Dada a Zurigo. Cabaret Voltaire 1916-1920

On February 5th, 1916 Cabaret Voltaire was inaugurated in Zurich: this event marks the birth of Dadaism, the vangard movement lead by Hugo Ball, an idealist poet and theoretician of the Dada group, and by Tristan Tzara, a creator of the "Dada" magazine. The artists of the group are particularly polemic with regards to traditional and academic art, and they oppose to this last one the total creative freedom of the artist, able to express himself through non-conventional materials and supports.

The exhibition aims to illustrate the atmosphere and spirit of spontaneous creativity and provocation of the Dada group: the exhibition includes works by Arp, Janco, Richter, Segal and Tzara. Together with the protagonists of Zurich Dada there are also works by some Italian artists who were in touch with that milieu such as De Pisis, de Chirico, Savinio, Modigliani, Prampolini and Severini. The cosmopolitan atmosphere of Cabaret Voltaire is recreated also by the original photographs, documents and posters on display. The catalogue presents the whole path of the exhibition and is enriched by some essays of introduction on Zurich Dada and on the Italian artists who came in touch with this vangard movement.