Cabaret Voltaire

Cabaret Voltaire (2004-2019) powstał w tym samym miejscu, w którym w  1916 roku zainaugurowała swoją działalność grupa dadaistów Cabaret Voltaire.

Z wywiadu z Adrianem Notzem opublikowanego w „Oncurating” (numer 48):

Anastasia Chaguidouline: Jak dokładnie wyglądała sytuacja Cabaret Voltaire zanim zaczęłaś tam pracować? W którym roku zacząłeś tam pracować?

Adrian Notz: Zacząłem w 2004 roku. To był rok ponownego otwarcia we wrześniu 2004. Wcześniej cały budynek został zasiedlony w 2002 roku przez artystów na kilka miesięcy. Mark Divo, Pastor Leumund i Ayana Calugar byli głównymi postaciami pośród wielu lokalnych i międzynarodowych artystów, którzy mieszkali tam i tworzyli wystawy i szalone akcje. Przyciągnęły one międzynarodową uwagę. To dzięki squatersom ludzie w Zurychu, w Szwajcarii i na całym świecie uświadomili sobie, że Zurych ma to dziedzictwo kulturowe – miejsce narodzin Dada.

Po squattingu założono komitet i utworzono grupę projektową. Ogłoszono konkurs architektoniczny na renowację tego miejsca, który wygrała firma Rossetti + Wyss. Członkami grupy projektowej byli wówczas Juri Steiner, znany lokalnie specjalista od dadaizmu, Thomas Kramer, dziennikarz, a obecnie szef wydawnictwa Scheidegger & Spiess, oraz Karin Hilzinger, myślicielka designu, jak sama siebie dziś nazywa. Nadrzędnym kontekstem, z którego wyłoniła się grupa projektowa było Expo.02, wielki narodowy spektakl, który odbywał się we francuskiej części Szwajcarii (od 15 maja 2002 do 20 października 2002). Zacząłem mniej więcej w czerwcu 2004 roku, jako asystent Philippa Meiera, który został mianowany dyrektorem (Cabaret Voltaire).

Więcej na on-curating.org

Cabaret Voltaire – bio

Cabaret Voltaire (2004-2019) was founded in the exact place where the famous dada Cabaret Voltaire was founded in 1916. Participants:

1. Bitnik Media Collective
   Bitnik is a media collective which works on the production and the imparting of mediacultural projects. Bitniks main focus is to investigate digital and analog media and the impact they have on society. This exploratory work is put into practice in artistic exhibitions, interventions in public space and in the development of social software and interfaces. Thereby Bitnik aims at creating a field for social and cultural action and collaboration. In their latest project Bitnik investigate the possibilities that arise through media convergencies by connecting a pirate TV station with the overwhelming amount of media content available on the internet: Make P2P Television – Copyfight!
   Bitnik are Carmen Weisskopf, Silvan Leuthold und Domagoj Smoljo
2. Peter Fend
   1950 in New York, lives in Berlin, entered art world when he saw that places where he was expected to go, like the World Bank, were using paradigms from prior to 20th century art, e.g., earth art, video art. Showed Earth Net: An Economic System, an earthworks construction scenario monitored by satellites, at Caltech, 1978. Also researched Constructivist-architecture projects for Gordon Matta-Clark. Studio at PS 1, but joined Collaborative Projects, Inc., with spinoff Offices of Fend, Fitzgibbon, Holzer, Nadin, Prince & Winters. A lawyer saw a magazine article about adventures with the Mafia, resulting from Fend´s fish-dock job, recognized his boyhood friend, met, then advised Holzer and Fend to form legal corporations. In 1980, Ocean Earth Construction and Development Corporation is founded, meant to serve real-world clients in mass-markets: building-technology firms, TV news companies, international newspapers and magazines, ecological organizations and regional governments. Commissioned reports were filed with the US Congress and UNEP-sponsored scientific conferences. The firm was invited in 1987 and 1991 to present Iran-Iraq findings to the UN press corps. But with the exception of writer Jonathan Crary and curators Peter Weibel and Sue Spaid, the art world has been hostile. It has arranged, rather, that Peter Fend appear, in his own name, as an artist instead of architect, builder or media-producer, at Documenta IX, every Venice Biennale since 1993 and many international galleries and museums. NEWS ROOM; started in 1990, is an attempt to re-assert teamwork practices.
3. Rainer Ganahl
   Born in Bludenz, lives and works in New York with an American and an Austrian passport
4. Patrick Maisano
   * 1977 in Sursee LU, aufgewachsen in Winterthur, lebt in Zürich. 1997 – 1999 Studium der Germanistik, Universität Zürich, 1999 – 2005 Studium der Architektur an der ETH Zürich und Diplom (dipl. Arch. ETH). Praktika bei NEXTarchitects, Amsterdam und bei 99iC, Milano. Seit 2005 Assistent an der Professur M. Angélil für Architektur und Entwurf an der ETH Zürich. Selbständige Arbeiten als Architekt (z.B. Europan8), Autor in verschiedenen Zeitschriften (z.B. Camenzind), Lyrikpublikationen in Anthologien und Mitbegründer des Projektes „housefucking.com“.
5. Martin Matter
   * 1978 in Aarau AG, aufgewachsen in Erlinsbach SO. 1999 – 2006 Studium der Architektur an der Eidgenössichen Technischen Hochschule in Zürich, während eines Praktikumaufenthaltes 2002 in Hong Kong arbeitete er für OMAsia, seit April 2006 Tätigkeit als Dipl. Architekt ETH sowie Assistent an der Professur M. Angélil an der ETH Zürich. Nebenbei ist er Mitglied des DJ-Kollektivs The Bontempi Five.
6. Adrian Notz
   *1977 Zürich. Lebt in Zürich. Er hat von 1998 – 2000 an der HFK Bremen freie Kunst und von 2000 – 2004 Theorie der Kunst und Gestaltung an der HGK Zürich studiert. Adrian Notz ist seit 2004 Ko-Direktor für Ausstellungen und Programm und Direktor für internationale Projekte des cabaret voltaire, Zürich, darunter eine Ausstellung mit Gianni Motti und zwei Symposien Merzbau in Zusammenarbeit mit Hans Ulrich Obrist unter anderen mit Thomas Hirschhorn.

