Dada Manifesto

{{Short description|1916 artistic movement text by Hugo Ball}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2014}}

The Dada Manifesto (French: {{lang|fr|Le Manifeste DaDa}}) is a short text written by Hugo Ball detailing the ideals underlying the Dadaist movement. It was presented at Zur Waag guildhall in Zürich at the first public Dada gathering on July 14, 1916.{{cite book|last=Motherwell|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Motherwell|title=The Dada Painters and Poets; an anthology|date=1951|publisher=Wittenborn, Schultz|location=New York|oclc=1906000}} The choice of this date, Bastille Day, was important to Ball as it carried significance as a protest to World War I. In this manifesto, Ball begins by giving diverse definitions of the word "Dada" in multiple languages. He continues to introduce the movement's own definition of "Dada" by boldly asserting that "Dada is the heart of words."{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Shipe |first=Timothy |title=Ball, Hugo (1886–1927)|doi=10.4324/9781135000356-rem985-1|encyclopedia=Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism}} Ball concludes his manifesto with a linguistic explosion that alternates between coherence and absurdity. After writing his manifesto Ball stayed active in the Dada movement for another six months, but the manifesto created conflict with his fellow Dada artists, most notably Tristan Tzara.

On March 23, 1918, Tzara wrote and published another, longer, {{lang|fr|Manifeste Dada 1918}}.[https://writing.upenn.edu/library/Tzara_Dada-Manifesto_1918.pdf "Tristan Tzara: Dada Manifesto 1918"], English translation This manifesto was angrier and more nonsensical in tone.{{Cite book|year=2008|editor-last=Cardullo |editor-first=Bert |editor2-last=Knopf |editor2-first=Robert |title=Theater of the Avant-Garde, 1890–1950|doi=10.12987/9780300133042|isbn=9780300133042}} Tzara counters Ball's earlier manifesto and states that all definitions of "Dada" were to be dismissed immediately. Tzara's {{lang|fr|Manifeste}} was used in the prologue and in the segment about Dadaism of the 2015 film Manifesto.