The centenary of the global artistic and literary movement Dada will be celebrated at a number of cultural institutions and art spaces in Tokyo this summer.
Regarded as an anti-establishment and antiwar movement emerging out of the horrors of World War I (1914-18), it spread across the world from the Swiss city of Zurich and had a decisive influence on the development of contemporary art through groundbreaking works such as Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" — a porcelain urinal turned on its side and signed "R. Mutt 1917."
The piece, with which Duchamp challenged traditional notions of art, was rejected at its first exhibition but he continued issuing subsequent versions of the piece. With its diminished utilitarian associations it was considered a type of anti-art of Duchamp's "readymades."