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Pocket Guide Dada City Zurich
Between 1916 and 1919, artistic trends were set in motion in Zurich that had a lasting impact on the arts worldwide. Dada was the avant-garde movement that called for questioning phenomena and events of its time. Names such as Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Höch, André Breton, and Vincente Huidobro are associated with Dada New York, Berlin, Paris, and Chile. Punk, contemporary performance art, and techniques like collages, hacking, and readymades can all also be discussed in the wake of Dada. And it all began at Spiegelgasse No. 1 in Zurich’s Niederdorf. In the Meierei beer and wine tavern, on February 5, 1916, Emmy Hennings, Hugo Ball, Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber, Marcel Janco, and Tristan Tzara founded Cabaret Voltaire. It was mainly young emigrants for whom Cabaret Voltaire offered refuge in the midst of chaos of the First World War. They countered the madness of the time with new forms of language and expression, and experimented in the juxtaposition of literature, art, theory, dance, and architecture.
Zurich is not only home to the Cabaret Voltaire, the birthplace of Dada, but also to one of the most important Dada collections in the Kunsthaus Zürich. This pocket guide connects the two houses and takes you to other Dada venues, revealing the milieu and places where the Dada movement was born and developed. You will learn where the Dadaists met for their soirées, where Lenin debated and C. G. Jung described the unconscious, where the wildest dance evenings took place, and where the word “Dada” actually comes from. In the process, past, present, and future overlap. You will experience what was, see what is, and consider what could be. In this sense, Dada can also be understood as a contemporary practice, constantly posing questions about the present and inspiring ideas for the future.
Zurich is not only home to the Cabaret Voltaire, the birthplace of Dada, but also to one of the most important Dada collections in the Kunsthaus Zürich. This pocket guide connects the two houses and takes you to other Dada venues, revealing the milieu and places where the Dada movement was born and developed. You will learn where the Dadaists met for their soirées, where Lenin debated and C. G. Jung described the unconscious, where the wildest dance evenings took place, and where the word “Dada” actually comes from. In the process, past, present, and future overlap. You will experience what was, see what is, and consider what could be. In this sense, Dada can also be understood as a contemporary practice, constantly posing questions about the present and inspiring ideas for the future.
104 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
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July 20, 2025
It's nice that so many of the places associated with Dada are still around: you can walk through Bellevue and stop for a coffee in the legendary Odeon or Terrasse, as long as you understand that instead of Tristan Tzara playing chess with Lenin, you'll probably be sitting next to a private banker having a loud conference call or some Japanese girls filming a TikTok.
These places retain, nonetheless, an air of artiness and student life, if not exactly one of radicalism. The same can be said for the Cabaret Voltaire itself, which, in terms of staff and clientele, has a touch of the same achingly hip vibe that used to turn me off Shakespeare & Co when I lived in Paris. The Voltaire is much quieter and lower key, however. They only open for three days a week, and then only in the afternoons, and the little cellar bar is pleasingly cut off from any phone reception. Their ‘bookshop’ is just a single bookcase of well curated publications, both historical and modern, mainly from their own little publishing house CV Press.
This little guide is absolutely packed with detail on where the sites of Dada are located – and not just Dada, but also the related activities of 1910s and 1920s Zurich: Jungian psychoanalysis, political radicalism, experimental cabaret. QR codes link to pinned Google Maps of the city, and the editors make several incisive recommendations of (often obscure) books and films to track down, too. This is well worth jamming in your pocket the next time you're walking round town – though you might be walking a while before you find any trace of the Dada spirit in today's Zurich.
These places retain, nonetheless, an air of artiness and student life, if not exactly one of radicalism. The same can be said for the Cabaret Voltaire itself, which, in terms of staff and clientele, has a touch of the same achingly hip vibe that used to turn me off Shakespeare & Co when I lived in Paris. The Voltaire is much quieter and lower key, however. They only open for three days a week, and then only in the afternoons, and the little cellar bar is pleasingly cut off from any phone reception. Their ‘bookshop’ is just a single bookcase of well curated publications, both historical and modern, mainly from their own little publishing house CV Press.
This little guide is absolutely packed with detail on where the sites of Dada are located – and not just Dada, but also the related activities of 1910s and 1920s Zurich: Jungian psychoanalysis, political radicalism, experimental cabaret. QR codes link to pinned Google Maps of the city, and the editors make several incisive recommendations of (often obscure) books and films to track down, too. This is well worth jamming in your pocket the next time you're walking round town – though you might be walking a while before you find any trace of the Dada spirit in today's Zurich.
Displaying 1 of 1 review