‘DADA WAS THERE BEFORE THERE WAS DADA.’
A hundred years ago, the radical artistic and literary movement “Dada” was founded in Zurich and instantly became famous around the world. What does the word ‘Dada’ imply? Nonsense and absurdity? No, Dada was a response to the madness of the First World War. The National Museum Zurich is holding an exhibition in 2016 to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Dadaism. The exhibition not only features works of Dada art and literature but also examines the global and universal impact of the Dada movement right up to the present day. A highlight of the exhibition is the legendary ‘Fountain’ by Marcel Duchamp, the ‘Mona Lisa’ of Dadaism. And in a whirl through time and space, the Dada esprit comes alive through objects, projections and sound poems, involving all the human senses. Because: ‘DADA EST TATOU. TOUT EST DADA.’