When the Dadaists came together at Zurich’s Cabaret Voltaire in 1916, they expanded the field of poetry through their simultaneous and sound poems, introducing new sounds, voices, gestures, and images. Using quoted and invented languages, they moved «zwischen da und da» (between here and there): away from one thing, toward another. Dada was both departure and arrival—a search for new languages and ways of living, shaped by migration, precarity, and a strong desire for change. And all of this took place in the midst of the First World War.
What remains of the Dadaist impulses? There are no contemporary audio or film recordings of the activities at Cabaret Voltaire in 1916. All the richer, then, is the history of memories, creative reception, appropriation, as well as critical continuation. To this day. The Poetry Happening expands the current exhibition «DadaZwischenSprachen» (DadaBetweenLanguages) with a live stage, with loud and quiet voices of the present, with workshops, conversations, and encounters over food and drinks on site.
Where does Dada’s language art lead us today? What happens to poetry when it moves between bodies, languages, cultures, and times? Which voices are (not) heard? And what do we want to hear more of?
With: Aaiún Nin, Adrienne Herr, dears, write, Eugene Ostashevsky, Jurczok 1001, Kinga Tóth, Lubna Abou Kheir, Melinda Nadj Abonji, Oana Popa, Uljana Wolf. Many thanks to Weiter Schreiben Schweiz and zwischentext.
30.09.
19:00–20:00 Workshop with dears, write
20:00–22:00 Performances by Melinda Nadj Abonji, Lubna Abou Kheir, Jurczok 1001 & Kinga Tóth, followed by a conversation
01.10.
17:00–19:30 Workshop with Oana Popa (zwischentext) for migrant and post-migrant communities and anyone whose first language is not German
20:00–22:15 Performances by Aaiún Nin, Adrienne Herr, Oana Popa, Uljana Wolf & Eugene Ostashevsky, followed by a conversation
Admission: donation-based
Please note: The exhibition will be open until 8 pm on both days and admission is free for Happening attendees. There will also be a guided tour of the exhibition with Salome Hohl and Sandro Zanetti at 7 pm (Please register at info@cabaretvoltaire.ch).
The poetry happening takes place as part of the exhibition «DadaZwischenSprachen», the result of a collaboration between the University of Zurich (Prof. Dr. Sandro Zanetti, Department of Romance Studies, Division of General and Comparative Literature) and Cabaret Voltaire (Salome Hohl), supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF Agora project “Dada Between Languages”). Contributors happening: Prof. Dr. Tomáš Glanc (University of Zurich, Institute of Slavic and East European Studies) and Joëlle Bischof (Cabaret Voltaire).