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From the interview with Adrian Notz published in „Oncurating” (issue 48):

Anastasia Chaguidouline: What exactly was the situation of Cabaret Voltaire before you started working there? What year did you start working there?

Adrian Notz: I started in 2004. That was the year of the re-opening in September 2004. Before that, the whole building was squatted in 2002 by artists for a couple of months. Mark Divo, Pastor Leumund, and Ayana Calugar were the head figures of a lot of local and international artists who lived there and made daily programs, exhibitions, and crazy actions during that time, which earned a lot of international attention. It is thanks to the squatters that people in Zurich, in Switzerland, and worldwide, became aware that Zurich has this cultural heritage, the birthplace of Dada.

After the squatting, a committee was founded and a project group formed. An architectural competition to renovate the place was put into place, which Rossetti + Wyss won. The members of the initial project group were Juri Steiner, a locally known Dada specialist, Thomas Kramer, a journalist and now head of publishing house Scheidegger & Spiess, and Karin Hilzinger, a design thinker, as she calls herself today. The overarching context out of which the project group, the architects, and also other supporters emerged was the Expo.02, a big national spectacle that was happening in the French part of Switzerland (May 15, 2002 to October 20, 2002). I started more or less in June 2004, as an assistant of Philipp Meier, who had been appointed as the director (of Cabaret Voltaire).

More on on-curating.org

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From Artist’ statement:

cabaret voltaire
By inaugurating the legendary „Cabaret Voltaire“ on February 5, 1916, Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Hans Arp, Tristan Tzara and Marcel Janco founded the most important art movement ever to originate in Zurich: the Zurich Dadaism. From the house at Spiegelgasse 1 Dada started its journey into the world – launching an international cultural revolution.
Nearly 90 years later, the tireless efforts of numerous Dada friends have finally cleared the way for a dada-inspired re-dedication of the house: on September 30, 2004, the home of the Dadaist world will once again open its doors under the name of cabaret voltaire, welcoming scientists, school children, art lovers, exhausted shoppers, business people, tourists, socialites and localites alike.
The power of its localisation makes cabaret voltaire an emotionally intense, tourist memorial to the historical Dadaism. At the same time and foremost though, cabaret voltaire is a live cultural centre, where bridges between Dada and the social and cultural movements of today are built.
cabaret voltaire‘s interdisciplinary approach, its understanding of culture that interacts with everyday city life; art and science immersed in each other, historical reference and actual interventions side by side, and because of the fact that the Dada advancements can originate and be exhibited at the birthplace of the movement, make it stick out among the existing cultural institutions in Zurich.
cabaret voltaire wants

•  to document: the gigantic projection area named Dada, still not definitely rationalised, is art-historically re-appraised. In biannual rotations and chiefly centred in the vaulted basement, cabaret voltaire presents documentary/historical exhibitions.
• to transform: a contemporary cultural programme reflects and investigates strategies and principle motifs of the Dadaists and their actuality, making Dada a rich source for the present.
• to experiment: the interdisciplinary programme of cabaret voltaire tackles relevant cultural and society issues, eyes set on the future. The cabaret‘s „shop window“, called showcase, displays alternating new installations of young artists, whereas the cabaret voltaire hall itself stages events and performances with changing thematic orientations on a two-month basis.
  The events at cabaret voltaire will mostly result from collaborations with external artists, curators and interested circles; admission will basically be free.
  Collaborations with other cultural institutions are just as much planned as hoped for, and so are interventions in the spirit of the cabaret voltaire, outside its own premises.