This year the DADA movement is celebrating the 100th-anniversary of its short but influential existence. Marc Berger/ Edition Schwarzdruk (DE) did a great job organising the 'Dada ist 100’, an exhibition celebrating 100 years of Dada movement with more than 50 letterpress printers from 10 countries taking part in this unique event.
The exhibition will take place in Eremitage Gransee (DE) on 4th of June and will then be traveling to venues in Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and the USA. To produce a catalog Mark Berger launched crowdfunding campaign which have been successfully funded, thanks to the letterpress enthusiasts all over the world.
Iliazd, 1919
I was happy to be one of the 50 letterpress printers contributing to this exhibition.
While doing the research trying to create dadaistic text using Dada Poem Generator and (re)discovering old and new things, like the works by Iliazd or the dadaist group 'Nothingists'/'Ничевоки' from Russia, I accidently stumbled upon 'Blue Notebook N 10'(1937)/ 'Голубая тетрадь N 10' (1937) by Daniil Kharms. As the Kharms' stories are typically brief, unpredictable and disordered I thought this story might be very suitable for this case (though I knew he was not a dadaistic poet).
“Голубая тетрадь N 10.
Был один рыжий человек, у которого не было глаз и ушей. У него не было и волос, так что рыжим его называли условно. Говорить он не мог, так как у него не было рта. Носа тоже у него не было. У него не было даже рук и ног. И живота у него не было, и спины у него не было, и хребта у него не было, и никаких внутренностей у него не было. Ничего не было! Так что не понятно, о ком идет речь. Уж лучше мы о нем не будем больше говорить.
Даниил Хармс, 1937”
“Blue Notebook N 10
There was a red-haired man, who had no eyes and ears. He had no hair, so red-haired he was called theoretically. He could not speak, because he did not have a mouth. He didn’t have a nose either. He had neither legs nor arms. He had no stomach, no back, no spine, and he had no guts whatsoever. There was nothing! So it’s not clear who he was. Better we do not talk about him anymore.
1937, Daniil Kharms”
While working with the text I got an idea to make a bilingual poster - in English and Russian, the language I consider my mother tongue but using it so little while living in Belgium.
While having no Cyrillic wood or metal type I decided to 'build' a few Cyrillic letters from ornaments, lines and whatever material I could find. After going through the various job cases and fiddling with tiny ornaments using tweezers for a few hours, the composition was set and the printing had begun. The first two colours were printed using large wood type and lines making a lockup in a rather nonconformal way…by using door magnets:) Well, I thought to follow the good old tradition of DADA movement and use no rules at all:) I must say 'freestyling' with wood and metal type proved to be not an easy task, so there was a lot of errors and misprints envolved. But at the end, I was quite happy with the outcome and there will be a few posters for sale (psst - here is the link), so watch this space or contact me at armina(at)typeands(dot)press.
Be sure to take a look at Typo - DADA Facebook page to see the works of other participants, (great works out there!) and follow the upcoming dates of DADA ist 100 exhibitions in your area.
DADA ist 100
04.06.2016 Eremitage Gransee - link
