Monday, August 17, 2015

“Manifeste Cannibale Dada”, Dada, n°7, 1920, page 2 (Francis Picabia)

“You are all indicted; Stand up! It is impossible to talk to you unless you are standing up. Stand up as you would for the Marseillaise or God Save The King.

“Stand up, as if the flag were before you. Or if you were in the presence of Dada, which signifies Life, and which accuses you of loving everything out of snobbery if only it is expensive enough.

“So, you have sat down again. So much the better. You will listen more attentively.

“What are you doing here, crammed in like a lot of serious-minded crustaceans? Because you are serious-minded, aren’t you? Serious, serious, serious unto death. Death is a serious matter, isn’t it?

“One dies a hero’s death or an idiot’s death – which comes to the same thing. The only word that has more than a day-to-day value is the word death. You love Death – the Death of others.

“Kill them! Let them die! Only money does not die; it only – goes away for a little while.

“That is God! That is someone to respect: someone you can take seriously! Money is the prie-Dieu of entire families. Money for ever! Long live money!  The man who has money is a man of honour.

“Honour can be bought and sold like the arse. The arse, the arse, represents life like potato chips, and all you are serious-minded will smell worse than cow’s shit.

“Dada alone does not smell: it is nothing, nothing, nothing.

                                        It is like your hopes: nothing
like your paradise: nothing
like your idols: nothing
like your politicians: nothing
like your heroes: nothing
like your artists: nothing
like your religions: nothing


“Hiss, shout, kick my teeth in, so what? I shall still tell you that you are half-wits. In three months my friends and I will be selling your pictures for a few francs.”

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