feel a bit familiar.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10Uvavu.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13Well, look, the audience is in and we're ruining it for them,
0:09:13 > 0:09:17really, by still being here, so we should make a dramatic entrance...
0:09:17 > 0:09:19- Yes.- ..very soon.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23'Tonight I'm going to be re-staging one of the founding moments
0:09:23 > 0:09:27'in the history of Dada, here at its birthplace.
0:09:27 > 0:09:29'For Hugo ball's most iconic performance,
0:09:29 > 0:09:32'he wore his most outlandish outfit.'
0:09:33 > 0:09:37So we'll try and fit Jim into Hugo's costume.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39JIM LAUGHS
0:09:39 > 0:09:42- Pull it off.- OK.
0:09:42 > 0:09:44You misjudged my bulk.
0:09:47 > 0:09:49'There's a few serious faces in the audience.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53'God knows what they're going to make of my transformation into Hugo Ball.'
0:09:53 > 0:09:55How's that?
0:09:55 > 0:09:58- The words don't make any sense. - I know.
0:09:58 > 0:10:00- LAUGHTER - There's only one word.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02- Don't try and understand, just... - I'm not going to.
0:10:02 > 0:10:07- ..go with the flow.- Right, start, because my specs are falling off my nose with the sweat.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09Thanks. LAUGHTER
0:10:09 > 0:10:16Gadji beri bimba glandridi laula lonni cadori.
0:10:16 > 0:10:22Gadjama tuffm i zimzalla binban gligla wowolimai bin beri ban.
0:10:24 > 0:10:30Elifantolim brussala bulomen brussala bulomen tromtata.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35Velo da bang band affalo purzamai affalo purzamai lengado tor.
0:10:37 > 0:10:38LAUGHTER
0:10:38 > 0:10:40I'm getting lost.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Gaga di bumbalo bumbalo gadjamen.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Gaga di bling blong.
0:10:45 > 0:10:47Gaga blung.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51APPLAUSE
0:10:53 > 0:10:55I'm collapsing.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59Take this off. LAUGHTER
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Thank you. And there we are.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03Um...
0:11:03 > 0:11:06What was that? LAUGHTER
0:11:06 > 0:11:09APPLAUSE
0:11:13 > 0:11:15- His outfit was ridiculous.- Yeah.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17JIM LAUGHS
0:11:17 > 0:11:19- I'm not knocking it at all.- OK.
0:11:19 > 0:11:20Oh, I'm right on it.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24If he's there, doing his poetry in his magic bishop's costume,
0:11:24 > 0:11:29he's already got a congregation, so he's begun a religion.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Yeah. And so that's why all these people come here, like a pilgrimage.
0:11:32 > 0:11:35- And what a great shrine.- Yeah. - What a fantastic place.
0:11:35 > 0:11:41- If you've got to have a religion, I'm going to be in here.- Yeah.
0:11:41 > 0:11:46'Hugo Ball wrote that, "Everyone has been seized by an indefinable intoxication.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50' "The little cabaret is about to come apart at the seams and is
0:11:50 > 0:11:53' "getting to be a playground for crazy emotions." '
0:11:53 > 0:11:56Are you following me?
0:11:56 > 0:11:59Just five months after it opened, the cabaret closed,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03but Dada was just beginning.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07In July 1916, Hugo Ball delivered the first in
0:12:07 > 0:12:12a series of speeches announcing the Dada Manifestos.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15These speeches parodied the more grandiose written manifestos
0:12:15 > 0:12:17of the time.
0:12:17 > 0:12:23Dada is a new tendency in art. How does one achieve eternal bliss?
0:12:23 > 0:12:25By saying Dada.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29How does one become famous? By saying Dada.
0:12:29 > 0:12:34A line of poetry is a chance to get rid of all the filth that
0:12:34 > 0:12:37clings to this accursed language,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41as if put there by a stockbroker's hands,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44hands wrought smooth by coins.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47Dada is the heart of words.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50So, what were they doing?
0:12:50 > 0:12:53Let's say, with the poetry, the meaningless, pointless,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55senseless words within the poetry,
0:12:55 > 0:12:58was it a reaction against the meaningless, senseless,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01pointless war that was surrounding them?
0:13:01 > 0:13:04Or were they just trying out something new and having fun with it?
0:13:04 > 0:13:06I don't know.
0:13:06 > 0:13:09Do you know?
0:13:10 > 0:13:13In neighbouring Germany, life was becoming increasingly
0:13:13 > 0:13:15desperate as the war drew to a close,
0:13:15 > 0:13:19and nowhere was this more so than in Berlin.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22This devastated city would provide the setting for Dada's new
0:13:22 > 0:13:27incarnation as the German poet Richard Huelsenbeck returned home from Zurich.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Richard Huelsenbeck wound up the crowd,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37claiming the Zurich Dadaists were pro-war.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41"And Dadaism is still pro-war today.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44"Things are still not cruel enough."
0:13:44 > 0:13:49In Berlin, Club Dada would unleash a fiercely political rage.
0:13:49 > 0:13:53The First International Dada Fair shook Berlin with its
0:13:53 > 0:13:56shocking satire of the German Establishment.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59And it didn't just tease the Establishment -
0:13:59 > 0:14:02it mercilessly mocked the powers that be.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05John Heartfield hung a dummy from the ceiling dressed in German
0:14:05 > 0:14:08military uniform and with a pig's snout for a face.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12And Otto Dix showed veterans disabled by war injuries.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15These artists took genuine risks,
0:14:15 > 0:14:18and many were arrested for their actions.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22But in the male-dominated world of Berlin Dada, Huelsenbeck, Heartfield
0:14:22 > 0:14:25and Dix met their match in Hannah Hoch.
0:14:27 > 0:14:31MALE VOICES SCREAM More than holding her own at the art fair,
0:14:31 > 0:14:34Hoch satirised the entire German Establishment with her
0:14:34 > 0:14:36masterpiece, Cut With The Kitchen Knife,
0:14:36 > 0:14:40pioneering a radically subversive new artform - photomontage.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Dada's ground-breaking visual techniques would have a huge
0:14:46 > 0:14:50impact on Neville Brody, one of the pioneers of modern graphic design.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55His interest in Dada has seeped into his cutting edge art
0:14:55 > 0:14:59direction for The Face magazine and his iconic post-punk sleeve
0:14:59 > 0:15:02designs for bands like, you guessed it...
0:15:02 > 0:15:04Cabaret Voltaire.
0:15:06 > 0:15:12Neville, here we've got an early bit of photomontage by Hannah Hoch.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14That's the Kaiser, isn't it?
