Buildings of power and the Dada art movement

28:30Never before has a populated area been contaminated like this. At first, local people thought the poisonous vapour was no more than the everyday pollution they're used to. Life that day carried on as normal. We had no reason to be alarmed. There was no evidence to suggest otherwise. Next to the factory, there were fields used by local farmers to grow crops. And because it was July, it was warm, so all the families that lived there, they were eating lunch outside. So after the explosion, a cloud of dust has settled on the fields, including the tables set by families and the children who were playing outside.

29:09But no one is concerned. It's just a bit of dust. In fact, the public still don't know about their exposure to dioxin three days later. Giuseppe went to his weekly Tuesday council meeting in high spirits. I showed up with pastry and Prosecco because my eldest son had been born the day before. None of us knew about the factory, so in the meeting we celebrated the birth of my son and didn't even discuss the explosion. But Giuseppe had always had concerns about the factory. I was half joking because I'd raised this with the mayor several times before and said to him, if you're meeting the management of the factory, can you ask them about dumping dirt waste in the stream and polluting it?

29:54He answered me very curtly, yes, yes, right. It was not until six days after the accident that the Akmeza factory closed down, and then only at the workers' insistence. And it was not until eight days had passed that the owners, Givaudin, a subsidiary of the giant multinational drug company Hoffman-Laroche, admitted that the gas contained four and a half pounds of dioxin, a by-product of herbicide manufacture and one of the deadliest poisons known to man. How did you feel when you found out and you had a newborn son? Well, I was certainly concerned. My son and my wife moved away for two months and he didn't come home to Cerviso until it was safe.

30:39Nobody had heard of dioxin before.

30:45A further week passed before anyone decided that evacuations were necessary or that people should be warned not to eat or sell their vegetables, as they have been doing for the past fortnight. Only after three weeks, when cattle began to die and children began to show signs of the appalling skin disease known as chloracne, did it begin to sink in that a disaster had happened. The children who had been playing outside showed symptoms of chloroacne and boils. It was the first warning sign. The second was the death of birds. There were dead birds on the street. It was very unusual. Residents also developed nausea, headaches, eye irritation, and 19 children were admitted to local hospitals with skin lesions.

31:33Almost immediately, the officials of the Lombardy Regional Authority began to minimise its significance as much as possible. Only the few hundred people nearest the factory were to be evacuated, and they were to be allowed to take their polluted possessions with them. The first evacuation concerned a rather large area, but not many buildings. The family had been notified that they had to abandon everything by 12pm. I went with the police and soldiers to knock on the door and tell them it was time to leave. What did we find? We found families that were quietly having lunch, as if it was the last supper.

32:12In zone B, further away, pregnant women should leave and children stay out, but only during the day. And a motorway, which ran right through the poisoned area, remained wide open. The second evacuation was more difficult because there were more families and they were sent very far away from Ceveso to a motel near the motorway, about 40 kilometres away. These families were severely tested because they found themselves away from home with no space or garden in hotel rooms for several months. It really affected them psychologically. There's an eerie, sinister atmosphere in the contaminated area near the chemical plant.

32:54The streets and houses are empty. Police and army patrols work only for short spells to reduce the risk to their health. The invisible poison has withered trees and plant life, killed a cow, rabbits and chickens, Many cats have been stricken. As the full health threat becomes apparent, workmen erect barriers around the 170-acre zone. Dioxin stays dangerously in the topsoil for up to 14 years. There are still locals who resent the publicity and the army presence. Lives in this small industrial fringe community have been shattered by an invisible enemy. Meanwhile, despite abortion being illegal in Italy, the government specifically permitted them for the 600 pregnant women affected by the disaster.

33:3626 were performed, according to the British Health and Safety Executive. A later study found no evidence of increased birth defects due to exposure to dioxin, but the data set was too small to rule out a small risk. Twelve months after the disaster, many families remained displaced. A market garden town, stripped of its soil, surrounded by troops and 10-foot fences, and overshadowed by a heap of poison which no one is quite sure what to do with. Something like 3 ,000 local animals have died, tens of thousands have been slaughtered. This unlovely but inoffensive township is doomed, its prosperity gone, its products shunned by the rest of Italy.

