Talk:Object to Be Destroyed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
i have been obsessed with this piece since i saw it at the DADA exhibit in DC in 2006. i'm specifically intrigued by the fact that it was destroyed. brilliant!! who did it? why? i have been able to find VERY little information about the event. what i know so far is that the protesters called themselves "Jarivistes" and consisted of a group of poets calling themselves Jeunes Auteurs Reunis (JAR), a group created by the poet Jean-Pierre Rosnay who took some part in Surrealist movements during their time. they actually stole the object and SHOT it with a gun in the street. wild! i was very suprised to learn that Man Ray was NOT pleased with this. granted, the work was in a retrospective and perhaps it would have been taken (as i think it was still inteded) in the very spirit of DADA, deconstructing the meaning of art and challenging the audiences role in interacting with art. the "protest" i thought would have been dadaist itself, challenging the idea that the public audience is to merely observe passively and appreciate art instead of interacting and making it their own. BANG! shooting it! so absurd! i had originally assumed Man Ray's recreation and renaming of the object was a humourous comment and wink to the destroyers but perhaps not.
getting back on track, this is all i know and it took a lot of internet research and unearthing of my crude knowledge of french. (the only things about the JAR i can find are not in english). any other leads, info. books? i can't find a thing in anything on DADA that mentions it outside of wikis vague outline and one comment from man ray, and absolutely nothing on Rosnay. anyone?