Most events are free to the public unless otherwise noted. Some events are free but ticketed. Some have exorbitant admission fees and vague instructions on how to attend. Seating and attendance will be on a first-come, first-serve basis for all. Events that do require ticketing will have a link attached to the event venue that will take you to the reservation portal once clicked or other instructions.
Day One
Tuesday November 1, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
13 Dada Manifestos (Opening Night Benediction)
Location: City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, California, 94133, Admission Free With a benediction by Guillermo Gomez-Pena, and appearances by Balitronica, Micah Ballard, Andrei Codrescu, Gillian Conoley with Domenic Stansberry, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Daphne Gottlieb, Andrew Joron, Kevin Killian, La Stef offering tribute to The Royal Chicano Airforce, Jon Longhi, Richard Loranger, and a special guest appearance by the Phantom Mariachi. The opening salvos in a 13 day attack on consensus reality.
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Day Two
Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
The Dada Globe Project
with Adrian Sudhalter
Location: Swissnex, Pier 17, San Francisco, 94111, Admission Free Dadaglobe was to be the definitive anthology of the Dada movement. Had it been published in 1921 as planned, it would have constituted more than one hundred artworks by some thirty artists from seven countries, showing Dada to be an artistic and literary movement with truly global reach. Yet, mainly due to a lack of funding, it remained unpublished, a remarkable void in the literature on this early-twentieth-century movement. Based on years of extensive research by American scholar Adrian Sudhalter provides a remarkable view of Dada, with a wealth of previously unpublished material.
Sponsored by Cultural Services of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco and Swissnex
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Day Three
Thursday, November 3, 2016, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
The Pataphysics of Dada
Location: Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, 94111, Admission Free
A Pataphysical presentation with the unveiling of the Pataphysical Slot Machine Before Dada, there was Alfred Jarry. Jarry developed the science of Pataphysics. This has nothing to do with Dada. Yet, many a dadaist has sung the praises of Jarry's Ubu Plays. Is Dada a form of crypto-pataphysics? You decide. Doctor Canard, Professor Fabio, Dr. Figurine, Professor Really, Dr. Rindbrain and their colleagues will present an evening of exploration into the "science of imaginary solutions and the laws governing exceptions".
To learn more visit Pataphysics.us
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Thursday, November 3, 2016, 8:30 p.m.
Pre Post-Human Dada Salon
Location: City Lights Booksellers, 261 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, 94133, Admission Free
Andrei Codrescu presents a holographic view of the structure of Dada's DNA. Joining him will be Jerome Rothenberg performing with master bassist Bert Turetzky "That Dada Strain" and Jack Foley in duet with Helen Wendy Loo. It is not advisable, nor was it ever, to live a "dada life". It is and it was always foolish and self destructive to lead a "dada life" because a "dada life" will include by definition pranks, bufoonery, masking, deranged senses, intoxication, sabotage, taboo breaking, playing childish and/or dangerous games, waking up dead gods, and not taking education seriously. Amusement of oneself (and others) and the making of communities are the goals of Dada. Dada is a priori against everything, including goals and itself, but this creative negation is very amusing and is meant to be shared. Join Andrei Codrescu and his friends as they inhabit, for a few brief moments, a space that so Dada that it isn't.
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Day Four
Friday, November 4, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
Zurich Dada Night/Cabaret Voltaire Tribute/Dada Remix
Location: Swissnex, Pier 17, San Francisco, 94111, Admission Free
Participants: Adolph Gurkenhofer, W3rkh0f, and Claude Winterberg. DJ Kent Clelland
Visit Swissnex website to learn more
Zurich is considered to be the launching point of Dada and the Cabaret Voltaire the sine qua non of Dada performance spaces. Join this celebration of the 100th anniversary of one of the key birth places of Dada. Talks, multi-media, performance. Re:DADA/Remix--artists exploring new technology to re-work and discover DADA works in the Public Domain. This exhibition premieres at Cabaret Voltaire in April 2016 and is part of a larger evening to celebrate Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, the birthplace of DADA 100 years ago.
To celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Dada movement, born at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, swissnex San Francisco collaborates with partners Doc18 and Kunsthaus Zurich to present the exhibit, website and performances of Re: Dada. Dada’s historic tactics to remix, collage, share, and deconstruct reveal a democratic idea of art that still drives internet, DIY, open source and ‘remix culture’ today. Since many Dada art works are now in the public domain, Doc18 has built an online platform to invite artists, writers and makers to ‘remix’ the digital images, words, sounds and actions. Through the transformation of public Dada art works using 21st century tools and concepts, Re: Dada fosters an exchange between Swiss and US artists. Some artists included in the exhibition: Anna Cholinska, Tom Comitta, Sofia Cordova, Paul Dorn, Jenny O’Dell, Bruno Schlatter and more TBA
Sponsored by Cultural Services of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco and Swissnex
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Day Five
Saturday, November 5, 2016, 12 noon-1:30 p.m.
Dada at Sea Inauguration
Location: Sea Scout Base, Maritime Park, San Francisco Dada at Sea is an interactive floating installation created by Linus Lancaster and Frederick Young with the assistance of art students from Healdsburg High School, University of California Merced, and the San Francisco Art Institute. The structure is comprised of sculptures, radio transmitters, miniature galleries, orgone accumulators. Its location is as virtual as it is literal. It's objective is a critique of Twenty First Century consumer culture and the effect of capital on the human condition. Throughout the course of Dada World Fair the Dada at Sea Project will host events upon the high seas.
visit: https://dadaatsea.wordpress.com/
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Saturday, November 5, 2016, 2:00-6:00 p.m.
Destruction Was Our Beatrice: Dada and the Unmasking of the 20th Century
Location: Lecture Hall, San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut Street, Admission Free
SFAI Lecture Sessions with Marius Hentea, Maria Makela, Adrian Notz, Jed Rasula, Juri Steiner, Adrian Sudhalter.
Opening Statement by Peter Maravelis, City Lights Booksellers
Preface by Andrei Codrescu
Introductions by Adrian Notz
Session One - 2:15 p.m. - Jed Rasula -Title: Poisonous Gifts: Episodes and Legends of Dada - Focusing on several famous episodes from the different environments in which Dada prospered (Zurich, Berlin, New York, Hannover, Paris), Jed Rasula will discuss the role played by faulty information, innuendo, and outright invention in the propagation of Dada's reputation. The title is meant to evoke the famous clothes iron on which Man Ray mounted a series of sharp tacks, which he named Cadeaux or Gift; and, following another linguistic trajectory, the German word Gift means "poison" in English.
Session Two - 2:45 p.m. - Marius Hentea - Title: The Three Vices of Tristan Tzara - Exploring the factors that drove Tzara's creative fire: Poetry, Money, and Sex !
Session Three - 3:20 p.m. - Maria Makela - Title: Dada's Women: Zurich, Berlin, Paris and New York - This talk will explore the role of women in the international Dada movement, both as makers and objects of representation by the male artists with whom they were frequently allied. Was their work essentially different in some way than that of their male counterparts? How did the dynamics of gender play out in the visual culture of this era of women's emancipation and often fraught and complicated male/female relationships?
Session Four - 4:00 p.m. - Jerome Rothenberg - Title: dada & the roots of ethnopoetics - In the emergence of an ethnopoetics, championed by Jerome Rothenberg & others in the 1960s & beyond, Dada loomed large as a predecessor movement & inspiration. With an emphasis on Dada poets like Ball & Tzara, as well as Surrealist successors like Breton & Artaud, Rothenberg will explore & perform what can only be described as a Dada ethnopoetics.
Session Five - 4:45 p.m. - Adrian Sudhalter - Title: Lighting the Censor’s Stove: Censorship, Border Controls, and Dada Encryption - Dada correspondence during and after the war years abounds with mention of the censors as well as with spurious claims to personal illness, which often functioned as coded reference to potential trouble with the authorities. Highlighting episodes such as the border seizure of Francis Picabia’s machine paintings by the French ministry of national defense and the issuing of a police file on Tristan Tzara as a possible spy based on the incomprehensible “coded” language of his journal Dada, this talk considers the degree to which the infrastructure for controlling European civilian populations around the First World War rendered defiant international communication among members of the avant-garde urgent, while necessitating circumventions and double-talk in their letters, which may also have also permeated the linguistic and visual form of their work.
Session Six - 5:30 p.m. - Jed Rasula, Marius Hentea, Adrian Notz, Adrian Sudhalter. Moderator Frederick Young - Title: Dada & the Unmasking of the 20th Century: A Roundtable - An exploration of the politics of Dada.
