> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A Digital Art Tribute to Dada Gets an IRL Gallery Show - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/dada-net-art-galerie-charlot-paris/ - Published: 2017-10-04T16:40:57.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:56:26.000Z - Description: Launched in 2015, Dadaclub.online made high-quality scans of three dozen Dada works available for reinterpretation by new media artists. Now, 27 of the resulting remixes are on view in Paris. - Author: Joseph Nechvatal - Tags: Art, Dada, GIF, Paris, Review, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:30(2016, 2017, part 3) ![Installation view of Dadaclub.online at Galerie Charlot (courtesy Galerie Charlot)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/10/installation-view-man-ray.jpg) Installation view of Dadaclub.online at Galerie Charlot (courtesy Galerie Charlot) PARIS — In late 2015, in anticipation of the centennial of [Dada’s](https://hyperallergic.com/219063/we-need-a-new-skin-color-the-racial-imagination-of-dada/) founding, Italian curator [Fabio Paris](https://twitter.com/fabioparis1?lang=en&ref=hyperallergic.com) offered to the online world the possibility of downloading high-resolution digital files of original Dada works: 21 [two-dimensional works](http://dadaclub.online/2d-scans/?ref=hyperallergic.com), 12 [magazine covers](http://dadaclub.online/magazine-covers/?ref=hyperallergic.com), and 3D scans of [three sculptures](http://dadaclub.online/3d-scans/?ref=hyperallergic.com). The works, all drawn from the Campiani collection of Carlo Clerici, were intended to be remixed and shared back to the [Link Art Center](http://www.linkartcenter.eu/about?ref=hyperallergic.com), a nomadic digital art gallery based in [Brescia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brescia?ref=hyperallergic.com), Italy. The resulting online art project, [*dadaclub.online*](http://dadaclub.online/?ref=hyperallergic.com), yielded 148 digital artworks that supposedly treasure Dada indeterminacy. ![Inhye Lee, "Plus Belle Haleine" (2016), animated GIF (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/10/inhye-lee-plus-belle-haleine.gif) Inhye Lee, “Plus Belle Haleine” (2016), animated GIF (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online) A selection of the project’s Dada tributes, curated by Valentina Peri and also titled [*dadaclub.online*](https://www.galeriecharlot.com/en/expo/142/Dadaclubonline-Paris?ref=hyperallergic.com), is currently on view at [Galerie Charlot](https://www.galeriecharlot.com/en/?ref=hyperallergic.com), where she blends pieces by 27 digital artists’ responses with their Dada precursors. These contemporary works are installed in heterogeneous fashion (mixing screens with prints) as a stream that flows from each of the six Dada pieces included (three of which are by Man Ray) in a progressive path. As such, the show marks an interesting contrast to art historian’s Maria Stavrinaki’s discussion of Dada’s “continuous now.” In her recent book, [*Dada Presentism: An Essay on Art and History*](https://hyperallergic.com/the-dada-gaze-into-the-eternal-now/), Stavrinaki made the case that “Dadaist presentism revolted against any commemorative appropriation of a flawlessly coherent history.” For her, real Dada deals with contingency, chance, and uncertainty. ![Installation view of Dadaclub.online at Galerie Charlot (courtesy Galerie Charlot)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/10/installation-view-paul-citroen.jpg) Installation view of Dadaclub.online at Galerie Charlot (courtesy Galerie Charlot) ![Vuk Cosic, "Psychodada" (2016) digital image (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/10/vuk-cosic-psychodada.jpg) Vuk Cosic, “Psychodada” (2016) digital image (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online) While it’s hard to find in [remix culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix%5Fculture?ref=hyperallergic.com) much of the anti-bourgeois nonsense, noise, and irrationality of original Dada presentism, it is true at least that most of the works here utilize Dada photomontage: the process (and result) of making a composite image by cutting and joining a number of other images. Two of my preferred examples of this are [Vuk Cosic’s](http://www.ljudmila.org/~vuk/?ref=hyperallergic.com) green digital print “[Psychodada](http://dadaclub.online/2016/02/05/26/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (2016) and [Inhye Lee’s](http://www.inhyelee.com/portfolio/?ref=hyperallergic.com) swank animated GIF, “[Plus Belle Haleine](http://dadaclub.online/2016/08/18/inhye-lee/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (2016). Both play off Man Ray’s “Belle Haleine” (1920), which featured one of his earliest portraits of Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp in drag), and which Duchamp in turn made into a label for a perfume bottle for his artwork “[Belle Haleine, Eau de Voilette](http://www.toutfait.com/unmaking%5Fthe%5Fmuseum/Belle%20Haleine.