![]() ![]() The old order was crumbling, “ruined” as Ball put it, “by the filthy hands of capital,” and for Tzara and company, the only sane reaction was to revel in the absurd, for which Cabaret Voltaire provided an outlet. ![]() Europe was at war, and an entire generation of young men was being fed into the wood chipper that was the Western Front. There, over several weeks, they mounted evenings of performative mayhem that often involved preposterous costumes and nonsensical recitals. “In principle I am against manifestos, as I am against principles.” Along with Hugo Ball, Tzara was leader of a tiny band of poets and artists who gathered during February of 1916 at a nightspot in Zurich called the Cabaret Voltaire. “The true dadas are against DADA,” he wrote. Tristan Tzara, the movement’s cofounder, put it somewhat differently in his Dada Manifesto. The comedian Groucho Marx once said, “I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,” as apt a summary of Dada (which took its name from the French for “hobbyhorse”) as any. If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, ARTNews may receive an affiliate commission. ![]()
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