Fatti e finzioni : Dada, la rivoluzione di novembre e la Repubblica di Nikolassee

This chapter retraces the history of Dada in Berlin against the backdrop of the political situation from 1916 to 1920, analyzing the «bolchevisme in art» and the metapolitical activity of the movement. The technique of bluffing, the making of fake news and «blagues réclames» is perfected to an independent art of deception that the Dadaists use successfully to promote their cause. Inventions such as those of the victory of dada in the battle of Potsdam, of a «Dadaist putsch» and the proclamation of the «Dada Republic of Berlin-Nikolassee» are so plausible that they end up in scholarly publications on the movement. Dada is intrinsically revolutionary because it questions the dominant reason and opens up alternative spaces with its regression to chaos; but it is so radically revolutionary that it goes beyond the historical fact. The case of the Berlin Dada clearly demonstrates in this sense that fact checking fights only the symptoms: it tries to remove from the face of the earth what has already been well assimilated. The actions, proclamations and appeals, which were not followed by the facts, are among the most important “artifacts” of Berlin Dada. The activity of the movement can thus be seen as a sort of theatrical collage made up of fragments of real politics.