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (“Beautiful Breath, Veil Water,” 1921). This play of mélange, appropriation, and tribute sets the stage for the entire show. ![Evan Roth, "stereopticon" (2016), GIF animation (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/10/evan-roth-stereopticon.gif) Evan Roth, “stereopticon” (2016), GIF animation (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online) *Dadaclub.online* also offered up images of other original oeuvres by Duchamp, Man Ray, [Paul Citroën](http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/dadas/citroen.htm?ref=hyperallergic.com), and [Lazlo Moholy-Nagy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3%5FMoholy-Nagy?ref=hyperallergic.com) (who, in Berlin in 1920, began creating photomontages and collages influenced by the Dadaists [Raoul Hausmann](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul%5FHausmann?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [Hannah Höch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah%5FH%C3%B6ch?ref=hyperallergic.com)), but it’s missing some important contributions. [John Heartfield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%5FHeartfield?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [George Grosz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%5FGrosz?ref=hyperallergic.com) were especially instrumental in making photomontage into a modern art form, and from 1930 to 1938 Heartfield created dazzling anti-fascist [photomontages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%5FHeartfield?ref=hyperallergic.com#/media/File:Heartfield%5FHitler%5FSalute.jpg) that critiqued the Third Reich. Offering these up for remixing could have proved very relevant in our troubled [Trump](https://hyperallergic.com/peter-saul-fake-news-mary-boone-2017/) times. Other major Dada masters of photomontage missing here include Hausmann and [Johannes Baader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes%5FBaader?ref=hyperallergic.com). Up for remixing is Höch’s lesser collage “[Musiker zu Hause](http://dadaclub.online/2d-scans/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (1962) — her “[Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Beer-Belly of the Weimar Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah%5FH%C3%B6ch?ref=hyperallergic.com#/media/File:Hoch-Cut%5FWith%5Fthe%5FKitchen%5FKnife.jpg)” (1919) is a photomontage masterpiece — and [Kurt Schwitters’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt%5FSchwitters?ref=hyperallergic.com) “[Die Kathedrale](http://dadaclub.online/2d-scans/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (1920), but both have been only minimally reinterpreted, as seen in the project’s [documentary ebook](http://www.linkartcenter.eu/public/editions/Linkartcenter%5FDadaclubonline%5F2017%5Febook.pdf?ref=hyperallergic.com). At least they were put to some use in Giovanni Fredi’s [audio contribution](https://giovannifredi.bandcamp.com/releases?ref=hyperallergic.com) (not selected for the gallery show), a pleasant project of cute electro musical riffs created by playing the digital images on a [Qvadro app](http://qvadro.appstor.io/?ref=hyperallergic.com) running on an iPhone 4s iOS 8.1.3. ![Paolo Visentini, "Murder’s Chewing" (2016), GIF animation (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/10/paolo-visentini-murders-chewing.gif) Paolo Visentini, “Murder’s Chewing” (2016), GIF animation (courtesy the artist, via Dadaclub.online) Though there is much to enjoy here — I very much fancied Paolo Visentini’s “[Murder’s Chewing](http://dadaclub.online/2016/03/18/paolo-visentini/?ref=hyperallergic.com)” (2016) GIF based on the Moholy-Nagy silver gelatin print “Mord auf den Schienen” (1925) hanging nearby — the show’s opportunity for online open access and interpretation of established artworks is nothing new. Back in 1996, the [*äda’web* site](http://www.adaweb.com/home.shtml?ref=hyperallergic.com), curated by [Benjamin Weil](http://www.laboralcentrodearte.org/en/recursos/personas/benjamin-weil?ref=hyperallergic.com) and designed by [Vivian Selbo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivian%5FSelbo?ref=hyperallergic.com), allowed users to remix [Jenny Holzer’s](https://hyperallergic.com/tag/jenny-holzer/) excellent (if familiar) [*Truisms*](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/63755?ref=hyperallergic.com) (1978–87) series. Her phrases were torturously [submitted](http://www.adaweb.com/project/holzer/cgi/pcb.cgi?change&ref=hyperallergic.com) to [combination-permutation perversions](http://www.adaweb.com/project/holzer/cgi/pcb.cgi?ref=hyperallergic.com) by anonymous activators as part of their *PLEASE CHANGE BELIEFS* online project. Given the conformity to net art tradition in *Dadaclub.online* — something that runs counter to Dada’s insistence on seizing the present and rejecting history and tradition — this project might best be regarded as an elegy to a vanished era of rebelliousness. As such, it is a rather small but necessary step in the continuous battle against the aesthetics of authority. [Dadaclub.online](https://www.galeriecharlot.com/en/expo/142/Dadaclubonline-Paris?ref=hyperallergic.com) *continues at* [*Galerie Charlot*](https://www.galeriecharlot.com/en/?ref=hyperallergic.com) *(47 Rue Charlot, 3rd arrondissement, Paris) through October 7.*