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“Dada Afrika: Dialogue with the Other”

The Berlinische Galerie and Museum Rietberg, Zurich, host first ever exhibition exploring the Dada preoccupation

July 08th, 2016
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Next month, in cooperation with the Museum Rietberg Zurich, a leading German-language institution in the field of non-European art, the Berlinische Galerie, is set to host the highly-anticipated, must-see art exhibition, “Dada Afrika: Dialogue with the other”.

Marking the centenary of the Dada movement, the exhibition offers the opportunity to explore the path paved by the Dada movement in the beginning of the previous century. This path explored various art forms and traditions from across the world, engaged with artefacts from Africa, Asia and Oceania, and created major opportunities for cultural and aesthetic exchange.

The exhibition will be the first anywhere in the world to be devoted to the Dadaists’ preoccupation with non-European art and culture. About 120 works from collections in Germany and abroad will be presented in five sections, featuring works by Jean Arp, Hugo Ball, George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Man Ray, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Tristan Tzara and numerous other artists. The exhibition reveals how much the Dadaists looked to non-European art in formulating their own new aesthetic approach. It can be argued that the Dadaists’ work laid the groundwork for new ways of seeing the ‘Other’.

The exhibition poses critical questions to the viewer, regarding the universality and the liberating power of art and it’s transformative nature. It enables a broad rethinking of the aims of the Dada movement and the role of art as a powerful tool for cultural diplomacy.

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News from Berlin
Cristina Stoica, Berlin Global