The Dadaist Text: Politics, Aesthetics, and Alternative Cultures?

Abstract

The question addressed in the following essay both affirms the mission of the avant-garde text and acknowledges its historical fate; the consignment of this vital movement to the archives and museums, staunch symbols of the very social structure that it sought to criticize and replace. The answer is to be sought in the nature of art and its inevitable structured integration into society. Contrary to this anti-art myth, dada did not destroy art’s aura but rather sought art’s resurrection. Although it flourished as a counterculture, it did so within the confines of art’s traditional social place. Operating within, rather than against, the institution of art, dada sought to expose art’s ideological mechanisms and open the text to social context. In maintaining art’s autonomy, dada preserved the distance required of significant criticism but limited itself to change through reflection rather than through revolution. Zurich dada sought, by destroying ruling text, to compete for social influence, the movement’s radical alternatives and its successes as a counterculture were felt most keenly in the community of art. Ultimately creating an alternative elitist audience, Zurich dada remained squarely situated within the structure of establishment culture. Aware of the text’s role in the mediation of reality, dada was committed to unmasking culture’s "big slogans," to rupturing the closure and isolation of the text in favor or its integration with life, and to defamiliarzing the audience from culture in ways that would generate primary meanings. Although enriching existing modes of cultural communication, the text remained aesthetic and reached only the aristocratic reader. Aware of this, the dadaists turned to the liberation of themselves from their own enslavement. Forced to adopt new strategies a self-critical Berlin dada attempted to change the cultural context into which the text was placed; to revolutionize the institution of art through political events. Reducing art in the interest of effectiveness, the text was employed as a weapon. Engaged in what this author identifies as "revolutionary pragmatics," Berlin dada achieved, at least momentarily, the convergence of political art and political life. Brought sharply into tension with establishment culture, it nevertheless remained with the institution of art.