0:15:14 > 0:15:16So, this is his moustache here.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19Well, this is what I like about it, yeah. Oh, it's two wrestlers.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22Well, you've got little Hannah Hoch down here,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25this tiny head is a kind of signature.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29And then these are the countries where women had the right to
0:15:29 > 0:15:31vote at the time.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35This is the first real kind of powerful use of photomontage
0:15:35 > 0:15:37as a real tool of subversion.
0:15:37 > 0:15:40Why was it? Was it because you'd got photos in newspapers?
0:15:40 > 0:15:42The free access of, like,
0:15:42 > 0:15:45printed photographs meant that someone like Hannah Hoch could come
0:15:45 > 0:15:49in, cut it out, combine it all and create a completely new narrative.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51So this is a whole new way of looking.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54- Like a big political cartoon as well, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56This was shocking to the bourgeoisie.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59It was deliberately non-aesthetic. It's not pretty.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03And this is something that we've seen a lot since.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06You know, punk, Jamie Reid, the Sex Pistols covers.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14Punk hijacked Dada's use of photomontage as
0:16:14 > 0:16:16a weapon of subversion,
0:16:16 > 0:16:19from Jamie Reid's Sex Pistols covers to Linder sterling's feminist
0:16:19 > 0:16:23artworks and sleeve designs for bands like the Buzzcocks.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27But punk is only the most obvious child of Dada.
0:16:29 > 0:16:34'Club Dada's striking visuals extended to magazines and journals.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38'I've brought along a copy of the first Dada publication,
0:16:38 > 0:16:41'and I've got a feeling this is going to be right up Neville's street.'
0:16:41 > 0:16:43What is this?
0:16:43 > 0:16:47This is coming directly out of the photomontage approach,
0:16:47 > 0:16:49but now it's typomontage.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52- Yeah, so it's using everything. - This is really stunning.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56It's an amazing piece of freeform typography.
0:16:56 > 0:16:58This really was ahead of its time.
0:16:58 > 0:16:59Just looks incredibly modern.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02There was a lot of punk stuff that was done that looked like this.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06- A lot of art in the '60s and 70s had this feel, and the '50s.- Yeah.
0:17:06 > 0:17:10And this had a big influence on my work, directly - the idea of going
0:17:10 > 0:17:14off-grid, nothing lines up, it's all at an angle,
0:17:14 > 0:17:16yet it has so much energy.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18- It is completely haphazard.- Yeah.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21I actually remember I did a whole record cover where all the type was
0:17:21 > 0:17:26at angles and the printer helped me by straightening them all up again.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28He said, "I've fixed it for you now, young man."
0:17:28 > 0:17:30This is beautiful, though, isn't it?
0:17:30 > 0:17:33It's gorgeous, just an extraordinary piece.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Makes me want to give it up - it's all been done, really, hasn't it?
0:17:36 > 0:17:38JIM LAUGHS
0:17:38 > 0:17:41'A lot of today's generation of graphic designers think
0:17:41 > 0:17:44'they're nicking ideas from Neville Brody, but what they don't realise
0:17:44 > 0:17:48'is that some of the freshest looking magazine layouts date back to Dada.'
0:17:50 > 0:17:53While Hannah Hoch and others were busy setting the agenda
0:17:53 > 0:17:55for 20th century culture,
0:17:55 > 0:17:59one lone wolf managed to grab all of the world's media attention.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05Architect Johannes Baader was in his own Dada universe.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09He called himself Super Dada, or Dada Chief,
0:18:09 > 0:18:13and announced himself as President Of The Earth.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15No ego problems there, then.
0:18:15 > 0:18:16On April Fools' Day,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20he warned the district of Berlin that Dada forces were on
0:18:20 > 0:18:25their way, and 2,000 people were there to fend off the Dada invasion.
0:18:25 > 0:18:28When the time came, he wrote his own obituary but announced his
0:18:28 > 0:18:31resurrection the following day.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33Richard Huelsenbeck warned,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37"Watch out for Baader, who has nothing to do with our thoughts.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42"He has compromised Dada in Berlin to such an extent with his
0:18:42 > 0:18:47"idiocies that I can't even get a small item into the press."
0:18:47 > 0:18:49MUSIC: Let's Dance by David Bowie
0:18:49 > 0:18:53According to one of the Dada gang, "Dada was a dancing epidemic
0:18:53 > 0:18:58"with simultaneous beginnings in different parts of the world."
0:18:59 > 0:19:02In Zurich, Dada had taken a hammer to language.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06In Berlin, it attacked the political Establishment.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11And now, in New York, Dada took aim at art itself.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14JAZZ PIANO MUSIC PLAYS
0:19:16 > 0:19:20Marcel Duchamp, the king of conceptual art,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24forced the grand old guardians of the art world to ask
0:19:24 > 0:19:27themselves a question they hadn't had to think about before.
0:19:27 > 0:19:32"If you put a toilet in art gallery, does that make it art?"
0:19:32 > 0:19:35And, "Should I start stroking my beard yet?"
0:19:37 > 0:19:41Duchamp caused scandal by presenting a urinal signed "R Mutt"
0:19:41 > 0:19:45to the board of the Society For Independent Artists.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50It was rejected and the story went in Dada journals like The Blind Man.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54It was just one in a series of ready-mades -
0:19:54 > 0:19:58everyday objects exhibited as art -
0:19:58 > 0:20:00a closed window,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03a snow shovel,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05a bottle rack,
0:20:05 > 0:20:07and a bicycle wheel.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12And Duchamp provoked the rage of the art establishment still
0:20:12 > 0:20:16further by defacing an old master.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19A copy at least.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21He called the work Elle A Chaud Au Cul,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24which in French sounds just like,
0:20:24 > 0:20:26"She's got a hot ass."
0:20:26 > 0:20:29For the Dadaists, this series of provocations was enough for
0:20:29 > 0:20:34Duchamp to gain entry into their club, whether he liked it or not.
0:20:37 > 0:20:41Artist Cornelia Parker has made art out of everyday objects herself,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45but not without flattening them first with a steam roller.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47She's my kind of artist.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52And, for Cornelia, Duchamp, the reluctant Dadaist,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54has been a lifelong inspiration.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59Was Marcel Duchamp a Dadaist?
0:20:59 > 0:21:02He was a Dadaist by default, I think.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05The toilet...R Mutt's toilet, that's the thing that everyone knows,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08- isn't it?- R Mutt's toilet, yeah, I suppose you introduce the idea of
0:21:08 > 0:21:11anything you just go and buy in the shop becoming an art object.
