Associazioni di popolo. Attenzione, queste sono storie tese. Il vuoto di solidarietà popolare e coscienza politica collettiva dei nostri giorni è stato pesantemente evocato da due opere documentarie viste a poche ore di distanza. In Radio Singer (2009) di Pietro Balla, una delle ultime grandi manifestazioni di rabbia operaia, datata 1° ottobre 1977, è raccontata con zoom e carrellate sulla desolazione estiva di piazza Vittorio nel 2009. Il “popolo compatto” dell’ultimo giro di feste de l’Unità del 1989, due mesi prima della caduta del Muro, ci è stato invece riproposto in

Radio Singer di Pietro Balla

«Che cos’è Roma? A che penso quando sento la parola Roma? Penso ad un faccione rossastro che assomiglia a Sordi, Fabrizi, la Magnani. Penso ad un terreno bruno, melmoso; a un cielo ampio, fasciato, da fondale dell’opera, con colori viola, neri, argento; colori funerei. Ma tutto sommato è un volto confortante. Gli intellettuali, gli artisti, che vivono sempre in uno stato di frizione fra due dimensioni diverse – la realtà e la fantasia – trovano qui la spinta adatta e liberatoria della loro attività mentale: con il conforto di un cordone ombelicale che li tiene saldamente attaccati alla concretezza».
Uno di questi cordoni romani per Federico Fellini è la morte con cui i romani per il regista della “Dolce Vita” «sembrano intrattenere un rapporto confidenziale» come scrive nella sua autobiografia “Fare un film”. E a Roma, nell’ormai non più periferica San Lorenzo, esiste una città nella città, il cimitero comunale monumentale Campo Verano, detto più semplicemente il Verano. Monumentale per due ragioni: oggi agli occhi degli abitanti per le sue dimensioni, ma anche perchè è un museo a cielo aperto dove più che loculi di deve parlare di sepolcri. Qui, in occasione del Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma, l’Ama, l’agenzia per la raccolta dei rifiuti della capitale, organizza un ciclo di nove visite guidate gratuite dal titolo “Roma e le storie del Cinema”. Si comincia oggi con partenza alle ore 10-12-15 dal piazzale del Verano.

Dal ritratto di Fellini mancherà la Magnani, sepolta nella cappella di famiglia del cimitero di San Felice Circeo, ma Sordi e Fabrizi ci sono e non solo loro. Sul sito dell’Ama è possibile vedere la mappa delle visite ma cercando bene in rete si scopre che sono molti di più di quelli segnalati i personaggi legati al mondo del cinema che riposano nel grande cimitero. La passeggiata comincia dai tempi dei fratelli Lumiére con la visita al sepolcro del trasformista Leopoldo Fregoli, pioniere del cinema, figlio del maggiordomo dei conti Panciani, l’«uomo folla», come lo definì Jules Claretie. Fregoli fu amico dei Lumière e autore delle prime pellicole cinematografiche circolanti in Italia. Poi i futuristi Anton Giulio e Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, l’uno regista, critico cinematografico, gallerista di Balla, de Chirico, Sironi, Klimt e Schiele, l’altro fotografo delle dive del cinema, regista dei telefoni bianchi, e di quel “Totò le moko”, dove l’amore trasformava Totò nel bandito della casbah.
Ci sono i divi di un tempo, Salvator Amedeo Buffa alias Amedeo Nazzari, Alida Valli (vero nome Alida Maria Altenburger), i registi del neorealismo Rossellini e De Sica, il western-spaghetti di Sergio Corbucci, i poliziotteschi di Bruno Corbucci, c’è Luigi Zampa, il regista del “Vigile”, dove Sordi sfoggiava la sua divisa lucida quasi marziana da vigile urbano, e Nanni Loy. I grandi mattatori: Vittorio Gassmann, Alberto Sordi, Eduardo De Filippo, Peppino De Filippo, Marcello Mastroianni, Nino Saturnino Manfredi e Aldo Fabrizi. Ci sono sceneggiatori come Sergio Amidei (“La vita agra”) e il doppiatore Ferruccio Amendola. Ci sono Massimo Girotti, Alessandro Blasetti ed Elio (Eraclio) Petri, Checco Durante, e la sora Lella, Ciccio Ingrassia e Camillo Mastrocinque, Isa Miranda e Alberto Moravia, Rina Morelli e Paolo Panelli, Ettore Petrolini e Antonio Pietrangeli, Mario Riva e Paolo Stoppa, Luchino Visconti, una delle regine del melodramma, Milly Vitale.
Il Verano restituisce, magari con qualche errore, un elenco etererogeno di talenti e destini. Il cinema, un’arte così giovane e già con così tanti caduti sul campo, ha trovato un’altra Cinecittà.

