About this episode

This episode explores the origins of the Dada art movement in Zurich during World War I through the eyes of Richard Huelsenbeck.

In 1916, Zurich was a beacon for refugees. Fleeing the death and destruction of World War I, artists and free-thinkers from all over Europe fled to the neutral Swiss city. And it was here that the people who would start the art movement Dada came together. In a rare interview from 1959, held in the BBC archive, Richard Huelsenbeck describes how the group of young artists and pacifists shared a despair about the war and a disgust for bourgeois values. At the Cabaret Voltaire, he and the Romanian-born poet Tristan Tzara, the French sculptor Jean Arp and Romanian-born artist Marcel Janco experimented. Performances were known for their spontaneity, chance and absurdity - a departure from the conventional which confronted audiences. It was the beginning of an aesthetic which would spread across Europe and to New York City, eventually influencing Surrealism and later punk. This episode is produced and presented by Josephine McDermott. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take…

People in this episode

Host: Josephine McDermott

Guest: Richard Huelsenbeck

Topics covered

• Dada art movement
• World War I
• Zurich
• cultural history
• artistic experimentation

Keywords

• Dada
• art movement
• Zurich
• Cabaret Voltaire
• Richard Huelsenbeck
• Tristan Tzara
• Jean Arp
• Marcel Janco
• World War I

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BBC

Places: Zurich

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