Tzara boots.

Look at me!
I am an idiot, I am farce, I am a smoker
Look at me!
I am ugly, my face lacks expression, I am short.
I am like all of you! (1)

(1) I wanted to advertise myself a little.

In Romanian, an advertisement is called “reclamă”— and there is always a bit of excitement for me when translating Tzara’s Dada years, when his French was still hypercoagulated with Romanian verbs and idioms.

reclame

1. inflection of reclamă (“advertisement”):

   1. nominative/accusative indefinite plural

   2. genitive indefinite singular

reclame

1. third-person singular/plural subjunctive of reclama (“to report”)

Obviously, Tristan Tzara (and Dada) was deeply invested in revealing the dishonesty of newspapers and media, where what got reported was often a scandal that distracted the miserable veterans or citizens of industrial capitalism from the numbing boredom of their factory-driven lives. And so perhaps the “report” that tangles with the “advertisement” amuses me, even as it sashays through my imagination, straight into the unfinished parts of Benjamin’s Arcades, where I look for traces of Tzara’s footsteps in the Zurich-Berlin-Paris pipeline of the early 20th century.

Man Ray, “Tristan Tzara” (1921)

When Man Ray arrived in Paris in 1921, Tzara quickly became his guide. This photo of Tzara was taken in Man Ray's room on the rue de la Condamine (next door to his friend Marcel Duchamp).

I keep looking at Tzara’s boots, solidly placed at the top rung of the ladder, as a sculpture-object dangles above his head. According to the Met, “the photograph shows one of his violent sculpture-objects (such as the pistol-with-magnet entitled Compass of two years earlier) dangling over the poet, who coolly ignores his doubly assured destruction with the wave of a cigarette.”

Upon learning that this photo “was also SANDWICH PRINTED by the artist with another image featuring a giant topless female model looming imperiously over the morbid proceedings,” Walter Benjamin’s SANDWICHMAN came to mind.

“But, above all, Tristan avoids the abyss of shoes. “ (Man Ray, 1922)

As for “morbid proceedings”— nonsense. Show me what’s morbid in Ray’s sandwich prints!

I think of the warmth spun by the word
Around its center the dream called ourselves
— Tristan Tzara, L’homme aproximatif

Tristan Tzara, “Dada Manifesto 1918”

”Two caricatures of Diaghilev and Nijinski which have just been done by the Parisian poet, Jean Cocteau, are another manifestation of what we call in France ‘INGRES’ VIOLIN.’ Ingres, who was a great painter but a mediocre violinist, had a contrary conception of his own talents. ‘Ingres' violin’ is thus not a musical instrument, but the nickname for a habit which artists have developed of experimenting in other fields of art than their own. Cocteau's caricature of Nijinski was made when the latter was still among us.”

— Tristan Tzara, “What We Are Doing in Europe” (Vanity Fair, September 1922)

Francis Picabia

Man Ray

Tristan Tzara

Francis Picabia in 1951 by Michael Sima.

working chronos of no opportunity

1913-1916
Hans (Jean) Arp. Neue französische Malerei. 1913.
Arthur Cravan. “Oscar Wilde est vivant!” Maintenant, no. 3, October-November 1913, p. 1-26.
Arthur Cravan. “L'exposition des indépendants.” Maintenant, no. 4, March-April 1914, p. 1-20.
Francis Picabia. “Portrait d’une jeune fille americaine dans l’état de nudité.” 291, no. 5-6, July-August 1915, p. 4.
Francis Picabia. “Canter.” 291, no. 5-6, July-August 1915, p. 2.
Francis Picabia. “Ici, c’est ici Stieglitz foi et amour.” 291, no. 5-6, July-August 1915, p. 1.
Tristan Tzara. La première aventure céléste de Mr. Antipyrine. 1916.

1917
Francis Picabia. “Convulsions frivoles.” 391, no. 2, 10 February 1917, p. 1.
Marcel Janco. “Construction 3” and “Relief A7”. Dada, no. 1, July 1917.
Hans Arp. “Bois” and “Bois”. Dada, no. 1, July 1917, p. 7 and 15.
Hans Arp. “Broderie”. Dada, no. 1, July 1917, p. 1.
Tristan Tzara. “Pays voir blanc.” Dada, no. 1, July 1917, p. 10.
Hans Arp. “Tableau en papier.” Dada, no. 2, December 1917, p. 3.
Tristan Tzara. “Printemps: à h. arp.” Dada, no. 2, December 1917, p. 16.