Sponsored by Basic Books, Cultural Services of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco, The MIT Press San Francisco Art Institute, and Swissnex
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Saturday, November 5, 2016, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
PataDadaHaHa
Location: Canessa Gallery, 708 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, 94111, Admission Free An evening of patadada art, music, dance and fashion brought to us by a wondrous array of special guests. Here’s the lineup, curated for the evening by Dr. Zboon: Beth Custer on clarinet, Allison Loveljoy on accordion, Ernesto Sanchez offering a Mask Dance, Fou Fou Ha offering a Clown Dance, Erik Davis delivering a PataDad Rap, Mary March presenting her DadaDeck of cards, Dr. Sciales offering Fashion Statements, and Dr.s Figurine and Canard on Theramin and Digereedoo.
To learn more visit pataphysics.us
Sponsored by Canessa Gallery and Pataphysical Studios
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Saturday, November 5, 2016, 8:00 p.m. reception, 9:00p.m. presentation
Neo-Dada Collage Exhibition/ John Heartfield Tribute
Location: SF Collage Museum, 50-A Bannam Place, San Francisco, California, (near the corner of Union and Grant Avenue in San Francisco's North Beach) Admission Free, but by invitation only. Invitations at the front counter of City Lights beginning 10/18. Limited seating, first come first serve basis. An exhibit of local collage art inspired by Dada featuring the work of Scott Davis III, David King, John Hundt, Poly Morphous, and Winston Smith. Followed by a presentation of the life, work, and influence of John Heartfield by his grandson John Heartfield. Followed by an interview with Winston Smith and David King.
John Heartfield was an artistic innovator who developed the modern art form of political montage. His influence on the realm of the 20th century Avante-garde has been extensive. He spearheaded vehement attacks on the Nazi party earning him status as a public enemy in the eyes of Hitler. Though Heartfield's work reached millions and he played a central role in Berlin Dada, his place in 20th century art has gone underappreciated. We will explore his life and work with a special emphasis on his techniques and the politics he embraced - fighting the advent of totalitarianism in the 20th century.
Sponsored by Cultural Services of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco and Swissnex
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Day Six
Sunday, November 6, 2016, 12 noon-1:30 p.m.
Jews in Dadaland
Location: Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission Street, San Francisco, 94103
with Mel Gordon, Marius Hentea, moderated by Jed Rasula ($12.00 museum admission)
At the center of one of the most radical 20th Century art movements were the Jewish Romanians Marcel Janco and Tristan Tzara. Their Jewish heritage was of profound importance in shaping their contributions to Dada. Through two lectures and a panel discussion we will explore the Jewish roots of Dada.
Featured talks:
Mel Gordon - Kosher Dada
On the upper edge of the pictorial montage cover of Der Dada #1 (1919) is the Hebrew inscription “KShR,” or Kosher. It was likely a mocking reference by Raoul Hausmann to Dada’s perceived origins: an alien cabal, created by pacifist misfits and cosmopolitan Jews. Most of the Romanian, German, Russian, and American Jews, who comprised about one-quarter of the known Dadas, hid or ignored their ethnic backgrounds but some heightened it. (The Berlin poet Oskar Kanehl billed himself as “Mister Meshugga.”) During the sobering Thirties, cultural apparatchiks from the Romanian nationalist and Nazi parties condemned the entire Dada movement as a “Judeo-Bolshevik” enterprise. This talk reveals the backgrounds of the Jewish Dadas and their camouflaged works.
Marius Hentea - The Romanian Connection
Stateless but modernized, and culturally ahead of their times, Jewish Romanians played an essential role in Dada. Tzara and Janco in particular, but also Arthur Segal, Celine Arnauld, Benjamin Fondane, and Isidore Isou played essential roles in the emergence of the movement. An exploration of the Romanian-Jewish experience and the conditions that led to the creative fire that helped propel Dada.
Sponsored by Basic Books, Contemporary Jewish Museum, and The MIT Press
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Sunday, November 6, 2016, 3:00 p.m.
