Dadaism was an anti-art movement started in 1916 in Zurich, Switzerland in response to World War I. It spread after the war and rebelled against nationalist policies. Dadaists experimented with new forms of expression and chose their name, meaning 'hobby horse', randomly. The Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich was the birthplace of Dadaism, bringing together exiled artists like Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Jean Arp, and others. Dadaism had no inherent meaning and interpretations depended on the viewer.

1. DADAISM 1916 - 1922

2. Art movement started in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916 It emerged in response to the atrocities and insanity of World War I Dadaists experimented with new forms of expression. It’s an ANTI ART movement. After WWI it spread to many places, included Germany , where it rebelled against the increasingly militaristic and nationalist policies of Hitler’s Nazi party .

3. Dada: name chosen by accident in a German-French dictionary, meaning hobbyhorse. This express: Childlike quality Primitiveness Beginning at zero in terms of a new art. Its basis is the nonsense. While art has implicit message, Dada strives to have no meaning, so interpretation is dependant on the viewer.

4. Swiss Dada Switzerland Neutral country during both World Wars. It became a refuge for many different people trying to escape the war in their homelands. These people began to get together within clubs and cafés of Zurich . In 1916 it’s founded the CABARET VOLTAIRE by Ball, Hennings, Arp, Tzara, Janco and Huelsenbeck.

5. Cabaret Voltaire It was founded as a ‘Literary nightclub’. It is the birthplace of the Dada movement. Its artist were mainly painters and poets who were in exile at that time in Zurich. Aim. “To remind the world that there were people of independent minds and different ideals” Hugo Ball

6. Hugo Ball (1886-1927) German poet who emigrated with his wife, Emmy Hennings, to Switzerland after the outbreak of WWI. All static values of culture and art appeared to be questionable. He composed sound poems = verses without words

7. Emmy Hennings (1885-1948) Hennings was a regular performer at the Cabaret Voltaire. She also recited her own poetry. Dancer To you it's as if I was already Marked and waiting on Death's list. It keeps me safe from many sins. How slowly life drains out of me. My steps are often steeped in gloom, My heart beats in a sickly way And it gets weaker every day. A death angel stands in the middle of my room. Yet I dance till I'm out of breath. Soon lying in the grave I'll be And no one will snuggle up to me. Oh, give me kisses up till death.

8. WOOD, Jean Arp In Arp, the abstraction is a natural consequence of his rejection to representation art Form, Jean Arp

9. 'The Art Critic' by Raoul Hausmann 1919-1920. This piece, made from crayon, ink stamp, photomontage and collage on a printed poster poem, perfectly sums up the Dada movement. The backing away from traditional painting techniques as a form of protest led to a lot of collage being used (although no one particular 'style' can be associated with Dada). Also the subject matter here is poking fun at the whole art scene and protesting at the world of commerce associated with it . The man wields a sharpened pencil ready to ready to strike and wage war against this filthy rich art circus

10. Hannah Hoch - Cut with the Kitchen Knife Through the First Epoch of the Weimar Beer-Belly Culture, 1919. The above piece by Hannah Hoch epitomizes the Dada attitude towards war: That it was chaos. That the world has gone mad. That war itself is craziness incarnate destroying humanity.

11. German Dada Germany was in terrible state of disrepair, fear and hunger. The treaty of Versailles ensured an unstable social, political and economical situation. Many artists who were active in Swiss Dada returned after the war and redefined the movement.

12. The Berlin club was formed by: Hoch, Baader, Grosz, Herzfelde, Heartfield, Hausmann and Huelsenbeck. Cologne club: Hans Arp, Max Earnst, Johannes Baargeld. German Dada is much more political in its nature than the Swiss. Numerous periodicals that appeared under the Dada flag, were banned and reappered under a new name.

13. Raul Hausmann Mechanic head

14. Marcel Duchamp’s Mona Lisa where a moustache is painted onto Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous original ‘ Fountain’, 1917