Balla is a Portuguese band (if you want to call it like that, because it really is just one musician: Armando Teixeira). The sound is extremely lovely and contagious. It swims from chillout, chanson française without forgetting its origins of pop. Mainly sang in Portuguese, you can easily recognise Armando’s passion for chanson française in some of their songs, by its sound and also by some parts of the lyrics sang in french with a sensual and crystalline female voice.

A little bit more info on Balla:

• Myspace
• Wikipedia

Discography:

• Balla
• Le Jeu
• A Grande Mentira
• Resumo 2000/2008

Nick. Asleep. Sing. Forcing. Dive. Lone Star. Cheap. Glad. Bestie. Ballas. Old times.

Sokol Balla, drejtor i departamentit te informacionit ne televizionin Top Channel ka dhene doreheqje nga ky post dhe detyrat e tjera qe mbulonte ne kete televizion. Mesohet se Z. Balla gjithsesi do te jete serish moderator ne emisionin e tij politik “Top Story”, kjo duket se do te jete lidhja e tij e vetme me Top Channel.

Doreheqja e Sokol Balles nuk eshte e para “humbje” e madhe ne kete televizion, kujtojme se pak kohe me pare edhe Bojken Lako, i cili mbulonte detyra te rendesishme ne Top Channel dhe Top Albania Radio sikurse ishin : regjisor, drejtor artistik, kompozitor, etj… eshte larguar nga Top Channel, mendohet se shkaku kryesor ka qene kompozimi i kenges elektorale te partise demokratike!

The Futurist Manifesto (extracts)

• We went to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness.
• The essential elements of our poetry will be courage, audacity and revolt.
• We declare that the splendour of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with it’s bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ….
• We want to glorify war – the only cure for the world – militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.

Aside: What on earth were the early female Futurists thinking when they read this – I hope they glorified in trying to bring the testosterone fuelled men down to size. This was the same era as the suffragette movement – though not in Italy presumably !

(extracts copied from http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/T4PM/futurist-manifesto.html

The Futurist Painting – Technical Manifesto written by Boccioni, Severini, Calla and Balla (extracts)

• ‘A profile is never motionless before our eyes, but it constantly appears and disappears … thus a running horse has not four legs but twenty and their movements are triangular.
• ‘To paint a human figure you must not paint it, you must render the whole of it’s surrounding atmosphere.’
• ‘Imitation is despised’.
• ‘Rebel against harmony and taste’.
• ‘Art critics are useless’.
• ‘Innovators who might be called ‘mad men’ should view that title as an honour.

The Futurist artists fought against:

• Bituminous tints aside: what is that ?
• Flat tints, linear technique.
• Art academies
• Nudes in painting (‘as nauseas and tedious as adultery in literature)

aside: good grief a happy lot this ! Though I suppose as they were very politically active and from a country politically inactive when the whole of Europe was seething with discontent and aggression it’s natural to see only the serious and sombre side of life. They were extremists and I can only come close to (and that’s not close at all really) to the passion of their views when I think about the injustices of the world I live in, man against man and man against our home planet.

I am very ill at ease when I move on from the Manifesto’s, the violence and glorification of war has left me cold and I seem to dislike Futurism even before I’ve seen any of the art work. Not a good sign! So I’m unprepared for what happens next.

