KULTURA / CULTURE
form a series of bizarre performanc- es that represented the conscious rejec- tion of all existing artistic norms. Cabaret Voltaire may have been the starting point, but the movement soon spread across Europe and around the world. Despite differences in ideology and media used, Dada essentially repre- sented – from Zurich, via Berlin, Hano- ver, Cologne, Paris, Bucharest, Belgrade and Zagreb, to Tokyo and New York – the freedom of art and the fight against tradition and its canons, while it also brought many technical innovations. Dadaism was often also dubbed an “an- ti-art” movement, because it deliber- ately shocked, confused and provoked, as an open assault on social conven- tions. Although it endured for less than a decade, it nonetheless became a glob- al cultural phenomenon that encour- aged artists to push the boundaries in every form of expression. And the road to freedom was the road of nihilism. For the Dadaists, this meant the innate rejection of everything that proved to be bad, destructive and unacceptable. Their message was one of the rejecting of reason and logic in favour of the ac- cepting of chaos and irrationality. Loud recitation and laughter, child- like “fooling around”, all with a strong- ly ironic/satirical tone and a touch of chaos, were an integral part of every evening at Cabaret Voltaire and every subsequent Dadaist event. Such per- formances were intended to tear down traditional ideas associated with fine art and introduce new anti-art: shock, scandal and chaos, all of which deal with the problems of society. The de- liberate imitating of the behaviour of children was actually a reaction to the intellectualism that they consider as having been responsible for the war. In- novation in language and visual arts was hidden behind seemingly frivolous works and activities. A dada is a child’s toy (hobbyhorse), and legend has it that Ball’s knife randomly pierced the French-German dictionary on that very word, which was thus chosen. Historian Martin Mittelmeier argues that the social themes of the time (in- cluding the fear of accelerated modern- isation, feelings of being overwhelmed by a world that was becoming ever more complex and politically unreada-
THE LEGENDARY CABARET VOLTAIRE The birthplace of Dadaism In a small Zurich cabaret club, in the midst of the wartime devastation that ravaged Europe, an artistic movement emerged and forever changed the comprehension of art, performance and conceptual expression
ble) were also reflected in the art scene. Despite Expressionism, Cubism, and Futurism already offering avant-gar- de responses to change, no movement re-examined the very essence of artistic creation as thoroughly as Dadaism. Its legacy is far-reaching. The Dada- ists declared everyday items artworks and equated performance with fine art, while they also redefined speech and poetry. Such a reversal of meaning also led to the emergence of later trends – primarily surrealism, while its influence could also be felt in punk and in con- temporary art, which values concepts, gestures and ideas equally. The most famous Dadaist, Marcel Duchamp, caused a major stir in the art world with his work Fountain – a regular por- celain urinal signed "R. Mutt", while the movement was also marked by the work of Kurt Schwitters, Francis Pica- bia, Max Ernst, Hannah Höch, Man Ray, Jean Arp, Tristan Tzara and many others. Following the formal collapse of Dadaism, many of its representatives shifted to Surrealism, which – instead of the Dadaist destruction of norms – offered a turn towards dreams, the un- conscious and the psychic spaces of the inner world. Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire still stands today, as a place that preserves the memories of one of the 20 th century’s most radical artistic movements, while Dadaism itself remains as a historical springboard to contemporary art, in its conceptual and interdisciplinary form, without which it simply wouldn’t exist.
I t was 110 years ago, on 5 th Feb- ruary 1916, that Cabaret Vol- taire opened at the heart of Zu- rich’s Old Town, on Spiegelgasse street. This small but momentous artistic venue would go down in his- tory as the birthplace of the Dada art movement. This satirical nightclub, es- tablished by Hugo Ball and his partner Emmy Hennings, soon became a pop- ular spot for artists and rebels seeking to respond to the chaos of World War I with an equally chaotic and totally new aesthetic. Ball dubbed the Switzerland of the time “a birdcage surrounded by roar- ing lions", and the first “Dada evening” at Cabaret Voltaire was actually a re- sponse to the destruction raging be- yond the borders of this neutral coun- try. That first evening saw Ball, Tristan Tzara, Hans Arp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Sophie Taeuber and Marcel Janco per-
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