Dada is a movement in art and literature that emerged in Europe and North America in response to World War I. It is characterized by deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values. The name "Dada" is derived from nonsense and irrationality, and in some languages, it meant "yes, yes" as a parody of the populations senseless obedience to authority. There is no consensus on the origin of the movements name, but some theories suggest that it came from the Romanian artists Tristan Tzaras and Marcel Jancos frequent use of the words "da, da," meaning "yes, yes" in the Romanian language.
Dadaists sought to break from tradition and bring the world of "fine art" back to a more level and egalitarian playing field through humor and inquisitive investigation. The movement was a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests, which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war, and against the cultural and intellectual conformity in art and society that corresponded to the war.
Dada artists used a variety of mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, collage, and performance art, to express their ideas. Some of the most renowned Dada artists include Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray in Paris, George Grosz, Otto Dix, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, Max Ernst, and Kurt Schwitters in Germany, and Tristan Tzara, Richard Huelsenbeck, Marcel Janco, and Jean Arp in Zurich.
It is worth noting that "Dada" can also be an informal term for a father in some contexts, and it can refer to a person or thing that shows the existence or direction of a trend.