• Swimmers (1910 – 12), Carlo Carra.

I love it ! I love the colours, the movement, the evocative brush strokes, long and languid that reflect the act of swimming. It’s not just a representation of people swimming it’s a reflection of the experience of swimming. I want to be that supple body in a red costume diving and swimming. Someone buy me this painting !

• Girl Running On A Balcony (1912), Balla

This again shows how the artist is not taking a single flat representation the girl is captured like the stills of a film, she is seen in overlapping segments in action with the railings of the balcony providing the marks by which her progress can be seen. Aside: must have been a large balcony.

Ecco  le foto della manifestazione by rivierainfiera…buona visione

FOTO

Inviateci le vostre foto a  holydave@hotmail.it   non esiteremo a pubblicarle!!!

ciao a tutti da rivierainfiera

Corso percussioni

Stage danza afro

Grande richiesta per le mostre nel weekend di Ferragosto, Tuttoingioco prolunga la chiusura in occasione della notte bianca di oggi (sabato).

Oltre all’ottimo risultato già conseguito dalla esposizioni di Tuttoingioco (ottomila biglietti nel primo mese che diventano quarantamila visite se si considera che il tagliando è unico ma le mostre sono cinque), sono tantissime le richieste arrivate ai call-center per questo weekend. L’organizzazione ha deciso perciò di prolungare fino all’una (e oltre se necessario) l’orario di visita delle mostre di Tuttoingioco.

Grandissima soddisfazione è stata espressa dall’assessore alla Cultura del Comune di Civitanova, Erminio Marinelli, il quale durante i suoi mandati da Sindaco aveva inaugurato con Ciarrocchi (1996) la stagione delle mostre a Civitanova Alta. “Siamo felici per questo risultato – ha detto Marinelli – perché dopo gli omaggi a Wharol e Picasso, la Fondazione ha portato a Civitanova la collezione di arte contemporanea più importante delle Marche. Questa esposizione che sta richiamando visitatori da tutta Italia, basti guardare il libro delle firme di Novecento e di Razza Umana, sono anche un giusto tributo a quei presidenti Carima e Carima Arte, Gazzani e Cossiri in primis, che hanno regalato alla provincia di Macerata una collezione come quella di palazzo Ricci. Queste opere di Balla, Carrà, De Chirico, Schifano, Vedova sono una ricchezza per tutto il territorio di cui oggi si sta giovando Civitanova”.

Anche il direttore artistico Ercoli riferendosi alle tante richieste ha sottolineato l’unicità dell’offerta della Biennale: “Chi altro può vantare contemporaneamente cinque mostre di questo livello? – si chiede Ercoli – Oltre all’arte del Novecento e di Toscani che in nessun altro posto sarebbero state offerte contemporaneamente, Tuttoingioco propone come contorno le più importanti collezioni italiane di burattini e di manifesti dal dopoguerra che altrove sarebbero la mostre di punta. La mostra Novecento può rappresentare l’inizio di una collaborazione fra Fondazione e Civitanova per presentare proposte espositive che da Palazzo Ricci si spostino sul territorio”. “Da Crepet con il quale stiamo preparando un progetto su De Pisis, a Bevilacqua che ha voluto farsi fotografare davanti ai quadri di Scipione – prosegue Ercoli – nessuno degli ospiti si è sottratto al rito della foto con la Stefania Sandrelli di Ceroli. Tutti si sono sorpresi della collezione della Fondazione. Giordano Bruno Guerri ci ha proposto un gemellaggio con il Vittoriale, mentre presto annunceremo le sorprese che abbiamo progettato con Bonito Oliva e Daverio”.

Nachdem das Onkelchen gesagt hat..hey..der Stumpfi wird so langsam balla…hab ich mal gegoogelt..
Oh Gott.. es gibt echt ein Lied auf mich…grins..

und dann sogar noch eins aus meinem Geburtstjahr…iiiiiiiiieks..die haben mein Samstagsbendsausgeh-Outfit geklaut..boah ..Saubande

2009 is the centenary of the publication of the Futurist Manifesto, Fillipo Tommaso Marinetti’s strident hymn to machines, steam and speed that set off an explosion of creative energy felt far beyond his native Italy. 