1918
Francis Picabia. L'athlète des pompes funèbres. 1918.
Tristan Tzara. Vingt-cinq poèmes. Illustrated by Hans Arp. 1918.
Francis Picabia. Poèmes et dessins se la fille née sans mère. Paris, 1918.
Tristan Tzara. “Bois Parlant ou Intelligible.” Sic, no. 28, April 1918, p. 4.
Tristan Tzara. “Bulletin.” Dada, no. 3, December 1918, p. 14.
Tristan Tzara. “Calendrier.” Dada, no. 3, December 1918, p. 15.
Tristan Tzara. [“Guillaume Apollinaire…”]. Dada, no. 3, December 1918, p. 7.
Hans Richter. “Bois” and “Bois”. Dada, no. 3, December 1918, p. 6-7.

1919
Jacques Vaché. Lettres de guerre. 1919.
Francis Picabia. Pensées sans langage. Paris, 1919.
Emmy Hennings. Gefängnis. 1919.
Tristan Tzara. “Exegèse sucre en poudre sage.” 391, no. 8, February 1919, p. 5.
Francis Picabia. “C'est assez banal.” 391, no. 8, February 1919, p. 6.
John Heartfield. Die Pleite, no. 2. Berlin 1919.
John Heartfield. Die Pleite, no. 3. Berlin, April 1919.
Tristan Tzara. “Boxe.” Sic, no. 42-43, 30 March-15 April 1919, p. 325.
Hans Richter. “Portrait macabre.” Dada, no. 4/5, 15 May 1919 , p. 11.
Hans Arp. "[Holzschnitte]” and “[Holzschnitte]” and [Holzschnitte]. Dada, no. 4/5, 15 May 1919, cover, pp. 14, 29.
Hans Richter. “Bois.” Dada, no. 4/5, 15 May 1919 , p. 9.
Tristan Tzara. “Ange.” Der Dada, no. 1, June 1919, p. 8.
Jacques Vaché. “Lettres de Jacques Vaché”. Littérature, no. 5, July 1919, p. 1-8. [Correspondence with Breton, Fraenkel.]
Jacques Vaché. “Lettres de Jacques Vaché”. Littérature, no. 6, August 1919, p. 10-16. [Correspondence with Breton, Fraenkel.]
Jacques Vaché. “Lettres de Jacques Vaché.” Littérature, no. 7, September 1919, p. 13-17.  [Correspondence with Aragon, Breton.]
Tristan Tzara. “Noblesse galvanisée.” Littérature, no. 8, October 1919, p. 11.
Tristan Tzara. “Atrocités d'Arthur et Trompette et Scaphandrier.” Littérature, no. 9, November 1919, p. 24-25.
Tristan Tzara. “Lettre ouverte à Jacques Rivière.” Littérature, no. 10, December 1919, p. 2-5.
Tristan Tzara. “Pic(3f9pl)bia.” Littérature, no. 10, December 1919, p. 28.
Hans Arp. “[Construction]”. 391, no. 8, 1919, p. 2.

