Ilya Zdanevich

Ilia Zdanevich (1894-1975) was a Georgian and French writer and artist, and an active participant in Russian Futurism and Dada.

Zdanevich was born in Moscow and at a very early age frequented the first avant-garde poetry groups formed there. Adopting the technique of Khlebnikov's linguistic "iliumism", to which he gave a greater phonetic contrast by isolating it from the lexical panmongolism typical of that poet, in 1919 Iliazd published his first collection of zaumist verses: Easter Island (Moscow, 41º editions).

Immediately following the October Revolution he immigrated to Paris where he took part in the activities of the French dada group. On 6 July 1923 he was one of the organizers of the dadaist evening at the Michel Theatre in Paris, when Tristan Tzara's The Gas Heart was performed. In the same year 41º editions published his fundamental work: Lidantiu faram [Le-Dantyu as a Beacon], a dramatic poem in zaum language. This volume remains an unsurpassed example of visually fascinating typographical contrivances and was to exert a decisive influence on the typographical component of international dadaist poetry. After long years of silence in which he was engaged, above all, in the diffusion of the graphic work of Picasso, Iliazd, in Paris in 1949, selected and edited, again for 41º editions, the collection Poisie des mots inconnus, which included poems by Akinsemonyin, Albert-Birot, Arp, Artaud, Audiberti, Elall, Beaudin, Dermée, Huidobro, Iliazd, jolas, Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh, Polavski, Schwitters, Seuphor, Terentiev, Tzara. The volume was illustrated by Arp, Braque, Bryen, Chagall, Dominguez, Ferat, Giacometti, Gleizes, Hausmann, Laurens, Léger, Magnelli, Matisse, Misson, Metzinger, Miró, Picasso, Survage, Taeuber-Arp, Tytgat, Villon and Wolls. In 1968 he published Rogelio Lacourière, pêcheur de cuivre: aux quatre coins de la piece, a zaumist poem suitable for theatrical presentation, published by 41º editions under the author's supervision.

Submitted by Modernism Inc.