1

Art, war and insanity on a grand scale

–– Created by–– Mark Anderson

F U R I O SF

OL

LY

U

Part of

“Ander s on ha s sp ent his p rofessional career creatin

g aud

io visual alchemy that uses light,

hea

t , v

ibra

tion

s, e

lect

rici

ty,

oscillating chemicals a nd paraphernalia to dazzle our eyes and startle our imag

inat

ions

.” ––

Ric

ha

Rd

Wil

son

2

3

“Furious Folly is inspired by the Dadaists, and the writers, poets, philosophers, radicals and ordinary people who rejected the propaganda and j i n g o i s m peddled by leaders, politicians, big business and the privileged elite of countries and empires as they squabbled for power with their usual contempt for the lives of ordinary people and the destruction wrought in the process.”–– Mark anderson

Furious Folly takes place as night

falls, in a no-mans land on the battle front

between the two lines. Disorientated, the

audience find themselves immersed within an

open-air collage of sound, light, pyrotechnics

and performance. Furious Folly is part of

14–18 NOW, the UK’s arts programme for

the First World War Centenary.

Mark Anderson, creator of multi-media

and site specific performance, leads a team

of artists who draw on the anti-war spirit of

the early 20th Century Dadaist movement.

Railing against the futility of the Great

War and the madness of the battlefield,

Furious Folly challenges the inhumanity and

senselessness of conflicts past and present.

“W

hile the thunder of the batteries rum

bled in the distance... W

e searched for an elementary art

that would, w

e thought, save mankind

from the furious folly of these tim

es." –– H

an

s ar

p fou

nd

er o

f tH

e da

da

ist Mo

ve

Me

nt

4

5

T h e

Dada movement galvanized in Zurich,

1916, as the First World War neared its peak. Although they convened in neutral Switzerland, the Dadaist ‘exiles’ responded viscerally to

the heat, fury and industrial-scale carnage of the War, while also attempting to create

a world beyond it in aggressively experimental

c o m p o s i t i o n s across a wide range of media.

Cabaret Voltaire was the performance space

that gave rise to Dada, and artists from across

Europe converged there to paradoxically create

a group art movement from resolutely

‘ i ndependent thinkers’ from many nations. The name

‘Dada’ itself captured the sophisticated

m u l t i l i n g u a l punning (meaning ‘yes-yes’

in Romanian and ‘rocking-horse’ in

French) and onomatopoeic ‘nonsense’

that Dadaist art and performances sought

to combine. Dada became the title

for the movement’s magazine, which became a home for contributors from Romania, Alsace, Germany and France among others. Dada’s

overtly multi-national membership endorsed founder Hugo Ball’s early rejection of the base nationalisms that culminated in the Great War.

6

7

Dada managed to evade such political entanglements while remaining actively engaged with their real world repercussions, and most importantly, with the sweeping impact on the way humanity perceived the new world wrought by war and its technologies. The performance culture of Cabaret Voltaire produced explosive, percussive dins to represent ‘the background’ of war – ‘the inarticulate, the disastrous, the decisive’ state into which the world had plunged, and ‘the conflict of the vox humana with a world that threatens, ensnares,

Dr

. DA

DA

Eric

Whi

te S

enio

r Le

c tur

er in

Am

eric

an L

i tera

ture

Oxf

ord

Bro

okes

Uni

vers

ity

and destroys it’. The Dada ethos insisted that absurdity and sensory overload (for example, in Richard Huelsenbeck’s confrontational drumming performances) must co-exist with and mutually comment upon scathing political satire. Dada spread like wildfire across Europe and the Americas, and its practitioners were among the first of the modernist avant-gardes to reconfigure art as a barometer of the sensory and literal overkill that WWI had unleashed on the world.