0:21:11 > 0:21:13- And he did, and he caused a big stink.- He did.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16The idea of putting that into a salon where you're supposed
0:21:16 > 0:21:20to put accepted work seemed to be what it was all about,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23really, more than the object itself.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25A lot of things just started with him,
0:21:25 > 0:21:27because he was just up for anything.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30Duchamp sort of opened up this seam, you know,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34in kind of art that was kind of...everything was quite
0:21:34 > 0:21:37stable and quite...progressing nicely,
0:21:37 > 0:21:40but he'd just kind of create this big fissure, you know, this
0:21:40 > 0:21:45fault-line that allowed other people just to be completely maverick.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50Duchamp's idea for the readymade has inspired generations of
0:21:50 > 0:21:52artists since,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55and at the time inspired a collaboration with artist and
0:21:55 > 0:21:57photographer Man Ray.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01This is a fantastic photograph by Man Ray of Duchamp's
0:22:01 > 0:22:05half-finished sculpture which was called The Large Glass.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09He was allowing dust to accumulate on it,
0:22:09 > 0:22:11because he wanted to incorporate the dust into the piece,
0:22:11 > 0:22:13and I think he left a note for the cleaner, cos
0:22:13 > 0:22:17he had a cleaning lady, saying, you know, "Don't touch, dust breeding."
0:22:17 > 0:22:23- Did Man Ray come round to his house and then...?- Spot it and like it? - And Marcel said,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26"Here, have a look at this, look at all this dust I'm breeding here."
0:22:26 > 0:22:29And he says, "We'll just take a picture of it, shall we?"
0:22:29 > 0:22:31- I'm sure it went something like that.- I bet it is, yeah.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33I think some of the best art is serendipitous.
0:22:33 > 0:22:38- I quite like the idea of, you know, negligence becoming art. - CORNELIA LAUGHS
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Yeah. And have you been influenced by Dada?
0:22:41 > 0:22:44I'm very influenced by Duchamp. I think he's, most probably, if
0:22:44 > 0:22:48I had to pick one artist to say that he's had the most influence on me.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Yeah.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Dada managed to be really infantile and outrageous but at the
0:22:54 > 0:22:57same time made people think about things afresh.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02I'm off with Cornelia to stage our own Dada intervention.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04MUSIC: Da Funk by Daft Punk
0:23:04 > 0:23:07It'll pay tribute to both the politics of Club Dada in Berlin
0:23:07 > 0:23:09and the irreverence of New York Dada.
0:23:13 > 0:23:17It's taking us to Bond Street, where war leaders
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Churchill and Roosevelt hold court.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28Let's see who gets arrested first.
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Do you think I'll get arrested... I'm more likely to get arrested with balaclavas?
0:23:31 > 0:23:35I think you'll get more arrested than me. THEY LAUGH
0:23:35 > 0:23:38- Here are the boys. - Right, so, are you ready?- Yeah.
0:23:46 > 0:23:49There's my Dadaist act for the day.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51- That's great, don't you think?- Yeah.
0:23:51 > 0:23:53It looks really menacing.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Shall we leave them on for a couple of minutes to see what people think?
0:23:58 > 0:24:00'I think Cornelia's gone for political Dada -
0:24:00 > 0:24:02'she's made them into terrorists.'
0:24:03 > 0:24:07The police don't seem to have noticed yet.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10'Right, now it's my turn to give these old geezers
0:24:10 > 0:24:12'a 21st century face-lift.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16'I'm thinking absurdo-Dada is more my style.'
0:24:16 > 0:24:20MUSIC: I've Told Every Little Star by Linda Scott
0:24:20 > 0:24:21'That should bring them down to scale.'
0:24:21 > 0:24:24- There.- That's great, I love it.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26These need you on, darling.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28I think I'll go on here.
0:24:28 > 0:24:29Oh!
0:24:29 > 0:24:33- What does it mean then?- What does it mean?- What have we done?
0:24:33 > 0:24:35Well, this is almost...well, it's 100 years after Dadaism,
0:24:35 > 0:24:37- so this is...- Is it a student prank?
0:24:37 > 0:24:40- I think it's a student prank... - It kind of feels like it.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42It is a student prank, isn't it?
0:24:42 > 0:24:44I liked your balaclavas, I think, best.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48- Did you?- Yeah. It was more of a striking effect.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51It was slightly more edgy. People enjoy this one more, I think.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54- Mine was most probably a bit more like... - SIREN WAILS
0:24:54 > 0:24:56..you know, like Pussy Riot or something.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58- Do you think so?- Yes.
0:24:58 > 0:25:00Here come the coppers.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03- What should we do - just leave it there?- Well, we could.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05Should we just walk off and leave it?
0:25:11 > 0:25:14I suppose the whole legacy of Dada means that people
0:25:14 > 0:25:17have been defacing statues for a long time, haven't they?
0:25:17 > 0:25:20Usually the traffic cone is the favourite one.
0:25:20 > 0:25:22Now you've got Banksy.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26It's not just being cheeky. No. CORNELIA LAUGHS
0:25:26 > 0:25:28No, it's a bit more, I don't know,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30it came out of a more political time, didn't it?
0:25:30 > 0:25:33For some reason I always thought Dadaism was
0:25:33 > 0:25:36a little less benign than Surrealism.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40'Well, that's its brilliance for me.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43'Dada can be the provocative dangerous artform Cornelia is
0:25:43 > 0:25:46'drawn to, but it's also the original inspiration for mindless
0:25:46 > 0:25:49'student pranks.'
0:25:55 > 0:26:00Back in Zurich, Tristan Tzara, who we last saw casting a tribal spell
0:26:00 > 0:26:04at the Cabaret Voltaire, was taking Dada in a radical new direction.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09With new publications springing up by the second,
0:26:09 > 0:26:13Dada's next target was the world of mass communication.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18Tzara planned to trick the papers with a fake press release.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24Tzara was using Dada's subversive energy
0:26:24 > 0:26:26to mock the new media culture.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29NEWS JINGLE PLAYS
0:26:32 > 0:26:37There was a pistol duel yesterday on the Rehalp near Zurich, between
0:26:37 > 0:26:41Tristan Tzara, familiar founder of Dada, and Dada painter Hans Arp.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44Four rounds were fired and, in the fourth exchange,
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Arp was slightly grazed on his left thigh.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Armando Iannucci.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53How do you respond to this?
