exhibitionism

I've always been kind of fascinated by those human exhibits that took place in the early 20th century, wherein members of "tribes" from Africa or India or Oceania were brought to Europe and displayed as if in a sort of human zoo or living museum. It was a horrible thing, of course, in many ways. People and their cultural artifacts were removed from their contexts and placed before sensation-hungry Europeans. I sometimes wonder if Duchamp's urinal was a (unconscious?) response to this sort of thing (and a more sophisticated response than, say, Debussy's or Picasso's). After all, a mask (or even a person) from Africa will have a particular function in its society of origin; when it is placed in an exhibit at a European museum it takes on all sorts of new meanings. Similarly, one would presume, with toilets and other objects--perhaps members of another society would find in our toilets powerful artistic expressions.

I wonder if such exhibits could be done today. If someone put us, for example, in an exhibit, what would they want to see? What meanings can we be invested with if we are taken out of context? What is exotic about us, what strange rituals do we perform, in what ways are we "primitive"? What are our mating dances, our healing songs?

Alternately, what happens when/if we museumize dada? Does the present world provide a proper context in which to experience dada? Or is dada already subsumed by the cultural establishment? Should dada be meseumized? Should dada-ists be meseumized?...

"Ladies and gentlemen prepare yourselves, for today you are in for a one of a kind treat! Thought to have become extinct in the 1920s due to suicide, venereal disease, and anomie, we have traveled deep into the primordial recesses of art history to bring you these primitive and exotic specimens. Marvel at the enigmatic chatterings of the Tristan Tzara; delight in the strange songs of the Kurt Schwitters; tremble at the primeval visages of the Marcel Janco! Ladies and gentlemen, without further delay, I present to you: the Lost Tribe of the Dadas!"