On the eve of the First World War, Futurist painting plundered the styles of cubism and pointillism, pressing them into the service of trashing all that was old and still, glorifying instead progress through movement, technology and, ultimately, war.

Tate Modern’s Futurism exhibition (open now, until 20 September 2009) presents a timely opportunity to reflect on the movement and its impact on 20^th century art.  But while the exhibition promises much, it manages to deliver only a cursory glance at this revolutionary movement – and it fails to capture the dynamism of its attempts to break out across genres and artforms.

The Tate’s show, arranged over eight rooms, covers Futurism’s Italian origins, its thematic concerns (including the street, ‘states of mind’, the cabaret and war) and related movements in Paris, Russia and London. 

While few of the works shown are immediately recognisable or iconic, there are notable sculptures and paintings by Boccioni, Severini and Balla, and one or two Picassos dotted around.

The exhibition starts promisingly enough, with a display of the hectoring text of the Futurist Manifesto, published in Le Figaro in 1909, and Boccioni’s key sculpture Unique Form of Continuity in Space (1913).  The bronze figure applies the Futurist ideal of dynamism to the human form, synthesizing a striding, aggressive and relentlessly advancing motion that leaves the viewer in no doubt that here comes war, “the world’s only hygiene” according to Marinetti. 

Boccioni's 'Unique Forms of Continuity in Space' (cast in bronze)

This is the exhibition’s powerful statement of intent.  But what follows fails to live up to the promise, as the visitor is led into Room 2, at the centre of the exhibition and is promptly lost between Milan, Paris and Moscow.  The lack of a printed guide (“for environmental reasons”) and the confusing layout, with no clear route to follow between the remaining rooms, leaves visitors visibly disorientated. 

While it’s welcome, the show’s inclusion of Russian ’cubo-futurism’ and English vorticism underlines the fact that there just isn’t enough ‘pure’ Futurist content to fill an exhibition on the scale of the Tate’s requirements. But the curators’ narrow focus on painting and sculpture is self-defeating and misses one of the distinguishing characteristics of the movement: Futurism was born as a concept to transcend artforms.  Its adherents published dozens of manifestos, embracing literature, music, photography, film and architecture.  And Futurist ideas had a significant influence on each of these areas.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s left to the merchandising outside the exhibition rooms to fill the gap.  The catalogue (£25) is accompanied by a good selection of books on Futurism in all its forms.  Curiously, Tate has seen fit to produce a CD of Futurist music (£15), including original recordings from as early as 1920. I can’t help think it missed an opportunity to convey the sheer excitement of Futurism by incorporating this and other aspects of the movement in the exhibition.

Unlike the Futurists themselves, the Tate’s exhibition falls short in both scope and ambition.

Ich steh total auf sowas…

Si è concluso giorno 15 luglio il progetto “Balla con Erika”

L’Associazione insieme alle partecipanti del corso, hanno deciso di recarsi alla Pizzeria “La Dolce Vita”(http://www.ladolcevitaregalbuto.com/), per concludere in bellezza questo mese trascorso insieme….

Tutte hanno partecipato con entusiasmo all’iniziativa…

L’Associazione vi invita a partecipare sempre più numerose alle nostre attività…

GRAZIE DONNE

-A breve nuovi aggiornamenti-

I love buying my t-shirts from Threadless. This is something that Andrew Ferguson and I share. (THE Andrew of andrewferguson.net of course.)

I have an account on their website that I never remember to sign into when I purchase t-shirt during their sales.  This, unfortunately, has come back to BITE ME HARDCORE.  MAAAAAN.