0:26:53 > 0:26:55- Well, this is literally news to me. - Yeah.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58- I'm going to put the hands down. - Yeah, I'm going to stop doing this.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00This was an article,
0:27:00 > 0:27:02this was written by the Dadaists and sent out
0:27:02 > 0:27:05to various publications and newspapers, and was printed.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07It was all made up. It was fake.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10And that is something that is very contemporary,
0:27:10 > 0:27:14because nowadays, you know, there's so much,
0:27:14 > 0:27:17you know, 24-hour media and newspapers that have websites
0:27:17 > 0:27:21- that need filling, so if you sent them a press release now...- Yeah.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25..it will appear as a story, even though it's word-for-word
0:27:25 > 0:27:27quoting the press release that you sent out.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31I mean, what Dada is saying is that something that sounds very
0:27:31 > 0:27:35serious and true might not be serious and might not be true.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39I remember, about 20 years ago, we did a show called On The Hour, which
0:27:39 > 0:27:43was like a false news programme, but we actually did a...we made a report
0:27:43 > 0:27:47about an abattoir where the cows were actually rising from the dead.
0:27:47 > 0:27:49I remember it.
0:27:49 > 0:27:52..and it nearly got on the Today programme.
0:27:52 > 0:27:56We submitted it as from a Bristol reporter for BBC Bristol,
0:27:56 > 0:27:58and it was all lined up,
0:27:58 > 0:28:01and John Humphrys had written his introduction and everything,
0:28:01 > 0:28:04and we came seconds away from it being played live.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08Armando Iannucci has made an art out of Dadaist manipulation with
0:28:08 > 0:28:11shows like The Day Today.
0:28:11 > 0:28:12News.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15London Transport say they may have to close the Underground
0:28:15 > 0:28:17system due to an infestation of horses.
0:28:17 > 0:28:20A report described the conditions in the equine plague as
0:28:20 > 0:28:23"like an abattoir in a power cut".
0:28:23 > 0:28:27To inspire other would-be Dadaists, Tristan Tzara published
0:28:27 > 0:28:30a set of instructions on how to tear up newspaper articles and
0:28:30 > 0:28:32reassemble them.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Take a newspaper. Take some scissors.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Choose from this paper an article.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43Next, carefully cut out each of the words that make up this
0:28:43 > 0:28:46article and put them all together in a bag.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48Shake gently.
0:28:48 > 0:28:52Next, take out each cutting, one after the other.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56Copy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58- OK.- Right, so tip it out.- Right.
0:28:58 > 0:28:59So, let's...
0:28:59 > 0:29:01This is the way they've fallen out.
0:29:01 > 0:29:04"We're updating squeaky-voiced felt."
0:29:05 > 0:29:06Hang on.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11"The Cumberbatch appeared correct where cardboard catchphrases,
0:29:11 > 0:29:15"occasionally sometimes correct," it says.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20- Which kind of sums up random words. - Yeah.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24I think what they were beginning to explore was that idea that,
0:29:24 > 0:29:29you know, we take so much of what we're being told for granted.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33We're seeing it as the voice of authority and infallible,
0:29:33 > 0:29:36- and they're saying it's not, really. - Yeah.- It's just words.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39Thank you, thank you.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43We've been recording a music video, and it goes like this.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45# I'm hardcore and I know the score
0:29:45 > 0:29:47# I am disgusted by the poor
0:29:47 > 0:29:50# And my chums matter more because we are the law
0:29:50 > 0:29:53# And I've made sure we're ready for class war. #
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Cut-up, today, is such a prevalent form.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01Deconstructing what you think of as true and telling you it's just,
0:30:01 > 0:30:06you know, it's just an assembly of information which you could
0:30:06 > 0:30:08put out in another combination.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11Any source of any information can be cut and connected...
0:30:11 > 0:30:15- But this is a random combination. - Yeah.- That's the difference.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18I think what's happening now is people are trying to do
0:30:18 > 0:30:20something more coherent with it.
0:30:20 > 0:30:24So this is Tristan Tzara's unpatented idea,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28- but it's led to fridge magnet poetry.- Fridge magnet poetry.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30And it's led to the whole of the internet, which consists
0:30:30 > 0:30:36mostly of people cutting up bits of film and television.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38The idea that we can all reedit -
0:30:38 > 0:30:41one day this is how all programmes will be made.
0:30:43 > 0:30:45That's great. Thank you.'
0:30:45 > 0:30:47THEY CHUCKLE
0:30:47 > 0:30:49DRAMATIC NEWS SHOW MUSIC
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Dada poets and artists jumped on the creative opportunities
0:30:54 > 0:30:59provided by cut-up, using the process for more than just satire.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04Sometimes, a painting doesn't go the way you want it to go.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06Damn you, fine artwork!
0:31:06 > 0:31:11And this happened to artist Jean Arp, who was so frustrated,
0:31:11 > 0:31:17he ripped up the painting and let the pieces land on the floor and
0:31:17 > 0:31:21where they landed, he decided that
0:31:21 > 0:31:24this was exactly what he wanted
0:31:24 > 0:31:27in the first place.
0:31:30 > 0:31:33That's not bad, actually. It's pretty good.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36And Arp's wasn't too bad either.
0:31:36 > 0:31:38Hello. Yes. Hello. Thank you. Yes.
0:31:38 > 0:31:41This Dadaist principle of tearing everything up re-emerged in
0:31:41 > 0:31:45'60s counter culture and nowhere more so than with
0:31:45 > 0:31:49William Burroughs, who made an art out of chance happening with
0:31:49 > 0:31:55his fragmented poetry, tape cut-ups, and even randomly reassembled films.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Hello. Yes. Where are we? Hello. Yes.
0:31:58 > 0:32:00Hello. Yes.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03Burroughs' artistic experiments would trigger
0:32:03 > 0:32:06a new wave of cut-up in the second half of the century, passing on
0:32:06 > 0:32:11his Dadaist technique to musicians, from Paul McCartney to David Bowie.
0:32:12 > 0:32:17What I've used it for more than anything else is igniting
0:32:17 > 0:32:20anything that might be in my imagination.
0:32:20 > 0:32:23I've tried doing it with diaries and things and I was finding out
0:32:23 > 0:32:27amazing things about me and what I'd done and where I was going.
0:32:27 > 0:32:30And a lot of the things that I'd done, it seemed that it would
0:32:30 > 0:32:33predict things about the future, or tell me a lot about the past.
0:32:33 > 0:32:35I don't know, let's see what happens.
0:32:40 > 0:32:45# I'm an alligator
0:32:45 > 0:32:47# I'm a momma-papa... #
0:32:47 > 0:32:50From our pop stars to our counter cultural heroes,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53we're all a little bit under the influence of Dada.
0:32:54 > 0:32:58In 1919, the Dada epidemic hit Cologne.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01Each time it spread, Dada mutated and evolved.