1920
Hans (Jean) Arp. Die Wolkenpumpe. 1920.
Francis Picabia. Jesus-Christ rastaquouère. Paris, 1920.
Francis Picabia. Unique eunuque. Paris, 1920.
John Heartfield. Die Pleite, no. 6. Berlin, January 1920.
Tristan Tzara. “Mauvais désirs clé du vertige.” Z, no. 1, March 1920, p. 3.
Tristan Tzara. “Monsieur Aa soumis à la taxe.” Dada, no. 7, March 1920, p. 5.
Tristan Tzara. “La queue du diable est une bicyclette.” Dada, no. 7, March 1920, p. 2.
Francis Picabia. Cannibale no. 1, Paris, 25 April, 1920.
Hans Arp. “Manifeste du Crocrodarium Dada.” Littérature, no. 13, May 1920, p. 12.
Tristan Tzara. “Tristan Tzara.” Littérature, no. 13, May 1920, p. 2-4.
Francis Picabia. Cannibale no. 2. Paris, May 1920.
Hans Arp. De “La pompe des Nuages”. Littérature, no. 14, June 1920, p. 23.
Man Ray. “Lampshade.” 391, no. 13, July 1920, p. 4.
Francis Picabia. “L'oeil froid.” 391, no. 13, July 1920, p. 4.
Tristan Tzara. “Monsieur Aa l'antiphilosophie nous envoie ce manifest.” 391, no. 13, July 1920, p. 3.
Benjamin Peret. “Assassiner.” Littérature, no. 15, July-August 1920, p. 19-20.
Tristan Tzara. “Lorsque les chiens traversent l'air....” Littérature, no. 16, September-October 1920, p. 9
Man Ray. “Admiration of the orchestrelle for the cinematograph.” 391, no. 14, November 1920, p. 6.
Tristan Tzara. “Une nuit d'échecs gras.” 391, no. 14, November 1920, p. 4.
Francis Picabia. “Notre-Dame-de-la-peinture.” 391, no. 14, November 1920, p. 4.
Tristan Tzara. “Souscrivez à Dada.” Littérature, no. 17, December 1920, p. 20.

1921
Tristan Tzara. “Syllogisme colonial.” Littérature, no. 18, March 1921, p. 16.

1922
Tristan Tzara. Coeur à barbe. Paris, 1922.
Man Ray. Automaton. Aventure, no. 3, January 1922, p. 17.
Tristan Tzara. “Réalités cosmiques vanille tabac eveils.” Aventure, no. 3, January 1922, p. 7-12.
Tristan Tzara. “[“Je voudrais bien être Marinetti!..”]. from Le Coeur à barbe, no. 1, 1922, p. 5.
Tristan Tzara. “Note sur le Comte de Lautréamont ou le Cri.” Littérature, n.s., no. 1, 1 March 1922 , p. 20.
Tristan Tzara. “J'ai vu : l'homme qui se dégonfle, à l'Olympia.” Littérature, n.s., no. 1, 1 March 1922 , p. 15.
Benjamin Peret. “Ma main dans la bière.” Littérature, n.s. no. 1, 1 March 1922 , p. 2.
Man Ray. “Voici le domaine de Rose Sélvay....” Littérature, n.s. no. 5, 1 October 1922 , insert.
Benjamin Peret. “A travers mes yeux.” Littérature, n.s. no. 5, 1 October 1922 , p. 13.
Benjamin Peret. “Le langage des saints.” Littérature, n.s. no. 7, 1 December 1922 , p. 2.

1923
Man Ray. “Monsieur..., inventeur, constructeur, 6 seconds.” Littérature, n.s. no. 9, 1 February- 1 March 1923 , insert.
Tristan Tzara with Kurt Schwitters. “L'arriviste Tristan Tzara va cultiver ses vices: un interview.” Merz, no. 4, July 1923, p. 38, 40.
Tristan Tzara. “Je sors de mon appartement somptueux.” Merz, no. 4, July 1923, p. 35.
Sophie Taueber-Arp. “[Dada Head]”. Merz , no. 6, October 1923, p. 63.

1924-1930
Francis Picabia. “Opinions et portraits.” 391, no. 19, October 1924, p. 2.
E. L. T. Mesens. Garage. Score illustrated by Man Ray. 1926.

And of course, this began a few months ago, when I happened to see Hans Arp’s Fruit (Coupes ou Fruit) at the New Orleans Museum of Art —- and began a notebook that brought me back to Dada, which reminds me how much has been elided in various arguments about the avant-garde (where the avant-garde often imagines itself to be the vanguard as opposed to fellow humans in solidarity with others)— all of which, of course, requires a song that feels Dada in context, particularly given the absolute shit of the Trump spectacle and the abiding defiance of laughter.

the inferno of tomorrow’s laughter
— Tristan Tzara, “Espagne 1936”

“it’s what you hearin’”

Sources
The International Dada Archive at University of Iowa.
Man Ray Trust.
Arp Museum.
Picabia Committee.
Three issues of Der Dada. Edited by Raoul Hausmann, John Heartfield, and George Grosz. 1919-1920.
Die Pleite archives through 1924.
First issue of Dada, as edited by Tzara in Zurich, July 1917.
Blue Mountain Project with issues of Dada.