34:16The immediate negative impact was the blocking of all productive activity in Ceveso. It was known for its woodwork and furniture making. But because of the dioxin, almost all the holders from around the country and abroad stopped, because they suspected that the wood products were polluted. Long-term, health side effects for those exposed to dioxin included decreased fertility and increased risk for cancers. But the disaster did lead to stronger industry regulation. In 1982, the European Union adopted the SEVISO Directive, a law aimed at improving the safety of sites containing large quantities of dangerous substances.

34:56Roche paid out an estimated$168 million in damages, In 1983, four former employees were found guilty of willful failure to prevent the explosion, and a fifth was found guilty of involuntary negligence. They were sentenced to between two and a half to five years in prison, but three were later acquitted after appealing. Back in Severso, the contaminated area was made into a park known as Bosco de la Cuerche, or Oak Forest. The houses which once stood there have been demolished, and are buried beneath its small hills and two tunnels, alongside the remains of 80 ,000 animals. I could gladly show you the system for storing the polluting material.

35:38We had people come from Sweden to learn how we store it. And thanks to Oak Forest, the fauna has returned there. Life has returned to the environment. Councillor Giuseppe Cassina was speaking to Rachel Naylor and recalling the 1976 chemical disaster which changed his town, Seveso, forever. Now, a relatively rare event in the passage of history is the creation of a brand new country. The most recent example occurred in 2011, when a new flag was raised over the city of Juba as South Sudan officially came into being. The birth of this new nation followed a bitter civil war, and it represented a moment of hope for millions of people, as Daniel Rosny has been hearing.

36:20I feel so happy.

36:27And we are going to be a nation, we are going to be our own. It felt like I was in something that is bigger than not only myself, like something that I couldn't imagine. It's the 9th of July, 2011, and people are flooding the streets in the city of Juba. They're cheering, waving flags, banging drums and dancing. People who want a better view are climbing up trees. South Sudan is about to become the world's newest nation. It's a journey that began after a peace deal ended, a long and bloody civil war in Sudan that killed more than 2 million people. I was overwhelmed with hope and optimism and excitement and joy as someone who was born in the middles of the conflict.

37:31Malou El-Balqir was 17 years old and he couldn't believe his eyes. Because being from Sudan, being in East Africa, the idea of independence is something that we read on history books. But for me to see myself being part of that history, it was really, really something that I would never forget. As a teenager, you were aware of the change that was happening. So how were you feeling when you woke up that day? Being free, being in a new country. On the 8th before the 9th, we knew that tomorrow is going to be a declaration of our independence. The idea that something big and something new is happening tomorrow, I couldn't even sleep.

38:09I don't even remember whether I slept. Six months earlier, there'd been a referendum in the southern part of Sudan. More than 99 % of the nearly 4 million who voted chose to break away and become an independent state. I feel good, man. I feel good. I knew, oh wow, this is a moment where I will never be displaced again. This is a moment that maybe I will not have to be a refugee again. We hereby declare Southern Sudan to be an independent and sovereign state. Malawal, you were just seven years old when you were displaced like millions of others. And you and your family headed south when you left your home.

38:57Well, I fled to northern Uganda in a refugee camp. And how many members of your family fled with you? It was myself, my young brother, my sister, who was older than me and my mum. Refugee camp was like a safe haven to me because I was coming in a place where we were running away from aerial bombardment. from attacks where we see relatives dying in the front line, where we keep running back with our cows, with our cattle and things like that. Once I arrived in refugee camp, there was no bombardment anymore and I had the chance to go to school as well. Africa's largest nation was in conflict for decades with communities in the south, predominantly black and Christian, facing political, economic and educational marginalisation under a mainly Arab-Muslim-led government in the north.

