One hundred years ago today , on July 14 , 1916 , an avant - garde European artistic and literary movementcalled Dadaism — or simply Dada — was officially born in Zurich , Switzerland . World War I was in full military unit , and artists who escaped to the neutral country had grown disenchant toward the politics , societal average , and ethnical ideals that had led to the combat between nation . German poet Hugo Ball — who had co - institute a pop artists ’ tavern anticipate the Cabaret Voltaire with his future wife , poet and singer Emmy Hennings — forebode for a new form of art : an anarchist and anti - conservative motion to , as the pronunciamento says , “ get rid of everything that taste of journalism , worms , everything skillful and right , blinkered , moralistic , europeanised , enervated . ”
Dada’sa little intemperate to excuse , but essentially it ’s art — performance artistic production , poetry , photography , collage , and optic works — that upends schematic melodic theme and logical system through irony , humour , and nonsensical themes and imagery . It borrow heavily from other avant - garde artistic movement of the time , including expressionism , futurism , and cubism .
For example , Ball helped developsound poetry , which emphasizes the phonetics of speech alternatively of its signification . Another Dada artist , Tristan Tzara , compose poetry by pull random Logos out of a bag . AndMarcel Janco , a Romanian - born artist , made unconventional and naive - look masks , which Café Voltaire performers donned during their appearance . Famous artistslike Marcel Duchamp , Jean ( sometimes known as Hans ) Arp , Francis Picabia , and Man Ray were also associated with Dada .
montage was a pop medium , as were “ simultaneous poems , ” which were verses read at the same prison term in different languages and paces . Artists would often pose everyday objects as graphics , or “ readymade target , ” to interrogate the very definition of creativeness . off-the-wall stunts — like print false stories about Dada artist in paper , or go into taverns , yelling “ Dada ! ” , and depart — were also mutual .
Nobody quite knows how Dada got its name . Some say that its founder randomly commit the word — which stand for “ rocking horse ” in French — from a dictionary , or were inspired by max manufacturer Bergmann & Co. ’s rock horse logotype . Others conceive that Dada stems from “ Da , ” the Russian word for “ Yes . ” no matter of how it was distinguish , the movement catch on rapidly , and on July 14 , 1916 , Ball wrote a short treatise calledThe Dada Manifesto , which he read out loud at the Waag Hall in Zurich .
In the manifesto , Ball loosely defines Dada as a motion , and state his own aesthetic finish : “ I shall be register poems that are meant to mete out with conventional speech communication , no less , and to have done with it . … It ’s a head of connections , and of relax them up a snatch to start with . I do n’t desire word that other people have formulate . All the words are other hoi polloi ’s inventions . I desire my own stuff , my own rhythm , and vowels and consonants too , matching the rhythm and all my own . ”
Thanks to journals and promotional movement , Dada go around across the earth , and eventually reached cities like Berlin , Paris , and New York . However , the movement ended up being short - lived : Hugo Ball entrust Dadain 1917 , and arguments over the movement ’s direction caused it to implode . Many Dadaists later joined the Surrealist movement , which was establish in the early 1920s .
Despite Dada ’s shortly - lived nature , it was highly influential . It help birth Surrealism ; itpaved the wayfor mediums of expression like montage , abstraction in lit and film , and carrying into action artistic creation ; and itinspired artistsranging from Andy Warhol to Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg . That ’s why Zurichrecently honored the movement ’s centenarywith a series of performances , result , and exhibitions , hold from February to July 2016 .
After 165 day of celebration , the Jubilee Dada 100 will end on July 18 , 2016 ( although some consequence go forward until September ) . However , you’re able to still mark today ’s anniversary by watching the video above of Dada artist performing at the Cafe Voltaire .
Banner simulacrum : Wikimedia Commons // Public arena
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