Dada in Zurich
Cabaret Voltaire was the name of a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded by Hugo Ball, with his companion Emmy Hennings on February 5, 1916 as a cabaret for artistic and political purposes.
Other founding members were Marcel Janco, Richard Huelsenbeck, Tristan Tzara and Jean Arp. Events at the cabaret proved pivotal in the founding of the anarchic art movement known as dada.
The activities at Cabaret Voltaire spawned the Dada cultural movement, which in turn was a major influence on the surrealist art movement.
~From Wikipedia,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HISTORY
Switzerland was a neutral country during World War I and among the many refugees coming to Zurich were artists from all over Europe. Ball and Hennings approached Ephraim Jan, patron of the Hollandische Meierei at Spiegelgasse 1, which had already hosted Zurich's first literary Cabaret, the Pantagruel in 1915. Jan permitted them to use the back room for events. The press release which accompanied the opening of the nightclub reads:
Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has been formed whose aim is to create a centre for artistic entertainment. The idea of the cabaret will be that guest artists will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings. The young artists of Zurich, whatever their orientation, are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds.
-Zurich, February 2, 1916.
The cabaret featured spoken word, dance and music. The soirees were often raucous events with artists experimenting with new forms of performance, such as sound poetry and simultaneous poetry. Mirroring the maelstrom of World War I raging around it, the art it exhibited was often chaotic and brutal.
On at least one occasion, the audience attacked the Cabaret's stage. Though the Cabaret was to be the birthplace of the Dadaist movement, it featured artists from every sector of the avant-garde, including Futurism's Marinetti. The Cabaret exhibited radically experimental artists, many of whom went on to change the face of their artistic disciplines; featured artists included Kandinsky, Paul Klee, de Chirico and Max Ernst.
On July 28, 1916, Ball read out the Dada Manifesto. In June, Ball had also published a journal with the same name. It featured work from artists such as the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and had a cover designed by Arp.
Whilst the Dada movement was just beginning, by 1917 the excitement generated by the Cabaret Voltaire had fizzled out and the artists moved on to other places in Zurich such as the Galerie Dada at Bahnhofstrasse 19, then later Paris and Berlin.
Cabaret Voltaire. Under this name a group of young artists and writers has been formed whose aim is to create a centre for artistic entertainment. The idea of the cabaret will be that guest artists will come and give musical performances and readings at the daily meetings. The young artists of Zurich, whatever their orientation, are invited to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds.
-Zurich, February 2, 1916.
The cabaret featured spoken word, dance and music. The soirees were often raucous events with artists experimenting with new forms of performance, such as sound poetry and simultaneous poetry. Mirroring the maelstrom of World War I raging around it, the art it exhibited was often chaotic and brutal.
On at least one occasion, the audience attacked the Cabaret's stage. Though the Cabaret was to be the birthplace of the Dadaist movement, it featured artists from every sector of the avant-garde, including Futurism's Marinetti. The Cabaret exhibited radically experimental artists, many of whom went on to change the face of their artistic disciplines; featured artists included Kandinsky, Paul Klee, de Chirico and Max Ernst.
On July 28, 1916, Ball read out the Dada Manifesto. In June, Ball had also published a journal with the same name. It featured work from artists such as the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and had a cover designed by Arp.
Whilst the Dada movement was just beginning, by 1917 the excitement generated by the Cabaret Voltaire had fizzled out and the artists moved on to other places in Zurich such as the Galerie Dada at Bahnhofstrasse 19, then later Paris and Berlin.
TRIVIA
- Jean Arp describes a night at the cabaret: Total pandemonium. The people around us are shouting, laughing, and gesticulating. Our replies are sighs of love, volleys of hiccups, poems, and gesticulating.
- Hugo Ball describes a night at the cabaret: For our next event, Janco made a certain number of extraordinary masks. They evoked Japanese theater and Greek tragedy, yet were resolutely modern. Designed to be seen from a distance, they produced an incredible effect in the relatively small cabaret. We were all there when Janco came in with his masks. And the minute we saw them, we couldn't wait to try them on. When we did, something quite strange happened. Each mask dictated not only what costume should be worn with it, but also certain precise, pathetic gestures, which approached madness. Although we would never have suspected it five minutes earlier, we were soon moving in a bizarre ballet, draped and adorned with incredible objects, trying to outdo each other as we danced around the room.
- The name was borrowed and reused by the industrial band Cabaret Voltaire (band).
- There is also a night club in Edinburgh's vaults with the same name.
- In Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern Brazilian state, another night club named Cabaret Voltaire exists.
DADA DEFINED...
dada
1920, from Fr. dada "hobbyhorse," child's nonsense word, selected 1916 by Romanian poet Tristan Tzara, leader of the movement, for its resemblance to meaningless babble.
The ABC's of DADA
FURTHER READING
Dada: Zurich, Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York, Paris
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Dada East: The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire
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DADA DADA DADA
Freedom: DADA DADA DADA,the howl of clashing colors,
the intertwining of all
contradictions, grotesqueries,
trivialities: LIFE.
~T. Tzara, "Dada Manifesto," 1918
DADA SOUNDS
DADA GUESTBOOK
MERDE!
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"gaga di bumbalo bumbalo gadjamen
gaga di bling blong
gaga blung"
DADA LINKS
- Dada at the Open Directory Project
- Arts: Art History: Periods and Movements: Dada
- Dada art (Dada Online)
- Includes images showing the characteristics of Dada.
- The International Dada Archive
- The International Dada Archive includes scans of many Dada publications.
- The Essential DADA
- The Essential DADA
- Dada: The destruction of Art
- Dada: The destruction of Art History of Art in MundoArte
- samizDADA - samizdat meets dadaism
- SamizDADA: Samizdat meets Dadaism
- The DADA Server
- If you came here to find out what it's all about, get lost. If, however, you came here to shake loose the elephants in the cuffs of your pants I encourage you to do so, only make sure that the truculent blues of their eyes stay well in place, if not moreso. This is DADA. All others, take your business to the void where it belongs.
SOUNDS OF THE CABARET VOLTAIRE ON UBUWEB
About UbuWeb
UbuWeb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.
UbuWeb is a completely independent resource dedicated to all strains of the avant-garde, ethnopoetics, and outsider arts.
- HUGO BALL
- sound file
- HANS/JEAN ARP
- sound file
- RICHARD HUELSENBECK
- sound file
- TRISTAN TZARA
- sound file
CABARET VOLTAIRE MISC.
- Dada and Surrealism: Texts and Extracts
- Dada and Surrealism: Texts and Extracts
The Dadaists attached much less importance to the sales value of their work than to its uselessness for contemplative immersion. The studied degradation of their material was not the least of their means to achieve this uselessness... - cabaret voltaire - dada haus - zurich
- cabaret voltaire
- Dada-Festwochen in Zurich
- INTERNATIONALE DADA-FESTWOCHEN ZURICH
- 391.org
- 391.org
DADA MANIFESTOS
- Text of Hugo Ball's 1916 Dada Manifesto
- Text of Hugo Ball's 1916 Dada Manifesto
- Text of Tristan Tzara's 1918 Dada Manifesto
- Text of Tristan Tzara's 1918 Dada Manifesto.
- Excerpts of Tristan Tzara's Dada Manifesto (1918) and Lecture on Dada (1922)
- Excerpts of Tristan Tzara's Dada Manifesto (1918) and Lecture on Dada (1922)
- Dada Manifesto (1921)
- Dada Manifesto (1921).
DADA Feed
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