39:48The south resisted the nationwide imposition of Islamic Sharia law. Rebel groups took up arms against the state. Tensions escalated over land rights, control of oil revenue and long-standing economic neglect. When the peace process began in 2005, Malawal and his family left Uganda to return home. In our mind was always, oh, now there is peace. It's just a matter of time that we will be going back to South Sudan. But then, unexpectedly, one of the key figures in South Sudan's story died, and it threatened to upend everything. Dr John Gorang was the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and its military wing.

40:34He was travelling back from Uganda in a helicopter when it quashed. People were crying that we were in the camp. there was a little bit moment of despair. People thought, oh, maybe we might lose all that he has accomplished with his colleagues, officials from South Sudan that were coming to the camp and encouraging us, oh, even if we lost Dr. John, still the vision continues and things like that. That vision did continue, as his successor pledged to pursue his policies. And with 2011 approaching, preparations for an independent South Sudan began to take shape. As well as a functioning state, there were symbols that needed to be created too.

41:15A new flag. Officials chose one with three horizontal stripes of black, red and green, separated by thin white lines. It has a blue triangle on the left-hand side that contains a yellow star.

41:32There was also a new national anthem required. A nationwide talent contest was set up with students and staff from the University of Juba composing the winning entry.

41:47I was among those that were selected to learn the national anthem. And then I was sent across different counties to go and teach other people prior to the Declaration of Independence. So how long did that take them to go around the country and teach people the words to the new national anthem? Like two months, me and my colleagues were divided into different places. We were going to school. We were also going to churches.

42:20They were like, OK, we'll bring this number of people from this school, even from people from organized forces, from police, from military. They were brought in one place and then we took them to go and teach their colleagues. South Sudan possesses large natural resources, including oil, but it was largely untapped due to constant conflicts. That remains true today. There were other challenges back then too. Around three quarters of the population in 2011 were illiterate. One in seven children wouldn't live to be older than five years old. The Declaration of Independence was signed in the nation's capital at the Dr.

42:59Jongurang Mausoleum. and promote the unity of the people of South Sudan. A tribute to one of the most influential figures in the country's history who died in the helicopter crash just weeks after the 2005 peace deal was signed. Despite the fact that everybody was waiting for the declaration of a new country, some of the people even didn't hear the word declaration because they were already caught up in the moment of celebration even. The following days when people were like, oh, who spoke on the declaration? What really happened? We were having a moment of history where we were just celebrating and enjoying.

43:35It was a moment of hope and joy and optimism for the future that lies ahead of me. I didn't know that it would be like the way it is today. Since then, the country has struggled with political instability. By the end of 2013, a civil conflict emerged and continued for five years. It left hundreds of thousands dead. In 2026, a humanitarian crisis remains and there are growing fears of a possible return to conflict. But back in 2011, as the new large flag was raised in the new capital Juba, as the birth of a new nation was introduced to the world, there were tears in the eyes of citizens belting out the new national anthem.

44:28It talks about the sacrifice that was done by the martyrs and cementing the foundation of our nation. It reminds us that maybe their struggle was not in vain. They died for something, for us to live in peace and harmony.

44:49Malwell Balkir was speaking to Daniel Rosny and remembering that moment of optimism in South Sudan when it gained statehood in 2011 after a bitter civil war. And a backdrop of conflict and displacement lies behind our next story, but this time in Europe. In 1916, Zurich was a beacon for refugees. Fleeing the death and destruction of the First World War, artists and free thinkers from all over Europe fled to the neutral Swiss city. And it was here that the people who would start the art movement known as Dada came together. Josephine McDermott has the story.

45:39Don't worry, you're forgiven for not understanding that language. That's a Dada poem. We're going to find out what on earth that's all about and how it helped to shape the future of music, art and political protest. We're in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916. World War I has been fought for two years between the so-called central powers of Germany and Austro-Hungary and an alliance of Russia, France and Great Britain. There is ongoing trench warfare in France, Luxembourg and Belgium in the west and Russia in the east. It is the most deadly and destructive war the world has yet seen. Switzerland, a neutral country, is where many refugees have headed.

