Attention! Paris Dada: A symposium and performance to celebrate the centenary of Paris Dada

Bringing together modernist scholars from disciplines across the humanities, Attention! Paris Dada will examine different ways in which Paris Dada grasps and holds attention by engaging the different senses of its audiences. As critic Jean Paulhan said of the 1920 ‘Festival Dada’: ‘If you must speak of Dada, you must speak of Dada. If you must not speak of Dada, you must still speak of Dada’. Attention! Paris Dada will extend the sounds and silences of this imaginary conversation by analysing how Paris Dada's affective strategies for destabilizing social, political, and cultural discourses remain as relevant today as they were 100 years ago.

Speakers include:  

• Professor David Hopkins (University of Glasgow)
• Professor Peter Dayan (University of Edinburgh)
• Professor Carl Lavery (University of Glasgow)
• Dr Kathryn Brown (Loughborough University)
• Dr Ruth Hemus (Royal Holloway, University of London)
• Professor Stephen Forcer (University of Glasgow)
• Dr Erica O’Neill (University of Glasgow)

Film, music, theatre and dance will accompany scholarly discussion. Attention! Paris Dada will feature a live pianist, an acrobatic performer, and fantastic costumes. The iconic Paris Dada film, Entr’acte will be accompanied by a live score performed by renowned pianist and performance artist, Florian Kaplick. Dancer and physical theatre practitioner Dylan Read will create performances inspired by insurgent Paris Dada actions from 1920-1923. Finally, Attention! Paris Dada promises interactive manifestos, singing and extraordinary sound effects! 

This event is kindly funded the Association for Art History, the Society for French Studies and Loughborough University's Institute for Advance Studies.