0:33:03 > 0:33:09Zurich Dada had introduced absurdist nonsense, Berlin Dada had targeted
0:33:09 > 0:33:14the political establishment, and New York Dadaists sent up the art world.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18Now, in Cologne, it was all about shock for shock's sake.
0:33:18 > 0:33:21A Cologne publication called the Berlin Dadaists
0:33:21 > 0:33:26counterfeits of Dada for their strongly held beliefs.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30It claimed, they can neither shit nor pee without ideologies.
0:33:32 > 0:33:37What Cologne Dada lacked in politics, it made up for in anarchy.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42The Dada early spring exhibition incensed audiences with an
0:33:42 > 0:33:46entrance via a public urinal of a beer hall and on the way in,
0:33:46 > 0:33:50the public were showered with obscenities.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52BLEEP. BLEEP. BLEEP.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57Audiences were so incensed that they destroyed artworks in fits of rage.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01And Max Ernst, the leader of Cologne Dada, actively encouraged
0:34:01 > 0:34:06this destruction, displaying a sculpture with an axe attached.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09The police said, "Enough is enough!" and closed down the show.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17To find out what all this anarchy and destruction was about,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20I'm going to meet Michael Landy,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24one of the mischievous Young British Artists who introduced
0:34:24 > 0:34:27Dada's shock tactics to a new generation in the '90s.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36Michael is best known for destroying all of his possessions
0:34:36 > 0:34:38in the name of art.
0:34:38 > 0:34:39Hello?
0:34:39 > 0:34:42And judging by the look of his house,
0:34:42 > 0:34:44he hasn't replaced many of them since.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48DRAMATIC WESTERN STYLE MUSIC
0:34:57 > 0:35:02In Cologne, Max Ernst had a wooden sculpture with an axe
0:35:02 > 0:35:04attached to it, so that they could destroy it.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06- Oh, yeah. - What do you know about that?
0:35:06 > 0:35:10Destruction in art has kind of, like, a long history, really.
0:35:10 > 0:35:15And I think Dada was like, it brought, like, destruction...
0:35:15 > 0:35:19It's not necessarily nihilistic, it can also be creative.
0:35:19 > 0:35:20Yeah.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Picasso talks about having, like, every time you make a painting,
0:35:23 > 0:35:25in a sense, it's a kind of mini-destruction.
0:35:25 > 0:35:30You know, you've got to take things apart to recreate, in a sense.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34You've got to take the previous generation apart, in a sense.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38You've got to almost, like, dismiss what they do and kind of
0:35:38 > 0:35:41recreate yourself with a whole new set of values.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43Cos you did your destruction...
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Yeah, I destroyed all my worldly belongings, yeah.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50- Was it absolutely everything? - At the time, yeah, at the age of 37.
0:35:50 > 0:35:51And how did you destroy it?
0:35:51 > 0:35:54We didn't get an axe to it or anything like that.
0:35:54 > 0:35:56It was actually a quite methodical way of doing it.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58So did you destroy your artwork as well?
0:35:58 > 0:36:02Yeah, I destroyed my artwork, I destroyed my friends' artwork.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05So would you say that was a Dadaist thing to do?
0:36:05 > 0:36:07Yeah, in some respects, yeah.
0:36:07 > 0:36:09I would say it's a pretty absurd thing to do.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Yeah, and it did get up people's noses because obviously
0:36:12 > 0:36:15- people work their whole lives to acquire things, don't they?- Yeah.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18And there I was, destroying them all.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22Michael Landy and his mates shocked the art world in the
0:36:22 > 0:36:26'90s with the notorious Sensation exhibition.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30There was Damien Hirst with his shark,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33Tracey Emin with her unmade bed,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37and Marcus Harvey with his portrait of serial killer Myra Hindley,
0:36:37 > 0:36:39made with child handprints.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43But while Cologne Dada had its show shut down by the police,
0:36:43 > 0:36:46the YBA's just provoked a few headlines in the tabloids.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52You were involved in the Sensation show, weren't you?
0:36:52 > 0:36:54Hands up, I was, yeah.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58I mean, Sensation is like a collection of Charles Saatchi's.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01I mean, Dada is like...
0:37:01 > 0:37:05They're a group of artists who create manifestos, you know.
0:37:05 > 0:37:07They have like shared ideologies.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11I think the only similarity would be the media.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Dada was being more provocative than I am and their audience is
0:37:15 > 0:37:18very conservative. I mean, what people think of art is like
0:37:18 > 0:37:22a nice landscape painting or a nice cherub in bronze.
0:37:22 > 0:37:23They don't think, you know,
0:37:23 > 0:37:26a mannequin with a light bulb on its head is art.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29- Yeah.- So they're trying to shock people, aren't they?- Yeah, they are.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32That's what they're trying to... Get up their noses and make them angry.
0:37:32 > 0:37:37Yeah. So, any final thoughts on Dada?
0:37:37 > 0:37:40I'd just like to thank Dada really for paving the way for people
0:37:40 > 0:37:42like me to come along.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46- Yeah. Thank you, Dada. - Thank you, Dada.
0:37:46 > 0:37:48HE CHUCKLES
0:37:48 > 0:37:52I've brought a piece of artwork along with me for you.
0:37:52 > 0:37:55- Do you know the history of me and artwork?- I know, yeah.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57It's one of my prized possessions.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00- Well, now, you're making me feel bad. You can take it home.- No.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03No, I want you to do what you've got to do with it.
0:38:03 > 0:38:05I could make you do it. I'd feel much better.
0:38:05 > 0:38:07- You can follow my instructions. - Have you got any ideas?
0:38:07 > 0:38:11- Maybe show it to me first. - So I'll go and get the plate.- OK.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13And then we'll talk about how to destroy.
0:38:13 > 0:38:16- How we're going to get rid of it. - Yeah, here it is.- Aw.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19It's a wedding plate for Bill and Cath.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22William and you know...the royals.
0:38:24 > 0:38:25So the classic way,
0:38:25 > 0:38:28I suppose of destroying it is the Grecian way, isn't it?
0:38:28 > 0:38:31- I like the idea of poking it off something.- OK.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33You could poke it off the top of my head.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36- We could balance on top of my head and you could push it off.- Yeah.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40- You know where your broom... - I've got a flat head. I'll go and get the broom.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50- OK, I'll try and balance on my head. - Yeah. Right, are you ready?
0:38:53 > 0:38:56LOUD CLATTER
0:38:56 > 0:38:57- Did that break?- Yeah.
0:38:57 > 0:38:58There.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01- That looks nice now, I like that. - Yeah, that looks nice.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04- Yeah, I like that as well.- I could sellotape that back together.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07- Are you going to sweep that up and put it in a poitrine?- In a latrine?
