Futurist -one of the most important avant-garde movements of the 20th century - officially started in 1909, with the publication of the first Manifesto of futurist, written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, in the French newspaper «Le Figaro».
The history of Futurist passes through its manifestos.
Aiming at a widespread diffusion of their ideas, Futurist has thus developed a new language, inspired by two of the most significant contemporary phenomena: Advertising and Propaganda. A Manifesto is a simple, essential, provocative, synthetic and exhortative text, and thus became the perfect medium for attracting the public's attention to the cultural, artistic and political debate.
The Futurists produced a very high circulation of these programmatic texts, which found space inside specialized magazines, daily newspapers, distributed to ordinary people with the door-to-door method, or affixed at street corners.
After the Founding Manifesto (i.e ‘Manifeste du Futurisme’), which established the new set of ideas and views of the Movement, several Manifestos have occurred over time, exploring every form of aesthetics (painting, sculpture, design, theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, architecture) and leading also beyond it in politics, custom and morals:
• Manifeste du Futurisme, by F.T. Marinetti (Paris) Le Figaro, February 20, 1909.
• The Manifesto of the Futurist Painters, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini (Milan) Poesia, February 11, 1910.
• Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini (Milan) Poesia, April 11, 1910.
• Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture, by Umberto Boccioni April 11, 1912.
• The Manifesto of Futurist Musicians, by Balilla Pratella Musica futurista per orchestre riduzione per pianoforte, 1912.
• Abstract Cinema—Chromatic Music, by Bruno Corra Il pastore, il gregge e la zampogna, 1912.
• Futurist Manifesto of Lust, by Valentine de Saint-Point Published as a leaflet January 11, 1913.
• Destruction of Syntax—Imagination without Strings—Words-in-Freedom, by F.T. Marinetti (Florence) Lacerba, June 15, 1913.
• The Art of Noises, by Luigi Russolo Published as a booklet July 1, 1913.
• The Painting of Sounds, Noises, and Smells, by Carlo Carrà August 11, 1913.
• Manifesto of Futurist Architecture, by Antonio Sant‘Elia (Florence) Lacerba, August 1, 1914.
• Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe, by Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero March 11, 1915.
• War, the World‘s Only Hygene, by F.T. Marinetti 1915.
• The Futurist Cinema, by F.T. Marinetti, Bruno Corra, Emilio Settimelli, Arnaldo Ginna, Giacomo Balla, and Remo Chiti (Milan) L‘Italia futurista, November 15, 1916.
• The Futurist Universe, by Giacomo Balla 1918.
These Manifestos refer to ‘Manifeste du Futurisme’ in terms of fundamental themes: in all of them one can find the Futurists main ideas (e.g the exaltation of speed, rebellion and technological innovations; the violent criticism of preconceived values). What differs is the specific declination that each particular Manifesto attributes to these concepts.
The Author(s) : Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
The Manifesto was initially published in Italy, at the beginning of February 1909, inside the «Gazzetta dell’Emilia», followed by other Italian newspapers («Il Pungolo» of Napoli, «Gazzetta di Mantova» , «Arena» of Verona, «Il Piccolo» of Trieste, «Il Giorno» of Rome). However, the text reached the international reputation with the Parisian publication, on 20 February 1909, date of the worldwide launch that is nowadays considered the official one.
THE TEXT
The general intent of the manifesto is to proclaim its main principles in a simple, schematic and effective form, targeting the general public. The text is formed by:
- An introductory narrative
- Eleven declarative points that constitute the programmatic agenda of Futurist
- A conclusive polemic against the Italian society
The Introduction
A first-person narrator situates himself, together with his companions, in an exotic environment, identifying themselves with workers who manage powerful industrial machines. They consider themselves the only fully awake individuals of the modern world, forerunners of a new era, and dictate their wills –materialized in the 11 declarations - to all the inhabitants of the earth.
The Eleven declarative points
The core of the manifesto exposes eleven programmatic points through a succession of aphorisms, concerning the key aspects of the futurist conception of the world:
- The love for danger and the fearlessness of the Futurist men -> Attitude
- Courage and Rebellion -> Attitude
- The denigration of the traditional forms of art and culture, that tend to immobility and its institutions (libraries, museums, academies) -> Rejection of the past
- A new conception of beauty, that is speed and movement -> Speed
- The glorification of war -> Attitude
- The exaltation of the phenomena of industrialized urban life (cars, electricity, planes..) -> Technology
The Conclusion
In the end of the manifesto Marinetti literally founds Futurist: a movement that aims to free the country from conservatism and traditionalism.
The Author(s) : Umberto Boccioni ; Carlo Carrà ; Luigi Russolo ; Giacomo Balla ; Gino Severini
The first manifesto of the Futurist painting was the ‘The Manifesto of the Futurist Painters’, published in 1910 by a group of painters, in the wake of the Manifesto of Futurist of 1909. The first draft was signed by Balla, Severini, Aroldo Bonzagni and Romolo Romani. This first edition is immediately replaced by a second and official one, dated 11 February 1910, signed by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo and the aforementioned Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini.
THE TEXT
The text, which is divided into an initial part in prose and a subsequent programmatic part, fixes the dictates of the new Futurist painting.
The Prose
In this section the futurists are violently opposed to any form of traditionalism and academicism, which, in the pictorial context, is translated with the rejection of any antecedent tendencies (i.e Classicism, Renaissance art and Landscape painting). While every form of imitation of the past is to be despised, the new poetics is represented by modern life and “victorious science”.
The Eight declarative points
In the following part, the futurists summarize their ideas presented inside the previous section, into eight short programmatic points.
Bibliography
- Del Antonelli, Karen. “Marinetti: From Manifesto to Machine Gun: A Study of the Works of F. T. Marinetti from 1909 to 1916.” PhD diss., University of California at Los Angeles, 1979.
- Paolo Tonini, I manifesti del Futurismo italiano, Gussago, Edizioni dell’Arengario, 2011: n. 9.
- Futurismo nell'Enciclopedia Treccani. Retrieved from http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/futurismo/
- Milani, S. (n.d.). La pittura futurista: Boccioni, Balla, Carrà, Russolo, Severini, Depero. Retrieved from https://library.weschool.com/lezione/sintesi-futurismo-manifesto-della-pittura-futurista-6791.html