Under the direction of Maurice van Essche, along with the most important colleagues Georges Marlier and Paul Neuhuys, it places a great deal of attention on the expressive arts. With covers and plates by the hand of Paul Joostens, Jan Cockx, Floris Jespers, Karel Maes, Pierre Flouquet and Jozef Peeters, among others, the paper provides a forum for a young generation of artists.
Under the influence of the international Dada movement, the paper promotes the cultural revolution and the rejection of the bourgeois values. People carry ‘Openness’ high on the banner, which leads to an eclectic choice and the defences of many forms of avant-garde art. Thus Ça Ira! publishes in 1921 De Stijl’s Manifest II by Theo Van Doesburg (1883 - 1931) as well as Clément Pansaers’ (1885 - 1922) thematic number Dada: Sa naissance, sa vie, sa mort. Important for the evolution of provocateur Paul Joostens is the publication of Salopes, le quart d’heure de rage ou soleil sans chapeau, by which he demonstrates himself as a Dadaist writer in addition to being a painter.
