The Emergence and Establishment of Yugoslav Dada: From Prague to Zagreb (1920–1922)

The article focuses on the transnational aspect of Yugoslav Dadaism, which was already an integral part of its founding stage in Prague in 1920, when the main Yugoslav Dadaist, Dragan Aleksić, was a student there. Through an analysis of the already known (but rare) primary and secondary sources and a presentation of some newly found primary sources, the article presents the cooperation between Yugoslav and Czech artists and clarifies the circumstances of establishing this Yugoslav avant-garde movement. Furthermore, because Aleksić’s work was closely connected to Ljubomir Micić’s Zenitism and the activity of Branko Ve Poljanski in Prague, we compare their journals (Zenit, Dada-Jok, Dada Tank, Dada Jazz) and emphasize the points of conflict and competitiveness among them, which was a constructive part for the further development of Yugoslav Dadaism. Thus, the article contributes to both the local and international positioning of the Yugoslav Dada in the context of the Central European avant-garde.