What does Dada mean? The answer lies in the difference between the perceptible and the designation and their failing discursive mediation. With the constitution of the subject 'Dada Zurich' - at the intersection of literary and art studies, comparative studies, image-text theory and philosophy - the relationship between modern and avant-garde as well as between avant-garde and Dada is redefined. This redefinition results from the knowledge of the aesthetic-theoretical form of Dada-Zurich, the constitution of which concretizes the theoretical scandal of aesthetic theory (as a theory that itself becomes aesthetic) in practical and poetic form and develops an aesthetic-theoretical form of knowledge, in which aesthesis occupies a central position. Dada uses the avant-garde as a material. The aesthetic-theoretical potential of Dada-Zurich not only affects those actually used by Dada (aesthetically reflected), but also all modern - including avant-garde - artefacts.