0:39:07 > 0:39:11- In a poitrine, yeah. Not a latrine.- Put a cloche over it.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13- A what?- A cloche.
0:39:13 > 0:39:16THEY CHUCKLE
0:39:16 > 0:39:18'When I do silly things in my comedy,
0:39:18 > 0:39:19'it's a bit of throwaway fun,
0:39:19 > 0:39:23'but when I do them with an esteemed Young British Artist, I am
0:39:23 > 0:39:26'surely creating a piece of Dadaist performance art!'
0:39:26 > 0:39:30You find me, several tenths of my way through this journey and
0:39:30 > 0:39:33exploration into what is Dada.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35I've spoken to several people,
0:39:35 > 0:39:39all of which seem to have varying ideas about Dada.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42Was it political, anarchic? Was it comedy? What was it?
0:39:42 > 0:39:45It was probably all of those things and more.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47But what I can say is since the beginning,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50I thought I had quite a good idea about what Dada is.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53I think I'm probably more confused now,
0:39:53 > 0:39:58so I shall continue my journey and find out what exactly is Dada.
0:40:00 > 0:40:01SQUEALING
0:40:02 > 0:40:04UM!
0:40:05 > 0:40:08To help me answer that question, I'm meeting the man who updated
0:40:08 > 0:40:12Dada's absurdist style for my generation.
0:40:15 > 0:40:16FANFARE
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Now, where is he?
0:40:21 > 0:40:23FANFARE
0:40:26 > 0:40:30- Strangers meeting in the night.- I never expected to see you here.- No.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32- Take a seat.- What are you doing here?- I don't know.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35- What are you doing here? - I don't know. A car brought me.
0:40:35 > 0:40:36I know nothing!
0:40:36 > 0:40:38Let's find out!
0:40:38 > 0:40:42Well, Terry, what does Dada mean to you, if anything?
0:40:44 > 0:40:49I've never seriously thought about what it means to me. It just is.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51- Do you know what it is?- Yeah. I do.
0:40:51 > 0:40:56I think what was interesting, the fact that it was anti-war,
0:40:56 > 0:40:58it was a reaction to the First World War,
0:40:58 > 0:41:04a reaction to bourgeois society, and these very boring tastes.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07I think the anger is what's interesting about it,
0:41:07 > 0:41:10how they were angry about the world nightmare they were living in
0:41:10 > 0:41:14and yet, you deal with it in different ways.
0:41:14 > 0:41:17And it's the humour side that we always went for.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19Is that what it was? Was there a war going on,
0:41:19 > 0:41:23so we're going to have to have fun and lighten the situation?
0:41:23 > 0:41:26Or you go absurd. You go totally Absurdist.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30If we're in an absurd situation, a complete nightmare out there,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33well, let's create nightmares and throw it back at society and
0:41:33 > 0:41:35see if you can shake it up.
0:41:35 > 0:41:39- That's a really good point cos it really was just madness.- Yeah.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43I mean, I left America because of the Vietnam War and all of
0:41:43 > 0:41:45that and I realised I was more...
0:41:45 > 0:41:49I was more Dadaist than I realised
0:41:49 > 0:41:53because completely against the war, I hated the way society was
0:41:53 > 0:41:57structured and behaving, and I wanted to make people laugh.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59- Yeah.- Bah-boom!
0:41:59 > 0:42:01MUMBLING SINGING WAGNER
0:42:04 > 0:42:06BLESSING IN LATIN
0:42:11 > 0:42:15What interests me is how many artists that I've always been
0:42:15 > 0:42:19either copying, admiring, or being influenced by,
0:42:19 > 0:42:24were the Dadaists, and George Melly wrote a review of Python and
0:42:24 > 0:42:31he referred to me as a product of Max Ernst. Wow!
0:42:31 > 0:42:35- So you weren't aware before...? - I was only aware of his paintings.
0:42:35 > 0:42:38I wasn't aware of his collages.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47This is a film by Hans Richter, who was a Dadaist.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49Look at this.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51It's called Ghosts Before Breakfast.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01- The silly walk!- It is, look. That's it. Isn't it?- Yup!
0:43:01 > 0:43:03So, who saw that then?
0:43:03 > 0:43:06- Probably nobody. - Is it just a coincidence?
0:43:06 > 0:43:11But that's what I love about things, how coincidental things can be.
0:43:11 > 0:43:14- Yeah.- We were just doing it. We weren't aware of what we were doing.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18There's a bubbling pot, isn't there? Where Dadaists pop out like
0:43:18 > 0:43:22bubbles and they're not aware that they are being called Dadaists!
0:43:22 > 0:43:24Yeah. I know.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28I think it was easier when we were doing Python, certainly for me,
0:43:28 > 0:43:33coming to this country, the categories are more clear.
0:43:33 > 0:43:36You know, the bankers, City guys, pin stripe suits,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39bowler hats, working class, look like working class,
0:43:39 > 0:43:41the middle class was the middle class.
0:43:41 > 0:43:45Now, I think it's harder to be Dadaist right now.
0:43:45 > 0:43:48Maybe it's ripe for a new uprising of Dadaism.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52I think it's really hard to get to grips with cos you can't find
0:43:52 > 0:43:54what the enemy is.
0:43:54 > 0:43:58You can't react against it cos it's so atomised now.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01SWANEE WHISTLE
0:44:08 > 0:44:10In the early '20s, with the war over,
0:44:10 > 0:44:14the global outposts of Dada converged in Paris.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18First, Tristan Tzara from Zurich,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21then Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray from New York...
0:44:21 > 0:44:23Oi, Marcel!
0:44:23 > 0:44:27..and then, Max Ernst from Cologne.
0:44:29 > 0:44:31A new supergroup was formed.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38Paris Dada offered its groupies more spectacle and more sheer
0:44:38 > 0:44:42silliness than anything that had gone before.
0:44:42 > 0:44:45It was Dada with bells on.
0:44:45 > 0:44:46BELLS SHAKE
0:44:47 > 0:44:49HE HUMS FLORAL DANCE
0:44:54 > 0:44:56By way of self-promotion,
0:44:56 > 0:44:59the Dadaists plastered stickers across the city.
0:45:03 > 0:45:08BELL RINGS AND DROWNS OUT SPEECH
0:45:20 > 0:45:26Francis Picabia made a drawing on a blackboard and then erased it
0:45:26 > 0:45:28at the exhibition.