46:25Among them are artists and free thinkers from all over Europe. In a BBC interview in 1959, Richard Hülsenbeck described how he came to be one leaving Germany. I didn't like it in Berlin. I was very much opposed to the imperial set-up there. and together with many friends we believed that the Kaiser and his army had a great hand in causing the First World War. Our resentment was so strong that I decided to go to Zurich. There were two motives. One is a personal one, namely to follow my friend Hugo Ball and the other one was a political and social one to get out of Berlin and Germany. Hugo Ball was a writer, actor and dramatist.

47:11On a sloping, cobbled back street, Spiegelglasser No. 1, near the River Limat, amongst the tall, elegant townhouses with shuttered windows, he and his wife, Emmy Hennings, found a small bar. They lent it the name of the French Enlightenment writer who had outspoken beliefs in religious, political and social liberty. The Cavalier Voltaire was originally founded by Ball in order to give him some support He wanted to make a living there, he had gone through hard times Both founders, original founders of the Cavalier Voltaire, Ball and Hennings had worked in a factory And as they had no support, the Swiss were about to throw them out So they founded the Cabaret Voltaire, which was originally supposed to be only one of the many cabarets, but then later the artistic and literary elements came in.

48:09Ballet called it the Cabaret Voltaire because at this time it was at the extreme end of his liberalism, I may say. Young artists and pacifists, Romanian French-born poet Tristan Zara, the French sculptor Jean Up, and Romanian-born artist Marcel Janko were all drawn to the bar. Ball as well as myself were writers. And one evening I came in, there was Zara and Arp and Janko and his brothers, all people who had come together to collaborate with the cabaret Voltaire. A recipe for success. Anyhow, our cabaret was bankrupt after two weeks The owner came and said, dear friends, I'm sorry But you will have to quit the place unless you bring in some money So we had to hire a real performer who could sing A ball played a piano, but the public wanted to hear some songs And we hired a Swiss girl Her name was rather complicated and we wanted to give her a stage name So a few days before she was supposed to come to the cabaret I went with him through the Larousse Encyclopedia, and there I found the word Dada.

49:20So I said to Baal, why not Dada? And he said, Dada, Dada is wooden horse or toy in French. This girl that I was talking about never showed up in the cabaret, and therefore we told the whole story to our friends. The word Dada had a kind of a magical attraction and from now on we called many of our activities Dada. And how did they make Dada? It was about group collaboration, spontaneity and chance. Wanting to reject all traditional types of art, many Dadaists worked in collage and photomontage. They wanted to shock, be absurd, create chaos. For one early performance it's said that Hugo Ball was carried onto the stage in a cardboard cylinder he described as a sorcerer's costume.

50:13He had wings, giant paper claws and a blue and white striped hat which was two feet tall and he performed sound poetry which focused on sounds over meaning. Carawani! Actor Brian Blessed by Hugo Ball was recorded at the Londada Festival in London in 2016.

50:57I would say we were anarchists, not communists. We didn't want to belong to any party. What we wanted to act upon or what we wanted to act against, we didn't know exactly. So I had been, since I founded Dada together with Ab and Sarah and Bal and the others, I always was in the state of slight uncertainty about the definition of Dada. until finally I decided that just this kind of uncertainty was the characteristic of Dada. So here was Dadaism. We decided then, I don't want to say that I did it alone because this was the whole atmosphere. In this attempt to intellectualize it, we finally came to the decision that the irrationality of this movement was its essential factor.

51:53So that's all clear then. The first Dada Manifesto was written in 1916. It was a collection of their feelings about the war and society and previous philosophies. But where to target their anger? We had a great deal of hostility, which is always, in my opinion, a part of irrationality. We didn't know exactly against whom we should turn. But it was very important for us to find a target for our resentment. I believe that all creative people have a great resentment either against the country that they live in or against the civilisation, the period of history that they live in. And we had this great hostility which we had turned first against the war and against the imperial regime.

