Cabaret Voltaire

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Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich

The Cabaret Voltaire is a theater founded in 1916 and a small stage in Zurich . It was the birthplace of Dadaism and served as a club, gallery, pub and theater at the same time.

history

Hugo Ball at a performance in Cabaret Voltaire, 1916
Marcel Słodki : Poster for February 5, 1916

Upstairs Spiegelgasse 1, in the same building as the pub dairy , opened Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings on February 5, 1916, the Cabaret Voltaire. Just a few meters from Lenin's residence at the time, at Spiegelgasse No. 14, there were events every evening where manifestos, phonetic poems , dance and dramatic scenes were presented to music, by and with Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Hans Arp , Richard Huelsenbeck , among others , Marcel Janco , Tristan Tzara , Sophie Taeuber , Suzanne Perrottet . Walter Serner and Friedrich Glauser also belonged to the wider circle . There were pictures of Picasso , Arp , Macke , Marinetti , Modigliani and many others on the walls . The events at Cabaret Voltaire initially met with heavy criticism in the newspapers and among the population.

Sign on the wall of the Cabaret Voltaire house

In Zurich at the time, numerous exiles who wanted or had to flee their warring countries gathered. Hugo Ball later said that his idea when it was founded was that numerous young people not only wanted to live their freedom and independence there, but also wanted to loudly proclaim it.

Zurich is considered the place where Dadaism was founded, but founders fanned out as early as the summer of 1916 and founded new Dada groups that were in contact with one another. In addition to the metropolises of Paris, Berlin and New York, there were other important Dadaists in Cologne, Hanover and Geneva. The increasingly provocative actions of the Dadaists wore off. It is generally assumed that the end of the movement began in 1922. Some Dadaists then joined the Surrealists .

New beginning of the 21st century

When the building of the former Cabaret Voltaire threatened to be converted into a pharmacy and condominium in 2002, the building was occupied by artists such as Jan Theiler , Mark Divo , Mikry Drei, Lennie Lee and Dan Jones from the artist group Kroesus (also Fondation Kroesus ) . These artists tried to revive the Dada movement as Neo-Dada, organized exhibitions, concerts, open stages, Dada fairs with Pastor Leumund , readings, workshops, parties and Dada festival weeks. The occupation brought the building and its art-historical context into the consciousness of the residents of Zurich for the first time. The squatters were evicted, the house was cleared and used as a regular cultural institution run by the city of Zurich.

David Woodard , Ma Anand Sheela and Christian Kracht read at Cabaret Voltaire, 2008

Some post-Dadaists like Jonathan Meese are loosely associated with Cabaret Voltaire, which has existed in institutional form since 2004 . The new Cabaret Voltaire was created thanks to the commitment of Dada friends. From summer 2004 Philipp Meier was appointed director and Adrian Notz as co-director. So Spiegelgasse 1 could be brought into a professionalization phase. Until the end of 2013, Philipp Meier headed the “PostDADA” department, while Adrian Notz established “DADAlogie”. Adrian Notz has been the sole director since 2012. An exhibition room - crypt - and a shop were set up on the ground floor and basement. On the upper floor there is a café with an event room in the historical back room, the former “dairy”.

Today the Cabaret Voltaire adopts personalities and celebrates them as Dadaists, such as Alexander Archipenko , Tatsuo Okada or Michail Bakunin , whose grave in the Bremgarten cemetery in Bern they received in 2014 with other anonymous sponsors, and also with a new plaque by the Swiss artist Daniel Garbade have renovated.

financing

The sponsoring association finances the operation partly from public, partly from private sources. The city of Zurich bears the rental costs. In 2008 the SVP held a referendum against the city of Zurich continuing to participate in the operation of the Cabaret Voltaire. The referendum committee "Zurich is not gaga: No tax money for Dada!" however suffered a clear rebuff. In the vote, a clear majority of those entitled to vote spoke out in favor of continuing participation, which guaranteed the continued existence of Cabaret Voltaire.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Website of the 7th Werkleitz Biennale , accessed on February 26, 2013
  2. ↑ dadata.ch: The first international Dadafestwochen 2002. ( Memento from September 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Cabaret Voltaire, Dreamachine: David Woodard, Sheela Birnstiel, Christian Kracht , May 2 - August 24, 2008.
  4. ^ Bronner, S., & Weyand, B., Christian Krachts Weltliteratur: Eine Topographie ( Berlin & Boston : De Gruyter , 2018), p. 201 .
  5. ^ N. Paunić: Cabaret Voltaire Securing its Future , Widewalls, February 2016.
  6. ^ Adrian Notz: You are Dada. Tages Anzeiger, accessed June 27, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Simon Wälti: Birthday party in the cemetery. Tages Anzeiger, May 30, 2014, accessed June 27, 2016 .
  8. ↑ September 28, 2008: Votes and Elections . In: stadt-zuerich.ch . Retrieved December 19, 2015.

literature

Web links

Commons : Cabaret Voltaire  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '17.8 "  N , 8 ° 32' 38.4"  E ; CH1903:  683485  /  247340