The Dada Divas – November 13
Dada Divas unearths and re-imagines the stories and creative works of important female artists and performers who were among the originators of the Dada movement: Emmy Hennings, Mina Loy, Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, Hannah Hoch, and others. It illuminates historical and artistic contributions by women who were overshadowed by their male counterparts, and also comments on such larger issues as the status of women, emigree life, war, and other concerns that are as relevant today as they were when Dada erupted a century ago. The performance is comprised of musical and theatrical vignettes and interludes. All the work’s major aspects – compositional processes, scenic design, staging, costuming-are based on its protagonists’ lives, performances, artistic works, and movements in which they are involved. Every vignette illustrates and amplifies aspects of Dada, Futurism, and the creative processes that these women used in their own work, which are refreshed by incorporating aspects of today’s music palette that are descendants of those processes.
This is the closing night performance of the <Dada World Fair and is organized by City Lights Bookstore.
November 13, 2016
Art and the Public Domain – November 16
Discussion on Art and the public domain with Sabine Himmelsbach, Director of House of Electronic Arts, Basel, Switzerland and Brewster Kahle, Founder, Internet Archive
Thurday, November 16, 7-9pm
Closing Night of Re:Dada – November 30
Performance night. Tom Comitta’s Selections from Bill: The Musikill
Wednesday, November 30, 7-9pm
Past events
Re:Dada – November 4
An evening of remixed Dada and Cabaret Voltaire
Celebrate the opening of the Re:Dada exhibition with an evening of remixed Cabaret Voltaire and Dada performances, artists and artworks.
Performances throughout the evening by Swiss artists Adolf Gurkenhofer, dock18, W3rkh0f media arts, Claude Winterberg & Adrian Notz. Discussion with John Heartfield and Juri Steiner.
Friday, November 4, 7-11pm
The Dadaglobe Project – November 2
Lecture by Art Historian Adrian Sudhalter
In 1921, Dada co-founder Tristan Tzara sought to curate a definitive anthology of the Dada movement, the Dadaglobe. Had it been published, it would have included more than one hundred artworks and one hundred texts by some forty contributors from ten countries. Yet, mainly due to a lack of funding, Dadaglobe remained unpublished, leaving a remarkable void in the history of the Dada movement. Adrian Sudhalter discusses her years of research on this project, and collaboration with the Kunsthaus Zürich, which resulted in the reconstruction of the planned book. That project resulted in a book, designed by the award- winning Zürich-based design team NORM, and the exhibition Dadaglobe Reconstructed, at the Kunsthaus Zürich in February 2016. It has since travelled to The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The book is available to purchase at the event thanks to City Lights Bookstore.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
Kleine Dada Soirée – Cabaret Voltaire – April 11
On april 11 we organised a small dada evening at the historic founding place of dadaism in the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich. With chaotic, random and dadaistic elements the Swiss artists performed their re-appropriation of dada archetypes.
During the show the audience was served with a noodle soup made of former Sophie Taeuber-Arp bills and letters from the Opening Manifesto of Hugo Ball.
A longer report is available in German.