DADA - ROMANIAN AVANT-GARDE

Today I want to present some fundamental informations about Romanian avant-garde, Dadaism and Tristan Tzara, founder of the worldwide DADA movement. This topic is extremely important to me, because I extremly appreciate the experimental literature of the 20th century. I hope this will help you learn more about the avant-garde phenomenon which in fact has its roots in Romania. 


Tristan Tzara, also previously known as Samuel Rosenstock, was one of the leading representatives of the avant-garde of the 20th century. He was born to a small Jewish family in a village called Moinești. Initially, he worked in the field of symbolism, but then moved abroad to Switzerland where his literary career began. His activities on the stage in Zurich with Cabaret Voltaire led to the fact that Dada which was a gathering of several people turned into an international movement, inscribing itself in the pages of art history for many various reasons. As an adolescent boy from Romania, he delivered many changes in style of art. His avant-garde collective led to a successful revolution in thinking about art that began to be perceived in other categories. Therefore, alternative means of aesthetic expression have emerged: manifestos, collages, performances and happenings that have already been used by Dadaists, even if they were classified and defined much later. Their most significant goal was unlimited creative freedom, that's why the Dadaists — above all Tristan Tzara — wanted to get rid of artistic conventions.


Interestingly, the representatives of the Romanian avant-garde were principally artists of Jewish origin: Tristan Tzara (even if he created in Switzerland or France), Marcel Iancu, Arthur Segal, Ion Vinea, Ilarie Voronca, Benjamin Fundoianu or Victor Brauner. We can also consider that Dada was already born in Romania because the entire heritage of Jewish culture was brought to Switzerland by Tzara or the Iancu brothers. Exclusion from society in the form of ostracism has contributed to the creation of an international movement which wanted to be above divisions because times were particularly hard, mainly due to the war and constantly increasing anti-semitism.

Although the Dada movement ended in the 1920s, it contributed to the development of surrealism, partially created by the aforesaid artists. To sum up, they undoubtedly transformed the face of modern aesthetics, performing an significant role in the rejection of traditionally understood art.