Editing Dada (section)

===Zürich===
[[File:Hoch-Cut With the Kitchen Knife.jpg|thumb|[[Hannah Höch]], ''Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Epoch of Weimar Beer-Belly Culture in Germany'', 1919, collage of pasted papers, 90×144&nbsp;cm, [[Berlin State Museums|Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin]]]]

There is some disagreement about where Dada originated. The movement is commonly accepted by most art historians and those who lived during this period to have identified with the [[Cabaret Voltaire (Zürich)|Cabaret Voltaire]] (housed inside the ''Holländische Meierei'' bar in Zürich) co-founded by poet and [[cabaret]] singer [[Emmy Hennings]] and [[Hugo Ball]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Greeley |first1=Anne |title=Cabaret Voltaire |url=https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/cabaret-voltaire |publisher=Routledge |access-date=31 July 2019 |ref=rem |archive-date=31 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731060227/https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/cabaret-voltaire |url-status=live }}</ref> Some sources propose a Romanian origin, arguing that Dada was an offshoot of a vibrant artistic tradition that transposed to Switzerland when a group of Jewish [[modernist]] artists, including Tristan Tzara, [[Marcel Janco]], and [[Arthur Segal (painter)|Arthur Segal]] settled in Zürich. Before World War I, similar art had already existed in Bucharest and other Eastern European cities; it is likely that Dada's catalyst was the arrival in Zürich of artists like Tzara and Janco.<ref>Tom Sandqvist, ''Dada East: The Romanians of Cabaret Voltaire'', London MIT Press, 2006.{{page needed|date=July 2019}}</ref>

The name ''Cabaret Voltaire'' was a reference to the French philosopher [[Voltaire]], whose novel ''[[Candide]]'' mocked the religious and philosophical [[dogma]]s of the day. Opening night was attended by Ball, Tzara, [[Jean Arp]], and Janco. These artists along with others like [[Sophie Taeuber]], [[Richard Huelsenbeck]] and [[Hans Richter (artist)|Hans Richter]] started putting on performances at the Cabaret Voltaire and using art to express their disgust with the war and the interests that inspired it.

Having left Germany and Romania during [[World War I]], the artists arrived in politically neutral Switzerland. They used abstraction to fight against the social, political, and cultural ideas of that time. They used [[shock art]], provocation, and "[[vaudeville|vaudevillian]] excess" to subvert the conventions they believed had caused the Great War.<ref name="bbc2016">{{cite news |title=Cabaret Voltaire: A Night Out at History's Wildest Nightclub |url=http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160719-cabaret-voltaire-a-night-out-at-historys-wildest-nightclub |access-date=31 July 2019 |publisher=BBC |date=2016 |archive-date=31 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731081305/http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160719-cabaret-voltaire-a-night-out-at-historys-wildest-nightclub |url-status=live }}</ref> The Dadaists believed those ideas to be a byproduct of bourgeois society that was so apathetic it would wage war against itself rather than challenge the ''status quo'':<ref name="nga.gov">{{cite web|title=Introduction: "Everybody can Dada"|url=http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/cities/index.shtm|publisher=[[National Gallery of Art]]|access-date=10 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081102003737/http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2006/dada/cities/index.shtm|archive-date=2 November 2008|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

{{blockquote|quote=We had lost confidence in our culture. Everything had to be demolished. We would begin again after the ''[[tabula rasa]]''. At the Cabaret Voltaire we began by shocking common sense, public opinion, education, institutions, museums, good taste, in short, the whole prevailing order.|source=Marcel Janco<ref>Marcel Janco, "Dada at Two Speeds," trans. in Lucy R. Lippard, Dadas on Art (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1971), p. 36.</ref>}}

Ball said that Janco's mask and costume designs, inspired by Romanian folk art, made "the horror of our time, the paralyzing background of events" visible.<ref name=bbc2016 /> According to Ball, performances were accompanied by a "balalaika orchestra playing delightful folk-songs." Often influenced by [[African music]], arrhythmic drumming and jazz were common at Dada gatherings.<ref>{{Cite book|title=World History Encyclopedia|last=Jenkins|first=Ellen Jan|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2011|editor-last=Andrea|editor-first=Alfred J.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Destruction was My Beatrice: Dada and the Unmaking of the Twentieth Century|last=Rasula|first=Jed|publisher=Basic Books|year=2015|isbn=9780465089963|location=New York|pages=145–146}}</ref>

After the cabaret closed down, Dada activities moved on to a new gallery, and [[Hugo Ball]] left for Bern. Tzara began a relentless campaign to spread Dada ideas. He bombarded French and Italian artists and writers with letters, and soon emerged as the Dada leader and master strategist. The Cabaret Voltaire re-opened, and is still in the same place at the Spiegelgasse 1 in the Niederdorf.

Zürich Dada, with Tzara at the helm, published the art and literature review ''Dada'' beginning in July 1917, with five editions from Zürich and the final two from Paris.

Other artists, such as [[André Breton]] and [[Philippe Soupault]], created "literature groups to help extend the influence of Dada".<ref>Europe of Cultures. [http://fresques.ina.fr/europe-des-cultures-en/fiche-media/Europe00022/tristan-tzara-speaks-about-the-dada-movement.html "Tristan Tzara speaks of the Dada Movement"], September 6, 1963. Retrieved on July 2, 2015. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704150729/http://fresques.ina.fr/europe-des-cultures-en/fiche-media/Europe00022/tristan-tzara-speaks-about-the-dada-movement.html |date=2015-07-04 }}</ref>

After the fighting of the First World War had ended in the armistice of November 1918, most of the Zürich Dadaists returned to their home countries, and some began Dada activities in other cities. Others, such as the Swiss native [[Sophie Taeuber]], would remain in Zürich into the 1920s.