DaDa

The art movement emerged in the early 20th century. It was born out of the negativity of the horrors World War 1 brought with it. The movement started when a group of poets and artists joined together. They rejected reason, logic and prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition. 

The movement involved:
-visual arts
-literature
-poetry
-art
-manifestoes
-art theory
-theatre
-graphic design

Dada poet Hugo Ball had once written “For us, art is not an end in itself, but it is an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live in.” The group was about anti-war politics and embraced modernity in forms of technology, newspapers, films, and advertisements. They liked working with photo-montage and collage. 

A well-known piece from the Dada movement was the "fountain" by Marcel Duchamp, 1917. Made from porcelain. It basically consist of a urinal, laid flat on its back and signed  'R. Mutt 1917'. The original was lost and replicated again in 1964 (the one in the picture), and is one of Duchamp's most famous artworks and is considered to be an iconic 20th century masterpiece. He got his idea from a discussion with a friend. He bought the urinal from a plumber shop and placed it in an exhibition organised by the society of Independent Artists.  'Mr Mutt's fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bathtub is immoral. It is a fixture that you see every day in plumbers' shop windows. Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - created a new thought for that object.' ('The Richard Mutt Case', The Blind Man, New York, no.2, May 1917, p.5.)

"ABCD" collage by Raoul Hausmann is a self portrait. The open mouth and clenched teeth around the "ABCD" lettering shows intensity and discomfort. The lettering is information on one of Hausmann's upcoming poetry readings. Hausmann seems to be using the Hands, money, a fire extinguisher and different hidden words to make the audience accept a to accepted the different beliefs and create individual opinions by the use of art.

not mentioned. (/). dada. Available: http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/dada. Last accessed 28th november 2013.