In the chapter ‘Merdre. Dada’s Roots in the Avant-Garde’, the author gives an emphasis on the artistic activities at the pre-war time to trace the roots of Dadaism, with a tight link to avant-garde art. With new materials and techniques applied, artist practice of that period, in various forms, approached the philosophy behind art and the social and political reality while questioning their value.

It starts with a summary of where and when those movements took place and France in the 19th century is given the first in-depth look. Visual arts there was privileged by the government and society, cultivating the intention of the avant-garde to exceed the conventional limit, reflect reality and generate new ideas, which were further encouraged by the ongoing social issues. This is followed by arguments concerning theoretical and musical performances and criticism. From an overall perspective, the rising status of avant-garde critics contributed to the situation, with poet Guillaume Apollinaire highlighted.

The author then expands the focus in a broader context, including Europe and further. Organizations were established the gather the talented and exchange ideas. Despite a few conflicts it proved greatly beneficial towards, for instance, theorists, including communists, like Karl Marx, and anarchists, writers, and playwrights, poets and etc.

Among those Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-5) is considered worth mentioning, the same as Richard Wagner’s music, creating an interconnection across the visual and music, from which artists were seeking inspiration and strength. Philosophy achievement from Henri Bergson is referred to, In the next few paragraphs, as an influential source for more practices.

Then more attention is drawn to simultaneity as it was affecting the practices in, as mainly depicted, Milan. The author proceeds with transformation and new forms, especially in collages and poems, where the framework of present experience and language was reconstructed.

To compare with, artists from central Europe seemed to value more the scientific and technological progress. This allowed, particularly expressionists, to interactively explore between the outer nature and inner emotion. It drew the support from scientific propositions with Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) as an instance. He aroused the question of an unbalanced driving force of behaviours based on rational judgments and unconscious desire. It was extended to realism practice, art production, and abstract painting. Furthermore, there appeared the accumulating interest and studies concerning the so-called ‘Fourth Dimension’ alongside the advancing technologies like X-Ray.

Situated in the last part were discussions about theosophy, motivating artists to render their works more morally and socially responsible. Meanwhile, it posed an urgent demand of alteration in artistic activities to challenge the established reality and a system of wealth and authority. The society, in a global range, responded to this revolution in an unfortunate way. The political crisis in Europe rapidly led to a massive war at the cost of human life. While its inhumanity was being widely criticized, on the other hand, the art movement in France, including the avant-garde, Cubism and Modernism were opposed to a certain extent with doubtable links to the enemies’ culture. Under pressure a great number of artists signed up for war to prove their loyalty, only to uncover its brutal essence. This eventually cultivated an urge to express their disgust towards the established, culture nationalism and to revise the conventions, which could possibly lead to the birth of Dadaism.