Dada

The Dada movement, also known as Dadaism or simply Dada, is an intellectual, literary, and artistic movement from the early 20th century, characterised by a questioning of all ideological, aesthetic, and political conventions and constraints.

Born in 1916 in Zurich, then a refuge for young people who rejected war, Dada quickly spread internationally, particularly to Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York, Barcelona, Paris, as well as Belgium and the Netherlands.

A movement particularly difficult to define, despite the proliferation of Dada Manifestos, it highlights a rebellious and caustic spirit, a play with decorum and conventions, its rejection of reason and logic, and marks, with its notorious extravagance, its derision for traditions and its highly engaged art. Close to socialist ideology, even anarchist for Tristan Tzara and Raoul Hausmann, Dada stood out at the time for its proximity to radical activism. Dada artists aimed to be disrespectful, extravagant, and displayed total contempt for the “old-fashioned” things of the past. They sought to achieve the greatest freedom of expression by using any possible material and medium. Their goal was to provoke and lead the spectator to reflect on the foundations of society.