Cine-Dada
Location: Lecture Hall, San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut Street, Admission Free
Dada on film. Co-sponsored by Goethe Institut San Francisco. Screenings of films produced by key figures in Dada movement. Introduced by Jale Yoldas (Goethe Institut San Francisco)
* DEUTSCHLAND DADA (1969, 61min)
* RHYTHMUS 21 (1921-24), Hans Richter, b/w / silent / 3 min.30
* SYMPHONIE DIAGONALE (1921-24), Viking Eggeling, b/w /
silent / 7 min.
* LE RETOUR A LA RAISON (1923), Man Ray, b/w / silent / 2 min.
* ENTR'ACTE (1924), René Clair und Francis Picabia, b/w
/ w sound / 20 min.
* BALLET MÉCANIQUE (1924), Fernand Léger und Bubley
Murphy, color / w sound / 14 min
* FILMSTUDIE (1926), Hans Richter, b/w / w sound / 3 min.30
* EMAK BAKIA (1926), Man Ray, b/w / w sound / 17 min.
* VORMITTAGSSPUK (1927), Hans Richter, b/w / w sound / 6 min.
Sponsored by Goethe Institut San Francisco and San Francisco Art Institute
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Sunday, November 6, 2016, 6:30 p.m.
Anti-Dada Dada: Kurt Schwitters and Merz
Location: Goethe Institut, 530 Bush Street, Art Lounge (entrance street level), San Francisco, Admission Free with Maria Makela, Jed Rasula, Mel Gordon and Jerome Rothenberg. Moderator: Adrian Notz
with a special presentation of Ursonates by Florian Kaplick
An evening exploration the life and work of one of the most enigmatic and complex artists of the post World War One period. Kurt Schwitters interests encompassed literature, collage, sculpture, architecture, and performance, and placed him at the nexus of several European Avante-gard movements. He was difficult to categorize and his brazen attacks on Nazism earned him the label of degenerate artist. Theorists and artists as broad as Walter Benjamin, Robert Rauschenberg, and Rem Koolhaas have all praised his work. We will explore his creative process, aesthetic development, the philosophy of Schwitter's very own one-man art movement known as "Merz," and his connections to Dada.
Jerome Rothenberg will offer a special presentation titled: pppppp: kurt schwitters’ poetry, performance pieces, proses, plays & poetics. He will draw here from the gathering of Schwitters’ assembled writings produced by himself & Pierre Joris in 1994, which he will both discuss & perform, with Schwitters’ own performances as a model. It was & remains Rothenbergs contention that Schwitters was a major poet & genre-buster, who “pasted words and sentences together in poems ... rhythmic compositions [that] created a kind of drawing ... in order to erase the boundaries between the arts.”
Sponsored by Basic Books, CCA, Cultural Services of the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco, Goethe Institut San Francisco, and Swissnex
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Day Seven
Monday, November 7, 2016, 6:30 p.m.
A Panorama of Berlin Dada
Location: Goethe Institut San Francisco, 530 Bush Street, Art Lounge (entrance street level) San Francisco, 94108, Admission Free
with Thomas Haakenson, Mel Gordon, and Jed Rasula. Moderator: Frederick Young
Dada came into full bloom in the city of Berlin. The sheer creative drive, aggression, and incendiary political agendas exploded onto the art scene sending ripples across Europe. Artists such as Richard Huelsenbeck, Raoul Haussmann, Hannah Hoch, John Heartfield, Wieland Herzfelde, George Groz, Walter Mehring, Franz Jung, and many others all played a part. Through exhibits, manifestos, staged lectures, poetry readings, and performances the Berlin Dadaists developed radical political and aesthetic stances that attacked artistic conventions, reactionary political views such as Nazism, and capitalism itself.
Three Sessions followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by Frederick Young
Session One - Thomas Haakenson - Title: The Science of Berlin Dada - Dada's fascination with disruption and revolution led the group's members to explore all areas of everyday life. Chief among these "non-artistic" fascinations was science and, more specifically, the methodologies and assumptions of empirical scientific research. Dada science, in contrast, was weird science--of the best, most exciting variety. In this talk, Haakenson examines the explorations into the realms of science by members of Berlin Dada. From sense physiology to sexology, from the workings of the mind to the trappings of the body, Haakenson examines how Dada's efforts at subterfuge exposed and challenged science in the most playful, productive of ways.
