1ST INTERCONTINENTAL NEW DADA EXPOSITIONINTERNATIONAL ARTISTS COOPERATIONGALLERY S:T PETRI AND KLAUS GROH01 - 25.09.1978

Galerie S:t Petri in Lund, together with Klaus Groh from West Germany, has organized the first intercontinental New Dada exhibition in the world. The event opens on 1 September 1978. Around one hundred and fifty works by approximately one hundred and fifty artists from North and South America, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Eastern and Western Europe fill the gallery’s five exhibition rooms.

Dadaism, which saw its dawn about sixty years ago, had as one of its aims to provoke its surroundings. By showing at exhibitions objects that were not usually associated with art, the Dadaists wanted to question the fixed norms of what was considered art and non-art. Marcel Duchamp was the leading figure within classical Dadaism.

The New Dadaists take things one step further than their predecessors. It is no longer merely about “shocking” their environment, but rather about making people aware of themselves and giving individuals the courage to create. Their premise is that every human being is creative.

It is in North America, especially the U.S.A., that Neo-Dadaist ideas are primarily found. However, it is not as easy now as it was sixty years ago to point to a clearly defined geographic or political area. Different media have made human individual problems global. These artistic expressions often occur at the margins of society. In Eastern Europe, artists struggle with ideologies; in Western Europe, with commercialism.

Klaus Groh, in his doctoral dissertation (1977), thoroughly examined the various forms of Neo-Dadaism that have emerged in North America. He also emphasizes its pedagogical significance. Groh believes that the artist’s most important task is to give other people the courage to create and reshape their own lives. Art as a creative challenge, rather than as an object, is his and the Neo-Dadaists’ guiding principle. The material presented at Galerie S:t Petri therefore consists not of “finished” works of art but primarily of mental impulses directed at the viewer. The viewer thus always becomes a co-creator — if he or she is open to it.

One of the participants, Leif Eriksson, has placed grass mats in the gallery windows. On Friday (1 September) and Saturday (2 September) at 6 p.m., Klaus Groh himself will be present with various surprise events. Professor Oscar Reuterswärd from the Faculty of Art History, who assisted in realizing the exhibition, will give a lecture on Dadaism.

The New Dada Exhibition is open 1–25 September 1978, weekdays 3–8 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays 1–5 p.m.