Subdistrict Dada
UnterbezirksDada was a German artist duo from 1984 to 2001, consisting of the German artists Cornel Wachter (* 1961 in Cologne ) and Elmar de Saint Schmitt (* 1958 in Wiesbaden ).
history
As early as 1981, Schmitt began with the poster cycle Oversized opening in honor of the subdistrict Dada . In 1984, Wachter and Schmitt decided to work together under one name. All work was conceived and created together. Subdistrict Dada felt oriented towards Dada Berlin and dedicated itself to socio-politically relevant art. The duo received support in the first few years from befriended cultural editors at the WDR , which, among other things, carried out a targeted advertising campaign in radio and television programs over several weeks in 1985, in which the audience was put under suspicion by the broadcaster giving them bit by bit conveyed mysterious and curious details about the "mysterious subdistrict dada".
In 1991 UnterbezirksDada showed the very first performance on the square in front of the German National Theater Weimar in memory of their Dada forefathers Johannes Baader and Richard Huelsenbeck , who on July 16, 1919 dropped their Dadaists against Weimar leaflets about the National Assembly that had just come together .
In 1993 UnterbezirksDada created an extensive picture cycle on their preferred scientific-technical black and white Polaroid material 667, in the studio of the artist Sigmar Polke in Cologne. UnterbezirksDada received the Friedrich Vordemberge scholarship for fine arts from the city of Cologne in 1997 . Elmar de Saint Schmitt left the artist duo in 2001 for reasons unknown.
Works by UnterbezirksDada are in international collections, such as the large outdoor sculpture Fin de Siècle in the park of the Lutz Teutloff collection at Brock University , St. Catharines , Ontario (Canada) since 1996 .