Session Two - Mel Gordon - Title: Dada Berlin: A History Of Performance 1918-1920 - In the years 1918, 1919, and 1920, the Berlin Dada movement, mounting less than thirty productions, exerted a formidable, if indirect, influence over the development of the German Theater. This influence wold later lead to the dismantling of Expressionism as the dominant theatrical force in Central Europe. Retooling the theories and performance techniques they inherited from the Futurists and the Zurich Dadas to their own specifications, the Berlin Dadas introduced the use of pure -onomatopeotic or vowel-sound and abstract movement, improvisation, simultaneous and illogical actions, vernal and physical assault on the spectator, anti-illusionist scenic design, and the incorporation of popular entertainments, such as cabaret and cinema, into German performance. The Berlin Dadas laid the foundations for many of the anti-illusionist movements of the post-World War One era -Piscator's Epic Theater, the agitational reviews of the German Communist Party (KDP), Oscar Schlemmer's theater workshop at the Bau Haus, the constructivist experiments of El Lissitzky and Frederick Kiesler in in Hanover and Vienna, and Jiri Frejka's Devetsil group in Prague.
Session Three - Jed Rasula - Title: Club Dada in Print - Club Dada in Berlin was a mock-earnest organization, ostensibly addressing everything from the political crisis to social hygiene and sexual dysfunction. The primary medium of Club Dada was its publication, Der Dada. This was one of several periodicals, including Jedermann sein eigner Fußball, Der blutige Ernst and Die Pleite, that epitomize the aggressive wit of Dada in Berlin. Typographic ingenuity, combined with the calculated visual assault of photomontage, characterize these ventures. There were other publications as well, including books by Raoul Hausmann, Walter Mehring, and George Grosz, extending even to Flanders in the flamboyant and provocative work of Paul van Ostaijen, who frequented the Dada activities in Berlin.
Sponsored by Basic Books, CCA, Goethe Institut San Francisco
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Day Eight
Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 12 Noon
Dada at Sea
Location: Sea Scout Base, Maritime Park, San Francisco
A special Election Day presentation with guest speakers, manifestos delivered with passion and zeal, with the ongoing exhibit and boat tours.
visit: https://dadaatsea.wordpress.com/
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Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
Andrei Codrescu on Dada
Location: Lecture Hall, San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut Street, Admission Free
Andre Codrescu will demonstrate, in his words, "the deeper unmentionables of dada activism through synesthetic art jiu jitsu." Born in Sibiu, Romania, Codrescu explores politics and society as a poet, novelist, essayist and filmmaker. Widely known as a commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered, he returned to his native Romania in 1989 to cover the collapse of the dictatorship for NPR and ABC News. He has written over forty books, including The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess (Princeton University Press, 2009), and is a winner of the Peabody Award and the Ovidius Prize.
This event is part of the Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series at the San Francisco Art Institute. The Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series (VAS) provides a public forum for engagement and dialogue with major figures in international contemporary art and culture. Through lectures, screenings, and performances, the series creates intimate connections between SFAI, artists, and the public.
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Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 8:00 p.m.
Dada Haus: A DeElection Night Soiree
Location: Undisclosed; within San Francisco city limits and accessible by public transit. Unfortunately, not all areas within Dada House are wheelchair accessible. Location to be revealed via phone number on invitation. Invitations to be released on 10/18 and are available only at the front counter of City Lights on a first come, first serve basis. Admission: $15-50 sliding scale to be collected at venue. All proceeds to be redistributed amongst the artists. A fully enclosed environment that immerses the participant’s senses and short-circuits consensus reality. Dada House exists both inside and outside the maddening spectre of American electoral politics. Three stories of art, sound, and performance are sure to madden and delight the thronging crowds. Featuring performances by Hazy Loper, Kingdom of Not, Peter Whitehead, MOM, Ted Nugget and the Shamboy Pukes, Jenny B Shady Lady, and more tba. Art and non-art works by the Secret Alley, Jesse Roadkill, Chris Love, Mason Jairo Olaya-Smith, Davenzane Hayes, Zach Von Joo, and many to come.
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Day Nine
Wednesday, November 9, 2016, 6:00 p.m.
