M. Janco: Construction 3

Dada 2 Zurich

December 1917

Tristan Tzara Note 2 on Art. H. Arp

The summit sings what is spoken of in the depths.

Nature is organized in her totality, the rigging of great ships pointing up towards the convergence

of sunrays, by principles which rank crystals and insects in hierarchy like the branches of a tree.

In nature all things have this imperceptible clarity of organization, united in kinship, bound

together like children of lunar light, the axis of a wheel infinitely turning, its freedom, its

ultimate, absolute existence, bound to these innumerable laws of progression.

My sister is root, flower, stone.

The organism is complete in the voiceless intelligence of the veins of plants and insects and their

appearance.

Man is filthy, he slays animals, plants, his brothers, he quarrels, he is clever, he talks too much,

he is incapable of expressing his thoughts.

But the artist is a creator: he knows how to work the organic form. He makes decisions. He

improves men. He tends the garden of the mind, watches over it.

The purity of an idea makes me happy, to see beyond the horizon which stretches out tending the

new plant life of distant lands; blossoms of ice.

The vertical: in solemn contemplation before the infinite sensing the depth of a moment before

the animal in us.

H. Arp

symmetry

midnight meeting flower

where bird and summit are embraced by the halo of the sun and the hop vine climbs

the flower becomes crystal or scarab, magnet or star

the wish to lead a simple life

If we can live the miracle we will have reached the heights where our blood will join the order of

archangels, medicine for stargazing, reader - a belief clearly held in simple hearts -wisdom and

knowledge.