Dada South? Symposium: The critically acclaimed exhibition Dada South? is one of the first locally produced museum exhibitions that places focus on a major international art movement of the 20th century, from the unique perspective of recent South African art.

In order to present and debate key questions raised by the exhibition, curators Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith present a two-day public symposium which will take place on the 18th and 19th of February at Iziko Rust en Vreugd Museum. This much anticipated syposium will feature internationally recognised guest speakers, alongside key South African scholars and practitioners.

Keynote speakers will include renowned Dada scholar Marc Dachy (Paris, FR); curator Susan Hapgood (New York, USA); performance theorist Jean Johnson-Jones (Surrey, UK) and artist and political activist Nina Romm (Johannesburg, ZA). Other speakers include Willem Boshoff, Fred de Vries, Kendell Geers, Thembinkosi Goniwe, the Gugulective, Stacy Hardy and Ashraf Jamal, among many others.

The last five years have seen a major revision of the Dada movement internationally, which confirms its continuing impact and relevance. As a diverse collection of practices and strategies, Dada contributed to a radical rethinking of the nature and function of art and it is, in many ways, a starting point to consider the origins of many forms of contemporary artistic practice.

Drawing together the first collection of historical Dada works ever seen in South Africa, as well as an eclectic range of works by South African artists representing an assortment of experimental and underground positions, the exhibition proposes a review of the ambivalent relationship between cultural creation and political resistance, as well as how art historical ideas are received and interpreted in response to specific local conditions.

Dada South? also invites consideration of another set of questions: What significance did African art hold for Dada and how do we understand their ideas about Africa? How are their counter-rational, collaborative and interdisciplinary strategies, dating back nearly 100 years now, still so resonant in contemporary art today? In particular, what does a Dada attitude to the political and spiritual reveal about individualism, collectivism and ethics in art today? As Marcel Duchamp said, “When you tap something, you don’t always recognise the sound. That’s apt to come later.” Could Dada be the only 20th century movement that still exists?

As a movement founded by exiles and migrants, Dada challenged notions of territoriality, nationality, ownership and prescribed identity. Dada’s lack of allegiance to any style or ideology, as well as its political and aesthetic contrariness offers an alternative lens through which to view creative tactics and tendencies in contexts which have experienced radical political change.

Whether we ask ‘What is Dada?’ or ‘What is not-Dada?’ (which is a rather Dada question), some of the key ideas the symposium will consider the relationship between Dada and Africa; the cultural underground and related periodicals; art practice as a tactics of action; relationships between forms of art and political agency; the tensions between institutions and experimentation; and counter-rational strategies (absurdism, chaos and chance) as methods for innovation.


How to Book

Space is extremely limited - reservation is essential

 R300.00 for two days, including lunches and teas
 R200.00 for one day, including lunches and teas
 Artists exhibiting on Dada South?, students & pensioners R150 for two days/ R100 per day.
 A limited number of bursaries are available to deserving applicants.

RSVP: Kathryn Smith kathryn@serialworks.info/kathryns@sun.ac.za

Iziko Rust en Vreugd, 78 Buitenkant Street, Cape Town.
Parking is available, regret disabled access is currently still under construction.


Exhibition Information

Dada South? is presented by the Goethe-Institut, the National Arts Council of South Africa, Pro Helvetia, Mondriaan Foundation, Embassy of France in South Africa, Institut Française d’Afrique du Sud, University of Stellenbosch, Iziko Museums of Cape Town, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, BHP Billiton, and the generous support of private donors.

The Dada South? symposium is made possible through the additional generous support of Vivien Cohen, Culturesfrance, the Goodman Gallery and Iziko Museums of Cape Town. Dada South? is curated by Roger van Wyk and Kathryn Smith and hosted by the Iziko South African National Gallery. The exhibition runs until February 28, 2010.

Lenders to the exhibition include the Institute For Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart; Berlin Gallery, Landes Museum Berlin; John Heartfield Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin; Goethe-Institut Collection, Munich; Kunsthaus Zürich; Bellerive Museum, Zürich Museum of Design; Centre Pompidou, Musée national d'art moderne collections, Paris; De Stijl Archives, Netherlands Institute for Art History, Den Haag; Johannesburg Art Gallery; Iziko South African National Gallery; Gauteng Legislature; Sasol Museum, University of Stellenbosch; BHP Billiton; Wits Art Galleries and private lenders.