Lost Profiles: A Parisian Dada Salon
Location: Mechanics' Institute Library, 57 Post Street, 4rth Floor, San Francisco, 94104
Release Party for Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, by Philippe Soupault, published by City Lights Books. With editor Garett Caples, translator and poet Alan Bernheimer joined by Mark Calkins and Abigail Susik offering special presentations on the history of Parisian Dada. (Public $15.00, Members Free)
Musician Amy X. Neuburg will be presenting a special musical tribute in honor of the 100th anniversary of Dada at evening's end. The concert will feature Amy X. Neuburg performing with percussionist Moe! Staiano and follows the Lost Profiles program. Neuburg offers her unique 21st century contribution to Dadaism mixing stellar vocals, word poems, and electronic layering.
About Lost Profiles: Memoirs of Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism:
A French literary classic since its 1962 publication, Lost Profiles is a retrospective of a crucial period in modernism, written by co-founder of the surrealist movement, Philippe Soupault. Beginning with a reminiscence of the Parisian branch of the international Dada movement in the late 1910s, and its transformation into surrealism, Lost Profiles ushers readers into encounters with a variety of literary lions. We meet an elegant Marcel Proust, renting five adjoining rooms at an expensive hotel to “contain” the silence needed to produce A Remembrance of Things Past; an exhausted James Joyce putting himself through grueling translation sessions for Ulysses; and an enigmatic Apollinaire in search of the ultimate objet trouvé. Soupault sketches lively portraits of surrealist precursors like Pierre Reverdy and Blaise Cendrars, a moving account of his tragic fellow surrealist René Crevel, and the story of his unlikely friendship with right-wing anti-Vichy critic George Bernanos. The collection ends with essays on two modernist forerunners, Charles Baudelaire and Henri Rousseau. With an afterward by Ron Padgett recounting his meeting with Soupault in the late ’60s and an informative translator’s preface, Lost Profiles confirms Soupault’s place in the vanguard of twentieth century literature.
Philippe Soupault (1897-1990) served in the French army during WWI and subsequently joined the Dada movement. In 1919, he collaborated with André Breton on the automatic text Les Champs magnétiques, the foundation of the surrealist movement. In the years that followed, he wrote novels and journalism, directed Radio Tunis in Tunisia, and worked for UNESCO.
Sponsored by City Lights Booksellers and the Mechanics' Institute Library
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Day Ten
Thursday, November 10, 2016, 6:00 p.m.
Bastard Children of Dada: Happenings, Fluxus, Mail Art, Punk, and beyond..
Location: Latino Room, Main Branch, San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin St. San Francisco, Admission Free
with Emily Hage, John Law, Winston Smith, Kal Spelletich, and V. Vale, moderated by Peter Maravelis (City Lights) Dada's influence upon the 20th century avante-garde has been immeasurable. It's political and aesthetic stance, as well as its confrontational approach to the art world and bourgeois sensibilities, has spread widely amongst artists, musicians, writers, poets, and performers. From the Beat Generation to Punk and beyond, Dada's "bastard children" are with us to this day. Five voices that are firmly embedded in the theory, history, and practice of the avante garde will explore the artistic movements that followed Dada into the 21st century.
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Thursday, November 10, 2016, 8:00 p.m.
Three Rooms Press presents A Dada Seance
Location: Meet at City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus Avenue. Wanders through North Beach from there. Admission Free.
The founders of Dada are ready to travel from the spirit world to the Dada World Fair during a DADA SÉANCE through the streets of North Beach—complete with Dada toy instrument marching band; costumes encouraged! Starting at City Lights we’ll conjure up Dada Manifesto creator Tristan Tzara; at Vesuvio’s we’ll summon the great Dada boxer/poet Arthur Cravan; at Grant’s Tomb on Bannam Alley we’ll awaken the spirit of Dada leading lady Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven; at a secret location we’ll recall the legendary Hugo Ball; then we’ll wind up at Specs’ Twelve Adler Museum Café to witness the materialization of the great Marcel Duchamp, with special guest. The evening is sponsored by Three Rooms Press, publisher of the annual journal of contemporary Dada writing and art, MAINTENANT. For additional details: info@threeroomspress.com
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Thursday, November 10, 2016, 9:30 p.m.
