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It was the 20th February 1909 and on the French newspaper “Le Figarò” a manifesto appeared which started with these words: “We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness” and ended with “It is from Italy that we are launching this manifesto of ruinous and incendiary violence, by which we today are founding Futurism”. These were the words of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in which, through few salient points, he encouraged to open up to a fast and mechanised world. He sang the praises of progress and the city, of dynamism and innovation in all fields of art and life. He was a singer of the technological early twentieth-century revolution, praising his unlimited faith in progress and violently decreeing the end of old ideologies.
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti launched Futurism, the only Italian historical avant-garde. A revolutionary current, which explored every form of art, from painting to sculpture, in literature in relation to poetry and theatre, without leaving aside music, architecture, dancing, photography and the emerging cinema.
Well, since that far away 20th February almost one hundred years have gone by and Italy, like the rest of the world, is ready to celebrate its unique historical avant-garde.
Celebrations have already started at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris, with an exhibition centred on the interweaving between the French and the Italian origins, theme about which rivers of ink have been poured throughout the years. Putting aside nationalisms and philological specifications from experts, the event at the Pompidou is simply limited to reconstructing the 1912 exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, which was one of the greatest shows in the history of the movement. A demonstration that someone defined as anarchical, as through free circulations, electronic dolls and scuffles, the futurists re-invented shape, making it functional to the dynamism of representation. They battered down the cubist canvas and expanded the impressionist space, amplifying three-dimensionality.
The celebration of the exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery will relive in the next months, even in Rome (Scuderie del Quirinale, 20th February – 24th May 2009) and in London (Tate Modern, 12th June – 20th September 2009).
Another celebration worth seeing is “Futurism 100!” (14th January-29th April 2009), a true paean to Umberto Boccioni’s artistry. The event will take place from the 14th January to the 29th April 2009 at London’s Estorick Collection, internationally renowned for its core of famous futurist works, as well as modern Italian figurative art and sculpture.
And how will Italy prepare to pay its tribute to the most important historical avant-garde of the twentieth century?
An exhibition that investigates the complex relations between futurists and the most important exponents of Russian and German avant-gardes is the Mart of Rovereto. “Futurismo 100. Illuminazioni. Avanguardie a confronto” (17th January-7th June 2009) examines the German protagonists of the “Der Sturm”, to show the strong ties between expressionism and Futurism. Moreover, Marinetti’s trip to Russia in 1914 is taken into consideration, with the Mart displaying the first visual exposition, realised by the historian of Muscovite art Vladimir Lapšin.
Extremely important will be the kermis at the Palazzo Reale in Milan entitled “Futurismo. Velocità+Arte+Azione”, on view from the 5th February to the 7th June 2009. An extraordinary event comprising about four-hundred works: paintings, drawings, sculptures, but also projects and sketches of architecture, theatre scenes and costumes, photographs and object-books. Even objects of daily usage: furnishings, elements of decorative art, advertisements and fashion.
Another exhibition to not miss out on is “Futurismi” at the Saint-Benin Centre in Aosta, until the 26th April 2009. An event intended to commemorate the centenary and centred on the advance of Futurism in the various Italian contexts, in the attempt to capture the spreading of the movement on the Italian territory. Altogether forty works, which come from private collections and museums and present the various aspects of the current.
Among the various appointments worth mentioning there is “Futurismo 100. Astrazioni” at the Museo Correr of Venice (5th June-4th October 2009). The exhibition, concomitant with the 53rd Biennial, is the occasion for a critical reading of the concept of abstraction. The works by Giacomo Balla will be the common denominator for a comparison with some of the great artists of his time: from Piet Mondrian’s research to Francis Picabia’s Dadaism. From Delaunay and Kupka’s essentiality to Marcel Duchamp’s provocations.
To note down also “Futurismo 100. Simultaneità”, in collaboration with the Museo del Novecento, at the Palazzo Reale in Milan (15th October 2009-25th January 2010), event that closes the futurist year. It is a journey that explores the singular comparison between Carlo Carrà’s works and Luigi Russolo’s works with the European avant-garde sculpture of the time. And with Boccioni as the leading thread, between expressionist, futurist, cubist, constructivist and dadaist forces.
Tags: Francis Picabia, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp
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Ana Acevedo
Wednesday 14 January 2009
The news you send to me are wonderful!