{"id":5102,"date":"2017-02-02T14:54:51","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T14:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/?p=5102"},"modified":"2017-02-03T21:41:42","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T21:41:42","slug":"documenting-dadadisseminating-dada-exhibition-opens-ribbon-cutting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/speccoll\/2017\/02\/02\/documenting-dadadisseminating-dada-exhibition-opens-ribbon-cutting\/","title":{"rendered":"Documenting Dada\/\/Disseminating Dada Exhibition Opens: Ribbon Cutting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Documenting<\/p>\n

Documenting Dada \/ Disseminating Dada is an exhibition featuring items from the University of Iowa Libraries\u2019 International Dada Archive, the world\u2019s most comprehensive collection of material related to the Dada movement. Timothy Shipe who is the curator of the International Dada Archive and a librarian in Special Collections curated the exhibition.<\/p>\n

From 1916 to 1923, a new kind of artistic movement swept Europe and America. Its very name, \u201cDADA,\u201d was notably missing the obligatory \u201cism,\u201d distinguishing it from the long line of avant-gardes that had determined the preceding century of art history.<\/p>\n

More than a mere art movement, Dada claimed a broader role as an agent of cultural, social, and political change. Its proponents wanted to affect all aspects of Western civilization, to take part in the revolutionary changes unfolding as inevitable results of the chaos of World War I.<\/p>\n

The Dada movement was perhaps the single most decisive influence on the development of twentieth-century art, and its innovations are so pervasive as to be virtually taken for granted today.<\/p>\n

This exhibition highlights Dada\u2019s printed output, which documents the ephemeral aspects of the movement and shows how the\u00a0dadaists used their publications to spread the movement beyond its origins in Zurich.<\/p>\n

The exhibition continues through April 28, 2017 in the Main Library Gallery. Learn more here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On January 18, 2017 the exhibition was officially opened with a ribbon cutting. The ribbon cutting involved creating a Dadaist poem inspired by\u00a0the instructions from Dada writer Tristan Tzara:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo make a Dadaist Poem\u201d (1920):<\/p>\n

Take a newspaper.
\nTake some scissors.
\nChoose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem.
\nCut out the article.
\nNext carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag.
\nShake gently.
\nNext take out each cutting one after the other.
\nCopy conscientiously in the order in which they left the bag.
\nThe poem will resemble you.
\nAnd there you are\u2014an infinitely original author of charming sensibility, even though unappreciated by the vulgar herd.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n