Dada is Dada

Dada is Dada presents paintings, drawings, documents, photography, collages, objects, sound recordings, and films from one of the most influential art movements of the 20th century. Dada began in 1916 in Zurich as a reaction to the conservative values of bourgeois society and conventional aesthetic ideals, to nationalism and the on-going First World War. In just a few years, the movement developed into a network of collaborations spread widely across the world, engaging more than 150 artists. Strong individual characters and great diversity made Dada an extremely dynamic collective.

Although Dada can be seen as the first international art movement, it was a melting pot of a lot of different styles. The movement was kept together by a critical attitude to society and art, a deprecation with anarchistic traits. The expression of a cultural revolt, Dada was to rally visual artists, authors, and musicians. In its mission to bring art and life together, Dada used new materials and invented new techniques, such as collage, ready-mades, happenings, performance, street theatre, sound poetry, and film. The works are often characterized by a surface of nonsense, irrationality, and playfulness. Humour, irony, wit, mockery, and satire constituted the language by which the Dadaists criticized and questioned their time.

Featuring the multiplicity of artists, authors, and poets who joined Dada or in different ways adopted its ideas, the exhibition focuses on their antinationalism, border-transcending network, and questioning of established systems and structures. It has been produced by Bildmuseet, with loans from private collectors and museums throughout Europe. Curators: Brita Täljedal (Bildmuseet), Alexandre Fruh (Atelier Caravane), and Adrian Notz (Cabaret Voltaire). Exhibition design: Alexandre Fruh.

Visual artists and poets represented in the exhibition:

Pierre Albert-Birot, Celine Arnauld, Hans Arp, Hugo Ball, Erwin Blumenfeld, Bob Brown, Serge Charchoune, Paul Citroen, René Clair, Jean Crotti, Sonia Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp, Joaquín Edwards Bello, Viking Eggeling, Max Ernst, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, Emmy Hennings, Richard Huelsenbeck, Hannah Höch, Marcel Janco, Paul Joostens, Lajos Kassák, Greta Knutson-Tzara, Man Ray, Pierre de Massot, László Moholy-Nagy, Clement Pansaers, Francis Picabia, Georges Ribemont Dessaignes, Hans Richter, Kurt Schwitters, Kate Steinitz, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Theo Van Doesburg, Paul Van Ostaijen, Henri Pierre Roché, Tristan Tzara, Carel Willink, Beatrice Wood.