Dada • 1916 • I
On February 5, 1916, the Cabaret Voltaire opens in the Neiderdorf quarter, a "slightly disreputable" entertainment district. An advertisement placed in the local newspaper invites "the young artists of Zürich, whatever their orientation...to come along with suggestions and contributions of all kinds". Ball and Hennings, together with Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber, Marcel Janco and Tristan Tzara, soon coalesce as the original ensemble. On Ball's request, writer Richard Huelsenbeck joins them from Berlin soon after. Though the Cabaret remains open for just over five months, closing down in early July, it provides a focused space for the explosion of energy and ideas that instigate the Dada movement. Tzara provides the first explanation of Dada in Vol. 1 of the Collection Dada in July; "Dada is our intensity...it's shit after all but from now on we intend to shit in assorted colours and bedeck the zoo of art with the flags of every consulate..."
An entry from the timeline included in the exhibition Dada South? Experimentation, Radicalism and Resistance (2009–2010) at the Iziko National Gallery, which proposed connections between art production in South Africa and abroad against the social and political contexts that framed them. A revised version of this timeline was later featured in the retroactive Flight Paths (2011) exhibition guide commissioned by Clare Butcher.