Tristan Tzara's Handkerchief of Clouds

Abstract

There exists, after Dada, quite a “Dada sequel” of which Relâche and 391 (the last series), like Handkerchief of Clouds, constitute the first manifestations, and which extends to the present day.Michel Sanouillet in Dada à ParisMouchoir de Nuages (Handkerchief of Clouds) by Tristan Tzara, the leader of the Dada movement, was staged in 1924 as Dada was dying. Perhaps, as Michel Sanouillet suggests, the movement was already dead, but the first manifesto of Surrealism, the movement that replaced Dada, was not to be published until the Autumn of 1924. Handkerchief of Clouds was first performed on May 17, 1924, at the Theatre de la Cigale as part of the “Soirées de Paris,” sponsored by Count Etienne de Beaumont.