Question

Hugo Ball reading "Karawane" at the Club Voltaire.

What purpose did the costume serve in the image above?

Answer 1

First, small correction: Ball was performing at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich.

The cardboard/helmet costume wasn’t just theatrical dress — it was integral to the Dada performance. Its purposes included:

- Depersonalization/mask: it hid Ball’s face and personality so the performer became an anonymous “voice” or instrument rather than an individual actor.
- Emphasis on sound over sense: by removing familiar human expression, it forced the audience to focus on the phonetic, nonsensical qualities of the poem “Karawane.”
- Theatrical shock and anti‑bourgeois provocation: the odd, primitive, machine‑like appearance helped provoke, unsettle and ridicule conventional artistic norms.
- Ritual/primitive allusion: the mask evoked tribal and ceremonial forms, lending the nonsensical recital a quasi-ritual authority.
- Practical/psychological protection: it also functioned as a kind of armor against hostile audiences and ridicule, enabling Ball to perform extreme gestures and sounds.

In short, the costume transformed the reading into a performative, anti‑literary act central to Dada’s aims.