Dragan Aleksić


Dragan Aleksić was a Yugoslav Dadaist poet, author, journalist, filmmaker and founder of the Yugoslavian branch of Dadaism, termed "Yugo-Dada."

Studies in Prague

From 1920 Aleksić studied Slavic languages in Prague, where he coincidentally discovered his penchant for Dadaism and incorporated it both in his speech and in the form of his written manifesto. He also wrote stories, poems, plays and publicly declared himself a theoretician of "organic art" - orgart. In his own words, he was in contact with leading European Dadaists: Kurt Schwitters, Raoul Hausmann, Walter Mehring, Richard Huelsenbeck, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara.

Collaboration with ''Zenit''

Aleksić started publishing his poems in collaboration with Ljubomir Micić's avant-garde magazine Zenit. Despite initially dismissing the Dada movement in the 2nd issue of the magazine in March 1921, the following April issue contained an article by Dragan Aleksić written from Prague, as well as two of his Dadaist poems. Up to and including the 13th issue of Zenit, Aleksić's reviews and poems appeared in the magazine regularly.
He organized public events of Dadaism and Zenitism with Branko Ve Poljanski, who left the art and theater scene in Slovenia and traveled to Prague via Vienna. Aleksić met Karel Teige and Jaroslav Seifert, members of the Czech avant-garde group Devětsil and became acquainted with their work. During his summer holidays, he returned to Yugoslavia where he lived and worked between Vinkovci, Zagreb, and Belgrade. Concurrent with his work with Zenit, he established a "purebred troop" of Dadaists, intending to develop the group into a movement. Aleksić notified Tzara of these developments in May 1922. Members of the troop included: Dragan Sremac, Vido Lastov, Slavko Stanić, Mihailo S. Petrov, Antun Tuna Milinković.
However, there was an abrupt break with Zenit in May 1922. The final words of the 14th issue announced the excommunication of Aleksić from the Zenitist circle, as well as the author Mihailo S. Petrov, also a regular contributor in the early issues of the magazine. The same issue announced an upcoming single issue periodical titled Dada-Jok, edited by Poljanski and parodying Dadaism.

''Dada Tank'', the Dadaist Matinée and ''Dada Jazz''

In response to the initial strikes by the Zenitists, Aleksić published two of his own single issue publications in Zagreb – Dada Tank in June and Dada Jazz in September 1922.
Dada Tank was published in collaboration with Tristan Tzara and Kurt Schwitters, including picture-poems and graphics by Mihailo S. Petrov, as well as a translation of a poem by Erwin Enders, originally published in the Hungarian avant-garde journal MA. Although Dada Jazz has been characterized as a mere footnote to Dada Tank, it was in fact a very different project. Its cover designated it to be a "Dada anthology", analogous to Richard Huelsenbeck's Dada Almanach, which Aleksić had translated and excerpted in Dada Tank.
On 20 August 1922, Aleksić organized a "Dadaist Matinée" in the Royal cinema in Osijek. He wrote about the matinée to Tristan Tzara on the same day, detailing that he was joined by eight other "dada-stars" who performed "8 Dramas with Real-tricks". In an article for the daily Hrvatska obrana on 21 August, the matinée was described as an inter-disciplinary interaction of painters and poets with elements of cabaret, music hall and circus performances, as well as propaganda film. The event included a Dadaist negation of Molière, Dostoevsky, Ibsen, Šenoa and Krleža. Aleksić held a general speech outlining Dada, claiming that the central elements of the movement were "denying logic" and "the element of surprise". According to Mihailo S. Petrov, the matinée was organized by Aleksić and himself, as well as Antun Milinković, Slavko Stanić, students of the Osijek Gymnasium Dragan Sremac and Zdenko Reich, the Russian emigrant Vido Lastov and three poets under the pseudonyms Jim Rad, Nac Singer and Mee Tarr.