8

9

“Noble and respected citizens of Zurich, students, artisans, workers, vagabonds, aimless wanderers of all countries, unite!...I have to make a statement tonight, which will shake you...what we have to tell you, will hit you like a bullet...We have found Dada, we are Dada, and we have Dada. Dada was found in a dictionary, it means nothing...We want to change the world with nothing, we want to change Poetry and Painting with nothing and we want to end the war with nothing...we still don’t need to end up as enemies. As soon as you overcome your resistance and you write Dada on your flag, we are re-united and best friends.”

The International Dada Archives d r c . l i b . u i o w a . e d u /d a d a / i n d e x . h t m l

Dada Companion d a d a -c o m p a n i o n . c o m

R i ch a r d

Hu e l s

e n b e c k

(Erklärung, read at

the Cabaret Voltaire,

Spring 1916. Typescript.

Reprinted in Dadad.

Eine literarische

Dokumentation (Rowohlt

: Reinbek/Hamburg

1964) 30. http://www.

dada-companion.com/

huelsenbeck_docs/

hue_erklaerung_1916.

php)

shel

l sh

ock

vict

im

D a d a r e s o u r c e s :

Pyrotechnics –––––––– Pa BoomSimon Chatterton –––––––– ProducerColin Nightingale –––––––– Production Adviser Mat Ort –––––––– Production ManagerLiam Walsh –––––––– Artist-technician and fabricatorMartin West –––––––– Artist-technician and fabricatorHester Chillingworth –––––––– Additional direction

Rachel A. Smith – Banner designGeorge Tomlinson – Additional staging elementsGraham Calvert – ElectronicsMatt Eaton – Sound Design Slawek Danek – PA techColin Eales – Crewing logistics and constructionEmily Milne – Lighting and Stage ManagementMatt Bird, Ed Collins – Lighting techs

10

11

Charles Poulet – Original Sound DesignGuy Dickens – Lighting DesignJony Easterby, Paul Batten, – Tower design and constructionSusan Kulkarni – Costume design

HELEN GREGG – WomanStuart Henderson – Bugle Aurel ian Koch – ManGraeme Leak – Percussion and Sound Design

Created by Mark Anderson

Tim Etchells – Additional text / direction

Furious Follyis part of14–18 NOW, a five year programme of extraordinary arts experiences connecting people with the First World War. Working with partners all across the UK, we commission new artworks from leading contemporary artists, inspired by the period 1914–18.

Co-commissioned by 14–18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions and the Town of Poperinge, supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage LotteryFund and Arts Council England, and by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.

Produced by Corn Exchange Newbury and OCM in association with Birmingham Hippodrome, Oxford Playhouse, Oxford Festival of the Arts and Stockton International Riverside Festival.Birmingham Hippodrome would like to thank Sutton Coldfield Community Trust, Birmingham City Council, Sutton Coldfield BID, and BMET College for their support.Oxford Playhouse and OCM are supported by Arts Council England, Oxford City Council, University of Oxford (OP), Oxford Brookes University and PRS for Music Foundation (OCM).Oxford Festival of the Arts would like to thank Magdalen College School.Stockton International Riverside Festival is organised by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Counciland supported by Arts Council England.

iwantdesign.com

CREATED at 101 Outdoor Arts Creation Space

P I C T U R E C R E D I T S pG.1 –– a GerMan soldier and His Mule wearinG Gas Masks in wwi, 1916 rareHistoricalpHotos.coM | pG.4/5–– “Bow to tHe autHorities” By GeorGe Grosz. © estate of GeorGe Grosz, princeton, n.J. / dacs, 2016 | pG.6 –– tHe first international dada fair, 1920 | pG.7 –– australian soldiers drill in tHeir Gas Masks durinG world war i (JoHn oxley liBrary, state liBrary of Queensland neG: 182319) | pG.8 –– sHell sHocked soldier. still froM footaGe supplied By BritisH patHé | pG.10 –– a GerMan infantryMan usinG a fryinG pan as an iMprovised Gas alarM GonG. Battle of tHe aisne, Between reiMs and laon © iwM (Q 55224)

p o p e r i n g e 1 4 - 1 8 . b e