52:38Then art, as it was known then, recognisable subjects, people, landscapes, objects aimed at mirroring reality, became the target. Arp had participated in the activities of the cabaret from the very beginning. He's not only a great sculptor, but a great human being, and in his own, a little bit naive way, a great philosopher. He had been from the very beginning against representational art. I then devoted a great deal of time to study the problem of representational and abstract art. Then, to my amazement, I found that the hostility that I couldn't find a target for was something that could be used in the fight against conventional art.

53:23Speaking in an interview from 1959, that was the German writer and poet Richard Halsenbeck. And his words were used by Josephine McDermott to help explain the birth of the Dadaist movement in 1916. Richard Halsenbeck died at the age of 81 in 1974, round about the time when the Dada-influenced punk rock movement began to take shape. There are, of course, many, many more stories covering significant moments in art history on our website. Find them by going to bbc.com slash witnesshistory. Finally, this week's Sporting Witness. With the UK's Grand Slam tennis tournament Wimbledon underway, we look back to the final of 2008, which none other than John McEnroe called the greatest match ever played.

54:06Taking nearly seven hours because of rain delays, it ended with a 22-year-old Rafael Nadal defeating his great rival Roger Federer just before nightfall. Umidore Swamy has the story. Nadal is on his back. The flashbacks go off like bat works on centre-cours. The longest final in history, surely the greatest final in history, and we have a new champion. The King of Play has conquered the grass. He is Rafael Nadal of Spain. It wasn't an easy path for Rafael Nadal to win his first Wimbledon men's singles tennis titles. Known for being a clay court specialist, some felt that the 22-year-old Spaniard might never win a major title on grass.

54:58But he sees it as a turning point in his game. Win Wimbledon in 2008 was an amazing step forward in my career because I showed myself that I was able to win outside of clay in a Grand Slam. That was an injection of confidence for me and of course be able to beat the best player on grass in a final. After all the things that happened during the match, it was something to be proud of yourself. But I was a player that, because of my character, I was never, you know, 100 % in peace. So I wanted to, OK, now I achieved that, but now I have to keep going. So that's the way my mind worked all my tennis career, and that's what I did.

55:41That keep going attitude was instilled in him from an early age by his uncle Tony, who started coaching him when he was just four. And he was strict. I was able to go through all of that. I was prepared for holding that pressure in my daily basis. I really think that if my uncle will not see that character on me, he will not push me that way. And that's why he was pushing me to the limit on, I think, on everyday practice. And that helped. I think it's not only one way to success, but that worked for me. I always understood that he did everything for my benefit. And as Uncle Tony had a lot of control over young Rafa, he managed to convince him he even could control the weather.

56:23We were on the car and it was a little bit cloudy out there, and I was a little bit worried because I was playing against an older guy than me. It was my first match. He said, no worries, you go, you play, and if your opponent is beating you easy, I'm going to create some rain to stop the match. So I said, wow, you can do that? Yes, of course. OK, so we start the match. OK, the match started not good for me. 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, maybe I think 4-0 but then I was coming back so for 1, for 2, for 3 and then the rain starts so I went up the court a little bit in a sacred way I went to him and said Tony, I think you can stop the rain because I really think I can win this match

57:08And he did, and many more including the French Open on the clay at Roland Garros in 2005 the first time he entered the tournament. And a bit of science for you, clay courts have a higher friction which slows the ball down, making it bounce higher, whereas grass absorbs the impact, causing the ball to skid faster and bounce lower. So what did the King of Clay think he was like on the other surface? I was not that bad on grass. People thought that I was only clay court player because I was achieving a lot on clay. The truth is I was achieving a lot on hard. and on grass I was playing quite decent too.

57:45But, of course, because I was winning unbelievable on play, so people considered me a clay court player. But I always had in my mind that I need to play well on grass. I made a mistake that year, 2005, after winning Roland Garros. I went to the tournament, I rest for a couple of days, and I remember that. So the year after, 2006, when I won Roland Garros, the day after, I was already practicing on grass. Let's get some stats. Federer has beaten Nadal at Wimbledon in 2006 and 2007, and he's also number one in the world. But Nadal beat Federer at the French Open final a month earlier. On finals day, there was typical British summer weather, meaning the match was delayed by rain.