Urania Descending: American Premier of a new film from Tav Falco
Location: Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94103 (Admission $10.00)
Tav Falco appearing in person with opening statement by Robin Walz (author of Pulp Surrealism:Insolent Popular Culture in Early Twentieth-Century Paris, co-creator of the Fantomas Website)
The first feature film by Tav Falco is a motion picture that represents the inverted neo-romanticism of a timeless American underground adrift in Europe. An American girl, Gina Lee is an alienated and disaffected female who has become disenchanted with hometown strip malls, sleaze bars, and rides along the river-side in her BMW. Impulsively she buys a discount airline ticket in a shopping mall travel agency. Destination: Vienna, the merry/sinister imperial city on the Danube. Gina Lee quickly slips into discreet, yet decadent dalliances at Cafe Central and at the notorious Hotel Orient, where she becomes embroiled in an intrigue to uncover buried Nazi plunder. Her tragic liaison with rakish Karl Heinz Von Riegl results in her submersion beneath the dark waters of Lake Atter, yet her ultimate fate remains unresolved. This is a black&white film poem infused with metaphor and mood, where the past overtakes the present, and the present overtakes the past.
Tav Falco is an American-born musical performer, actor, filmmaker, and photographer. He moved to Vienna in the late 1990s then to Paris 2002. The complete collection of short films by Falco are archived in Cinémathèque Française, and a retrospective of his films were presented in the Georges Franju salle of the Cinémathèque in 2006.
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Day Eleven
Friday, November 11, 2016, 12 noon
Dada at Sea
Location: Sea Scout Base, Maritime Park, San Francisco Ongoing exhibit and boat tours.
visit: https://dadaatsea.wordpress.com/
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Friday, November 11, 2016, Doors 7:00 p.m. , 8:00 p.m., etc.
DADA to CACA and BEYOND…..
Location: Undisclosed. Admission $25 per person. Ticket availability through BrownPaperTickets. Please visit the following blog post for more information on the event and a partial list of the collaborators: https://johnwlaw.com/2016/11/01//dada-to-caca-and-beyond/
This event is participatory, immersive and, depending upon your limitations, physically and emotionally, VERY INTENSE AND DEMANDING.
You must be in good physical shape and be able to crawl 100’ in the dark.
You must not be claustrophobic or afraid of the dark.
You must be 21 years of age.
You must not have any outstanding warrants.
DADA to CACA and BEYOND.... is produced by artists and organizations that are present in the San Francisco Dada underground. Some of these artists and organizations are (and will remain) secret. The unifying factor might be some connection past present or future with the philosophy of Cacophony. Or it might not…..
The Cacophony Society was a randomly gathered network of individuals united in the pursuit of experiences beyond the pale of mainstream society through subversion, pranks, art, fringe explorations and the challenging of concensus reality. Some former members are reputedly involved in this impending affront to bourgeoise sensibilities.
A partial list of the colaborators includes: Albert Kong, Akshay Sawhnay, Ariana Campellone, Big Daddy Tim Anderson, Devin “Devo”Lozano, Doc Pop, Dominic Santiago, Dr. Hal Robins, Eddie Codel, Ed Holmes, Eugene Ashton-Gonzales, Frog Gilmore, Gio Mordukhovich, Irene Zhou, Jarico Reese, Jason “Sly” Sylvester, Jason Wilson, joshu a. deLeon, Katy Bell, KrOB, John Law, Laura M. S. deLeon, Loid Mongoloid, Paige Saez , Phoenix Firestarter, Rena Tom, Rose Harden, Shalaco Wordsmith, and Whitney Deatherage.
Participants attending this event must not be claustrophobic or afraid of the dark. Must be in relatively good physical shape and should wear comfortable shoes. Respondents should not have any outstanding warrants for their arrest.
SF Cacaphony and its agents are soley responsible for the content of this happening. City Lights is not connected with the production of this event.
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Friday, November 11, 2016, Doors 8:30 p.m. to midnight, performance ongoing.
The Kal Spelletich Experience
Location: 1043 Marin Street, San Francisco, California, 94124, between 3rd and Illionois Streets, Admission: $15-20, sliding scale. No reservations required.
Master machine artist Kal Spelletich presents an evening of revery exposing his inner dada-ist. A variety of devices will be displayed and in motion for your viewing pleasure.
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Day Twelve
Saturday, November 12, 2016, 12 noon
Dada at Sea
Location: Sea Scout Base, Maritime Park, San Francisco Dada @ Sea continues its etheric explorations and communications with bygone airmen and mariners. Boat tours, sculptures, exhibits.
visit: https://dadaatsea.wordpress.com/
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Saturday, November 12, 2016, 3:00 p.m.