0:45:30 > 0:45:35And to announce the opening of a Man Ray exhibition,
0:45:35 > 0:45:37the space was filled
0:45:37 > 0:45:40with balloons and the Dadaists popped them as people came in.
0:45:41 > 0:45:45Paris audiences were so outraged,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48they threw tomatoes and raw meat at them.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52Now, I'm meeting an artist who knows exactly how it feels to be on
0:45:52 > 0:45:55the receiving end of groceries.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57Martin Creed's Turner Prize-winning show,
0:45:57 > 0:46:01The Lights Going On And Off, which consisted of the lights going
0:46:01 > 0:46:04on and off, invited the question - is this art?
0:46:04 > 0:46:09And prompted some gallery goers to throw eggs at the wall.
0:46:09 > 0:46:14- So this is your studio?- Yeah.- Well, show us around?- Well, so there's...
0:46:14 > 0:46:18- These are paintings.- Oh, yeah. I've heard about them.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21- That's a bag.- Yeah. - That's a bag, that says...
0:46:21 > 0:46:24That actually says "whatever".
0:46:25 > 0:46:29- Oh, yeah. - There's some boxes here.- Yeah.
0:46:29 > 0:46:33- What's this?- A knitting thing with the stripes getting bigger.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36- What's it going to be? - No, that is what it is.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39- Oh, is it? - This is a pair of trousers
0:46:39 > 0:46:40I've been working on.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44- What are you going to do with them? - Well, just erm...
0:46:45 > 0:46:49- ..wear them. - JIM CHUCKLES
0:46:49 > 0:46:52- Wow!- That is a hat.
0:46:52 > 0:46:53- How does it look?- Looks good.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55Aye.
0:46:56 > 0:46:59- What is that?- That's a Panda. A Fiat Panda.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04So what about Dada?
0:47:04 > 0:47:06You got anything that's Dadaesque in here?
0:47:06 > 0:47:09Er, I don't, well, I don't know about, I don't know,
0:47:09 > 0:47:17- maybe a lot of it is because I think it's sort of a bit stupid.- Yeah.
0:47:17 > 0:47:18You know? I think that's...
0:47:18 > 0:47:21- That's what Dada is. - Aye, like being stupid.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24But there's political meaning and then you've got to balance that
0:47:24 > 0:47:27- with the daftness or the stupidness. - Right, aye.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29Cos I'd probably fall on the daft side.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33I would go...I think I would definitely fall on the stupid side.
0:47:33 > 0:47:36You'd be even further, right the other end!
0:47:36 > 0:47:38- Yeah.- Yeah.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42Cos I think it's like more, you know,
0:47:42 > 0:47:45- it's more like life, cos life's stupid.- Yeah.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51'Like the Dadaists, Martin filled the gallery half full with balloons.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54'His works are starting to feel rather familiar.'
0:47:54 > 0:47:58- That was your idea, wasn't it? Balloons.- I didn't know about that.
0:47:58 > 0:48:01This is what I've been finding,
0:48:01 > 0:48:05the Dadaists did have a lot of ideas for the first time.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08- Yeah, it looks like it, aye. - And, um...
0:48:08 > 0:48:10- and then you had them later. - Right!
0:48:10 > 0:48:13THEY LAUGH
0:48:13 > 0:48:15I'm just wandering about here.
0:48:15 > 0:48:18I mean, who knows what they were really trying to do, those people?
0:48:18 > 0:48:21- I don't know.- I don't know.
0:48:21 > 0:48:22No, I don't.
0:48:24 > 0:48:28And I don't know either, but, aye, I don't know.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30- I don't know.- I don't know.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Well, there we are then, that's the answer to that, isn't it?
0:48:35 > 0:48:38Is there any reason behind any of your stuff?
0:48:38 > 0:48:41Maybe it's trying to do what you're not supposed to do.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43When I did this film of people being sick,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46and one of people shitting as well,
0:48:46 > 0:48:53just cos it's a taboo of our, like, British society.
0:48:53 > 0:48:58And are you allowed to go into a gallery and laugh your head off.
0:48:58 > 0:49:00Yeah, well, I would have thought so, aye.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03- That's what I encourage whenever I have my shows.- Aye.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12'Martin's invited me to join him in his latest nonsensical idea,
0:49:12 > 0:49:14'blind painting.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17'So I'm going to do a portrait with absolutely no idea
0:49:17 > 0:49:19'what it's going to look like.'
0:49:20 > 0:49:23- It is weird, isn't it?- It is weird.
0:49:51 > 0:49:53- I think I'm done. - Yeah, I think I have.
0:49:53 > 0:49:55- Right.- So we're going to...
0:49:55 > 0:49:58- What are we going to do, just show? - Oh, aye, OK.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00Whoa!
0:50:00 > 0:50:01Oh, yeah.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03THEY LAUGH
0:50:06 > 0:50:08- Oh, God.- Oh, it's dripping.
0:50:08 > 0:50:09Put them down on here.
0:50:09 > 0:50:13Aye. Don't want it to drip. Amazing.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17So has this got anything to do with Dada?
0:50:17 > 0:50:19I suppose it's just a new idea.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21Maybe cos it's like trying to do it the way you're not
0:50:21 > 0:50:23supposed to do it, cos you find that if you're going to do
0:50:23 > 0:50:25- a picture of something you should... - So it's getting rid of
0:50:25 > 0:50:28- all conventions. - ..at least look at what your...
0:50:28 > 0:50:31I feel like, you know, if you try to control things
0:50:31 > 0:50:34- it doesn't necessarily make them better, you know?- Yeah.
0:50:34 > 0:50:35This has got no bearing on anything.
0:50:50 > 0:50:54In Paris Tristan Tzara achieved his dream by gathering together
0:50:54 > 0:50:59all the Dadaists to form a movement, Movement Dada.
0:50:59 > 0:51:02It was the culmination of all the nonsense of Dada,
0:51:02 > 0:51:06and for a brief moment Dada was the talk of the town.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13But for some, like Max Ernst and Man Ray, the nonsense was wearing thin.
0:51:13 > 0:51:18They'd begun searching for meaning through dreams and the subconscious.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23Man Ray famously took a metronome, cut out an eye from a photograph,
0:51:23 > 0:51:28put them together and made a new work, Object To Be Destroyed.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30I think I might have a go myself.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36Connect and print. Is that what I do?
0:51:36 > 0:51:38Enter the password.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40Shove a little bit of light music on.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45MUSIC: Left Bank Two by The Noveltones
0:51:49 > 0:51:51There is something blurry happening.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57Then you cut out an eye.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04And then he stuck the eye on the metronome
0:52:04 > 0:52:07and there...