58:36The rivalry had gained momentum over the last few months, and it was one of the most anticipated finals. It's one of the most emotional matches in my career, without a doubt. First of all, I lost already two finals. 2008, I arrived to the tournament ready. For me, it was a huge goal to win Wimbledon. Then I started the final playing well. First set very well, second set. I think it was a little bit strange. Roger made a couple of mistakes. Then, OK, two sets to love and I was playing very well. But then... The match starts to become more equal in Roger. raised the level of his tennis. He was more and more aggressive.

59:13I lost the third set tiebreak. All good. He played very well. He served very well. But the fourth set tiebreak was a heartbreaker for me, to be honest. It was 5-2 for me, two serves. I made that double fall and I was match point and an easy forehand. He made a great passing shot. Wow. And you feel a second away to win Wimbledon. And after that second, you feel like you need to fight for another set after losing two sets in a row against the best grass court player of the history. So, wow. Mentally, to organise all of this was, yeah, was a challenge. Two sets all, but the momentum was definitely with Federer.

59:58So was history, as he was the five-time champion. But then, at two games all in the deciding set, the rain started. Was it Uncle Tony at work on the weather again?

1:00:36And I went back on court with the determination to stay 100 % ready to fight till the end. It doesn't matter whatever happened. The match moved into its fifth hour. The light was fading fast as it turned nine o 'clock. This was back before Centre Court at Wimbledon had lights and a roof. So it was decided by the referee that the match would be stopped for the night at eight games all. But the back and forth continued, with Federer finally faltering when serving at seven all, meaning Nadal had the vital break of serve, and the title was finally his.

1:01:16And the Wimbledon Gentleman's singles champion for 2008, Rafael Nadal!

1:01:30What an incredible ovation, as Nadal, this extraordinary beast, this amazing athlete from Mallorca, shakes the hands of all the members of the presentation party. And in darkness in southwest London, the man from Spain, Nadal, lifts the gleaming gold trophy high above his head. It's the trophy that means so much and means the most to him. Wow. Can you describe what you felt when you just fell to the floor, when you knew that you were the Wimbledon champion? Well, it's impossible to explain what I felt in that moment. So just very, very happy for winning this title. My favourite tournament for me is a dream, playing this court, but winning, I never imagined something like this.

1:02:18So very happy. Thank you very much, everybody. I think it was part of the process winning Wimbledon that year. I think it helped me to keep believing on my abilities, He believed I can win in other places, and that's what happened.

1:02:38Rafael Nadal, who would go on to win 22 majors before retiring in 2024. Our guide through the drama of Wimbledon 2008 was Uma Doriswamy. And that's it for this edition of the History Hour. As ever, we'll have more personal stories from the past for you next week. Do join us again then, if you can. But for now, this is Max Pearson from all of us here. Thanks for listening. Goodbye.

1:03:28and they all fell down without their feathers on. The way was clear for Hitler to realize all his demonic plans. Stories from people with first-hand accounts of events that have shaped our world. At the end, Kissinger called me into his office, and he said he did a good job. I left the office with tears in my eyes. She called me and told me, I'm doing Studio 54. She had already become a star in Paris. she came back a superstar. Listen now. Search for Witness History wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

1:04:10Hello, Greg Jenner here. I'm the host of You're Dead to Me, the BBC comedy show that takes history seriously. Every episode, I pair up a top historian with a fantastic comedian, and we have a lovely, funny, fascinating chat about a different subject from world history. And in this new series, we're beginning with an epic voyage through the story of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. And that's with Kyle Smith-Bino joining us. And then we'll be learning about Francis Galton and the racist, discredited pseudoscience of eugenics with Desiree Birch. We'll meet many medieval saints in their bone boxes with Rachel Parrott.

1:04:44So if that sounds like your sort of thing, listen to You're Dead to Me wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Bye.