They have this great idea where users can submit photos of themselves wearing the Threadless tees that they’ve purchased and receive credit towards a new shirt.  I think this is great, really!  In fact, I gathered all of my Threadless threads together today and harangued my sister into taking pictures of me in them for that very purpose.  However, after cropping and editting for extreme uggo, I learned that you must either have been signed in while purchasing the shirts, or must have all the following: order number, email address, and zip code of the delivery.  I no longer have these!  It’s a sad case, really but all of these ridiculously silly t-shirt pictures will just have to go to waste.   And by waste I mean that you get to see them and they are really silly.

ART CAMPUS

Art Campus es una experencia para descubrir y entender el arte contemporaneo. Lucca será el lugar de Art Campus, ya que desde el 10 de Mayo 2009 en Lucca surgió Lu.C.C.A. Lucca Centre of Contemporary Art.

Un museo, THE LIVING MUSEUM, dedicado al arte contemporaneo, en el magnifico escenario del casco antiguo medieval, unos de los lugares más hermosos de toda la Toscana. La exposición en programa en esto días es “A new visual world – Origine, Balla, Kandinsky and the abstraction of the 50’s”.

Art Campus está hecho de arte y belleza, hecho por la creatividad de la gente, por cada persona que desea conocer el Arte y compartir experiencias.

Cada actividad de Art Campus será grabada y compartida en las redes sociales, además hará un blog adonde los partecipantes podrán publicar sus fotos de propios art works, las imagenes de sus viajes y adonde podrán también charlar sobre los proyectos artísticos y crear coneciones.

Podrán decidir si tomar parte en Art Campus individualmente o en pequeños grupos: si quieres partecipar solo, nuestra oferta será hecha a medida según vuestras necesidades de viaje; si sois un pequeño grupo, o quieres añadirte a uno ya existente, podeís elegir entre unas de las seguientes fechas disponible:

27 Junio/Julio
18 Julio – 25 Julio
15 Agusto -22 Agusto
26 Septiembre – 3 Octubre

Contáctanos para conocer el programa de base día por día, para decirnos si teneís necesidades particulares por el viaje o simplemente para preguntarnos cualquier otra cosa del viaje.

Por más informaciones visita nuestro sitio web www.eliotropica.com o escribenos a info@eliotropica.it 

Dal suo video “Gimme More”, Britney Spears balla la lap dance quasi nuda,Britney mostra nel video senza alcun tipo di pudore il seno,anche se coperto da 2 tatuaggi finti…Sapendo di essere una bella ragazza la Britney e altre artiste/i come Lei non sanno più cosa inventarsi pur di farsi notare e farsi pubblicità…Ricordiamo che la Spears,passata nel giro di qualche anno da idolo delle teenager ad artista decaduta ed ora tornata in auge, oltre che in gran forma.

Fonte:Leggonline

I  wrote this many, many years ago, but thought it of some interest still!

Section One “Futurism; A Historical Perspective

The Futurist movement was born in the first decade of the twentieth century, a time when change brought about by the telephone, telegraph, aeroplane and automobile was revolutionizing the nature of Western European society. The fin de siecle world of the Decadents was dying, and the Age of Imperialism was about to destroy itself in the bloodbath of the Great War when technology finally destroyed the old European order. Elitist notions of Culture were challenged, first by Marx and then by a wave of agitation for worker-control. In Italy the anarchists brought terror and riots to the streets, and with them posters and leaflets. The bomb and the pamphlet were the weapons with which anarchist, syndicalist and communist sought to hasten the overthrow of the old order.

Intellectual radicals discussed the problem of popular culture, of the bringing together of the people and the world of Art. In Ireland, W.B.Yeats, the mystical poet, dreamed of a fusion of peasant mythology and idealism with the high cultural forms of poetry and mysticism, to create a Nationalist movement of the soul. In Germany Wagner composed operas which forged the idea of a German Spirit by adopting the mythologies of the teutonic warrior and farmer, and so inspired the beginnings of Nazi ideology, which culminated in Hitler’s battlecry, “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer.” (“One People, One Nation, One Leader!”). These movements saw the value of a populist appeal to the masses, and both, one in Literature and one in Music, attempted to create an art for the people. Wagner succeeded, and Yeats failed, but neither ever really reached wide audiences. They were for the elite, only the mythologies (used here in the sense of Roland Barthes cultural theory) being drawn from the masses. The first modern artistic movement to actually try to reach the masses, and to embrace the idea of popularism, was born in Italy in 1909. It’s founder was one Fillipo Marinetti, like Yeats a poet. In his manifesto “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism” he was to write “We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure, and by riot…”

Futurism developed out of the contemporary and historical situation. At the turn of the century Italy was one of the weakest of the Great Powers. Italy had only been unified as modern nation-state by Garibaldi in 1863 and was under developed economically at this time in comparison with France, Germany and Great Britain. However rapid industrialization was occurring with consequent social unrest in the form of strikes and riots. This sudden impact of technology on the Italian mind set was the primary focus for futurist art. Futurism also derived ideas from anarcho-syndicalism particularly the activism and the vitalism of Henri Bergson, the French philosopher. They also drew many ideas from the violent anarchist theory of the “Propaganda of the Deed”.

Section Two “Art before Futurism”

Art in Italy, as in the rest of Europe, until the 1800’s was confined to the institution and the academy. However the first notable movement occurred in Italy between the 1840’s and the 1870’s, here artists and intellectuals came from around Italy to a base in Florence and thus the emergence of the Macchiailoi artistic movement. The group was made up of many who had been involved in Garibaldi’s campaign to unite Italy and to rid the country of invading Austrians. These radical spirits wished to create a new Italian art.

“Truth, Reality and Nature” was the motto used by the Macchiailoists. They wanted to liberate art in Italy via a complete break from the past and tradition. They took inspiration for their new work from their surroundings, which was modern life, including the urban environment of the new Italy, which was to be a central theme for the Futurists.

The past which the Macchiailoists rejected was exemplified by Neo-Classicism and the academic tradition, which they attacked in a series of polemical writings in exactly the same way the Futurists later did. They were the first really national rather than regional movement in modern Italian art although they tended to be most influential in Florence, even though born out of the Posillipo School which had developed near Naples. Best known from this movement which certainly embraced many of the ideals of Impressionism were the artists Telemaco Signorini (1835 – 1901) and Giovanni Fattori (1825-1908). The emphasis was on light and bold form expressed through “contrasted use of colours and chiaroscuro”

Another Italian movement which was to have a direct influence on the Futurists was that of Divisionism. The major Divisionists in Italy were Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899), Guiseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907) and Gaetano Previati (1852-1920). Related obviously to Seurat’s Divisionism or Pointillism, the Italian Movement according to Tisdall (p.24-25) was heavily affected by Symbolism, and relied on the use of broken line and colour rather than Seurat’s paintings which allowed colours to mix on the retina not the canvas by utilizing tiny dots of pure colour.

Tisdall notes that the  Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting ends with the words “We conclude that painting cannot exist today without Divisionism.” Futurism was to draw it’s inspiration from the attitudes rather than the technical artistic methodologies of these earlier movements. It is interesting to note that most of the books I have been able to consult on Futurism, with the exception of Tisdall (1977), make no mention of earlier movements, hence making the Futurists appear even more radical than they actually were.

Boccioni's The street invades the house

Section Three “The Birth of the Futurist Movement.”

In 1909 the most important newspaper in the world of the Arts was the Parisian journal Le Figaro . In the edition of the 20th February 1909 readers were shocked to read the The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism which vigorously denounced the Passeists (being all the artists and poets of the past) and announcing the creation of a new tradition, that of the Futurists. The tone was beautiful, poetic, intense and insane. Marinetti set forth an eleven point plan which called for aggression, conflict and struggle, the praise of youth, speed and technology. “we will glorify war – the world’s only hygiene – militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the freedom bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for women.”