Dada's Tangled Roots
Location: Weinstein Gallery, 444 Clementina Street, San Francisco, 94103, Admission Free
Jim Nisbet and Kim Gill reading from Baudelaire, someone from Pataphysical Studios reading from Alfred Jarry, Will Alexander reading from Lautréamont, Robin Walz reading from Raymond Roussel, and Andrew Joron reading from Paul Scheerbart, Garrett Caples reading from Mallarme, and Kit Schluter reading from Marcel Schwob. An afternoon of readings examining the seminal influences upon Dada by key 19th century poets, playrights, and writers.
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Saturday, November 12, 2016, Doors 8:00 p.m., presentations 8:30 p.m.
Dada Bordello
Location: Odd Fellows Hall, 26 7th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103 (Market & 7th Street) Admission is free, but ticket availability is limited. Tickets become available at City Lights Bookstore on 10/18. No reservations taken over the phone or internet.
An evening of carnivalesque burlesque capping off two weeks of divine madness. A kind of mini-Dada Ball following in footsteps of Cabaret Voltaire, we tread the fine line between weirdness and epiphany. Conspiracy of Beards, Poetics of Narrative, Will Alexander, Baruch, Luciano Chessa, Cara Rose DeFabio, Jack Foley in duet with Helen Wendy Loo, Slow Poisoner, Allison Lovejoy, Ledoh, and Stoo Odom.
Sponsored by City Lights Booksellers and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
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Day Thirteen
Sunday, November 13, 2016, 12 Noon
Dada @ Sea
Location: Sea Scout Base, Maritime Park, San Francisco
Decommissioning Ceremony and performance. Dada @ Sea bids farewell to the Bay as it embarks upon it’s larger mission of expanding its reach into internationa waters. Come join the the festivities as the project decomissions itself into another dimension.
visit: https://dadaatsea.wordpress.com/
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Sunday, November 13, 2016, Doors 3:00 p.m.
CONVULSIVE INVESTIGATIONS: FUTURIST PATHOLOGIES, PAST AND PRESENT
Location: Undisclosed and secret. Come to the front counter at City Lights and ask for a slip of paper. No reservations taken or information given over the phone or internet.
An afternoon with Matt Heckert and Kal Spelletich, moderated by Peter Maravelis
A dismemberment of the carcasses of Futurist, Dada, and 20th Century Avante-Garde tendencies.
Sponsored by the Catharine Clark Gallery
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Sunday, November 13, 2016, Doors 7:30 p.m., Performance 8:00 p.m.
The Dada Divas
Location: Swissnex, Pier 17, San Francisco, 94111 (Admission: $10.00 online, $15.00 at the door, students are free, tickets available in advance through Swissnex website)
Dada Divas unearths and re-imagines the stories and creative works of important female artists and performers who were among the originators of the Dada movement: Emmy Hennings, Mina Loy, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Hannah Höch, and others. It illuminates historical and artistic contributions by women who were overshadowed by their male counterparts, and also comments on such larger issues as the status of women, emigrée life, war, and other concerns that are as relevant today as they were when Dada erupted a century ago. The performance is comprised of musical and theatrical vignettes and interludes. All the work’s major aspects—compositional processes, scenic design, staging, costuming—are based on its protagonists’ lives, performances, artistic works, and movements in which they were involved. Every vignette illustrates and amplifies aspects of Dada, Futurism, and the creative processes that these women used in their own work, which are refreshed by incorporating aspects of today’s musical palette that are descendants of those processes. With Jacqueline Bobak, Carmina Escobar, and Micaela Tobin.
Sponsored by CALARTS and Swissnex
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Most events are free to the public unless otherwise noted. Some events are free but ticketed. Some have exorbitant admission fees and vague instructions on how to attend. Seating and attendance will be on a first-come, first-serve basis for all. Some events that require ticketing will have a link attached to the event venue that will take you to the reservation portal once clicked or other instructions. Consult each event'scalendar listing for instructions.
Dada World Fair is a work in progress. Some of these events are fluid and some are more solid. Some of the fluid ones are more solid than the ones that are solid. The itinerary will be changing regularly. Please consult this calendar for updates. If you have questions or desire additional information please contact us at: staff @citylights.com. Thank you.