0:52:07 > 0:52:09he had a new work,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12Object To Be Destroyed.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25So with all the Dadaists all going off in different directions
0:52:25 > 0:52:28there was nothing holding this movement together
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and, what's more, egos were taking over.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36So Tristan Tzara, right, he wanted to be the leader of the Dadaists.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39"Oh, look at me, I want to be the king of the Dadaists!"
0:52:39 > 0:52:42In fact they used to call him Tzar Tristan.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46But soon Dada had rivals in the Paris art world,
0:52:46 > 0:52:49including the French poet Andre Breton, and he was
0:52:49 > 0:52:52getting up the noses of other poets as well, like Paul Eluard.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57Dada was about to reach its bitter end in July 1923
0:52:57 > 0:53:01at the Soiree Of The Bearded Heart.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06So early on in the evening, Andre Breton takes offence at some
0:53:06 > 0:53:10performer and whacks him with his cane and gets thrown out, then
0:53:10 > 0:53:14a bit later on, just before Tristan Tzara's play The Gas Heart
0:53:14 > 0:53:18is on, there's like a rumpus going on in the stalls.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20Then who is it?
0:53:20 > 0:53:23It's Paul Eluard, the poet. He demands to see Tristan Tzara,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26so Tristan Tzara comes out, they have a pushing and shoving match
0:53:26 > 0:53:30and then Paul Eluard lamps Tristan Tzara,
0:53:30 > 0:53:33he goes down and that was it, you know, it was kind of all over
0:53:33 > 0:53:36by then really, so we went off to the boozer to talk about it,
0:53:36 > 0:53:38and had a right old laugh.
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Dada had died a death.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44But some Dadaists, like Max Ernst and Man Ray,
0:53:44 > 0:53:46found another gang to join,
0:53:46 > 0:53:50jumping ship to Andre Breton's new art movement,
0:53:50 > 0:53:52Surrealism.
0:53:53 > 0:53:56But I don't know if anyone really, really and honestly knew
0:53:56 > 0:53:59what Dada was all about yet.
0:53:59 > 0:54:02And to be honest, neither do I.
0:54:03 > 0:54:07But perhaps if I look out on this historic city,
0:54:07 > 0:54:12take in its atmosphere, I might get a feel for Dada
0:54:12 > 0:54:20and finally get to grips with this contradictory movement.
0:54:21 > 0:54:24No, Paris didn't do much for Dadaism,
0:54:24 > 0:54:27and, to be honest, it's not doing a lot for me either.
0:54:27 > 0:54:28I'm off.
0:54:34 > 0:54:36Terry! Terry!
0:54:38 > 0:54:40What is... What is Dada?
0:54:40 > 0:54:42Come on, what is Dada?
0:54:42 > 0:54:45- Leave me alone! Leave me alone!- What is it?
0:54:46 > 0:54:49- What is Dada?- I'm not going to tell him, I'm not going to tell him.
0:54:51 > 0:54:54What is Dada?
0:54:56 > 0:54:59Everyone needs a shed to go to when all else has failed.
0:55:00 > 0:55:02What is Dada?
0:55:02 > 0:55:06What is Dada? What...is Dada?
0:55:06 > 0:55:08- VOICE ECHOES: - Eh, what do you reckon?
0:55:08 > 0:55:11Turkey. Tutankhamen.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14- Hello.- What?
0:55:14 > 0:55:18Moon River, wider than a mile.
0:55:18 > 0:55:19Hello.
0:55:19 > 0:55:21Hello.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Yes, Arthur Smith at your service here.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26What exactly is Dada?
0:55:26 > 0:55:31Dada is a virgin microbe that fills up all the space
0:55:31 > 0:55:35that reason cannot with its convention.
0:55:35 > 0:55:37Good, glad you sorted that out for me, then.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39Yeah, I mean, in a sense, you know,
0:55:39 > 0:55:42if you start trying to analyse it then you'll end up
0:55:42 > 0:55:45disappearing up your own bottom, and it recognises that.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50So some people reckon is political, some people think it's just
0:55:50 > 0:55:54stupid absurdist comedy, or is it all of it? What is it?
0:55:54 > 0:55:59You've got to defy convention and logic in order to amaze
0:55:59 > 0:56:03and stimulate people, I suppose.
0:56:03 > 0:56:06Dada gave a licence for people to be stupid and in some sense
0:56:06 > 0:56:11it is the founder of modern comedy and you've definitely acted on
0:56:11 > 0:56:18your licence to be stupid, and Vic and all your mates, so well done.
0:56:18 > 0:56:19Thanks.
0:56:19 > 0:56:21Well, I'm stuck here alone in my bar,
0:56:21 > 0:56:24and you're stuck there alone in your bar,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28and yet we're together, Jim, that's a kind of Dadaism all by itself.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30That's beautiful.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34'Right, where do I go from here?'
0:56:42 > 0:56:46We're nearly at the end of our voyage, and have we discovered anything?
0:56:46 > 0:56:49Yes, I think we have. I think we know a little bit more about Dada.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52Do you know more about Dada? Do I know more about Dada?
0:56:52 > 0:56:55I do, but do you?
0:56:55 > 0:56:57I don't and you do.
0:56:57 > 0:57:01And I think one thing that we have learned is that a bloke
0:57:01 > 0:57:03from the BBC, that's me, sitting on a pedestal,
0:57:03 > 0:57:05can't tell you what to think.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08They'll put it all together in the edit anyway.
0:57:08 > 0:57:09Dada is...
0:57:09 > 0:57:11- Completely...- Maverick...
0:57:11 > 0:57:14- Deconstructing... - This serious idea about...
0:57:14 > 0:57:17- Art...- It's just an assembly...
0:57:17 > 0:57:19- Of artists who create... - Art that was...- Incredibly modern...
0:57:19 > 0:57:21- Very...- Coincidental...
0:57:21 > 0:57:23- Free-form...- Negligence...
0:57:23 > 0:57:26- They were a bit stupid... - And want to make people laugh...
0:57:26 > 0:57:28- The spirit of Dada...- Was about...
0:57:28 > 0:57:31- A whole new set of... - Extraordinary...- Ideologies...
0:57:31 > 0:57:33- They were angry about... - Convention and...
0:57:33 > 0:57:36- People being sick... - It's like a big political...
0:57:36 > 0:57:38- Shake it up. - I would say it's pretty absurd...
0:57:38 > 0:57:41- It just is...- More like life...
0:57:41 > 0:57:43- Nonsensical anyway... - More provocative...
0:57:43 > 0:57:46- Than beer and sausages... - I'm sure it's something like that.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17Thank you.
0:58:17 > 0:58:19LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE