Bokelskere.no

[this art] ...the expression of men who are struggling with their appalling
lostness. Dare we laugh at such things, feel superior when we view their
tortured expressions in their art? We should stop laughing and take such
men seriously. Then we shall have the right to speak again (..)

..a poem that appeared on the last issue of the magazine called De Stijl
written by Hans Arp (b.1887), one of the members of the original Dada
group. (translated from the German)

the head downward
the legs upward
he tumbles into the bottomless
from whence he came

he has no more honour in his body
he bites no more bite of any short meal
he answers no greeting
and is not proud when being adored

the head downward
the legs upward
he tumbles into the bottomless
from whence he came

like a dish covered with hair
like a four-legged sucking chair
like a deaf echotrunk
half full half empty

he tumbles into the bottomless
from whence he came

_

Dada is a chance concept. The very word was chosen by chance.
In the same way they composed poems.

On the basis of modern man's methodology, whether expressed in
philosophy, art, literature or theology, there can be no other ending
than this -- man tumbling into the bottomless.

But these men were deadly serious; it really was no game they were
playing.
One of these men was Marcel Duchamp (b.1887) who could be called
the high-priest of destruction. He is best known for his picture
Nude descending a stairway .. he is brilliant and destructive -- and
he means to destroy, will seek to destroy you from within yourself.

..There is a picture - .. Le passage de la vierge a la mariée -
(the words are written on the canvas, "the passage of the virgin to
married state"). Naturally every man or woman who looks at this,
tries to find in the picture something which relates to its title.
But no matter how long one looks, one finds no picture of any virgin,
nor of a virgin becoming a married woman.
Thus he causes the viewer to feel dirty.
Duchamp is the man who about 1960 gave birth to the happenings ,
and then beyond this, the environments (...)

In the happenings you are put as it were within the picture. You look
at people acting; and, as the observer, you are forced to participate.
There is always a nonsense element, and there is usually a dirty action
as well. Always the observer is involved, and is deliberately destroyed.

What are they saying? Everything is chance. Chance, the nothingness
is not just shut up in a framed picture but it is the entire structure of life.

You are in the chance, in the nothingness. You are the destroyed ones.

An example of Environment was some of the rooms in the art show,
'Art Zero, Art Nul' ..in Amsterdam, in the summer of 1965.
One entered the rooms and looked at objects. But there was something
more than mere looking at particular objects, rather you felt permeated
by a total context that was almost subliminal. Almost against your wish
you got drawn into the mood of the room. I watched young couples
going through these rooms .. most of them did not understand what they
saw. But I was certain that by the time they came out, the atmosphere
would have had its effect and their defences would have been weakened..
they were touched at a deeper level than only the mind. (..)

..it is important to note that the leaders of the Provos, and anarchist
movement in Amsterdam which has been much in the international news
through 1966..67 say that this movement is the logical result of the
exposition programme at Stedelijk Museum through the last 15 years.

It is also interesting to note that the Provos call their public demon-
strations 'Happenings'.

These paintings, poems and these demonstrations.. are the expression
of men who are struggling with their appalling lostness. Dare we laugh?

(...)These men are dying while they live, yet where is our compassion
for them? There is nothing more ugly than an ortodoxy without
understanding, or without compassion.