In this, point nine of the Futurist Manifesto we can clearly see the political influence on the movement. Patriotism, war and militarism are taken from the creeds of the Nationalist movements from whom Mussolini’s Fascism was to develop, yet also pay homage to the ideologies of the opposite extreme of the political spectrum. The phrases about beautiful ideas worth dying for and destructive gestures of freedom bringers seems a direct reference to Laurent Tailhade’s famous quote on the French anarchist Ravachol’s nail bombing of a Cafe – “What do the victims matter if the gesture be beautiful?”

Violent, shocking and disturbing, this first manifesto appeared on the front page of  Le Figaro It was a bluff by Marinetti; at this time there was no Futurist movement only himself and his ideas. It set the tone for what was to come, however it succeeded in attracting several like-minded souls to the cause. Instead of quietly passing through a phase of germination and debate, Futurism was born out of the international newspapers in a brilliant media event alien to all that had come before. Those who were attracted by this brash statement swiftly joined forces with Marinetti Umberto Boccioni and Carlo Carra, Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini all responded to the bait and Futurism suddenly had adherents amonst the artistic community. Herein we see Fillipo Marinetti’s great genius, manipulation of the media being his greatest ability except perhaps for his skill as a self publicist. He intended to bring about the End of all Past Art, and the creation of a New Art in much the same way another media manipulator Malcolm Maclaren was to attempt to bring about the End of Pop Music by his creation of “Punk-rock” some seventy years later.

Futurist Painting: Carra

Section Four “The growth of Futurism 1909-1915″

Futurism was hence born in a wave of publicity and scandal, and Marinetti continued as he began. Polemics denounced the “Passeist’s”, and their tone can be gauged by a quotation from the Founding Manifesto:-

“..because we want to free this land from it’s smelly gangrene of professors, archeologists, ciceroni and antiquarians. For too long has Italy been a dealer in second hand clothes. We mean to free her from the numberless museums that cover her like so many graveyards.”

The newspapers were used to publish full page advertisements and Marinetti set up a private publishing house and began to run off large editions of futurist books which he largely gave away.

His novel Mafarka the Futurist (1910) featured a hero with a nine metre penis which he was forced to keep wrapped around his waist when it was not in use, which was fortunately rare. This adolescent voyage of sexual adventure did have one long lasting effect on Futurism. Marinetti was arrested charged and ultimately fined for obscenity amidst colossal publicity. A t once a new weapon was added to the Futurist’s arsenal and from then on being arrested was used whenever possible to promote the movement. It was a sign of triumph, a declaration that the “Passeists” were on the defensive.

Another media that was used to draw attention to the movement and it’s aims was “The Futurist Evening.” This took place in a large regional city amidst a fanfare of publicity, and involved Exhibition of painting and sculpture, poetry readings and above all else polemical insults designed to provoke a riot and arrests, in which the Futurists frequently succeeded. The anarchist idea of “Propaganda of the Deed” was translated from the realms of politics and bombings to the realms of artistic controversy and verbal violence. One such incident is reported by Tisdall.

Marinetti and colleagues climbed the roof of the San Marco basilica in Venice and met the pious leaving mass with a torrent of abuse for Venice and its piety, and an announcement of Futurism, heralded by three apocalyptic blasts on a trumpet!

Futurism went beyond all the accepted parameters of an artistic movement. Not content with his own publishing house Marinetti realized that the newspapers had been the great strength of his movement from it’s inception. Not content with appearing in them, Futurist’s bought out Lacerba, a cultural newspaper, and made it into the voice of Futurism. What was more surprising is that this newspaper continued to sell, and mainly to the industrial workers of Milan and Turin! The paper was produced from 1913-1915, initially bi-weekly, and later weekly, and emphasized Futurism as a political movement. It is hard to imagine an Impressionist party with a programme that appealed to the workers in the same way!

Futurism is probably best remembered today for its influence on the field of visual arts, and the developments in this field were reflected by a certain degree of critical regard. An Exhibition in Paris was later transferred to Berlin and London, and a distinctive style developed that took it’s ideas from the philosophical basis of Futurism. “Movement not Stasis” embodies the spirit of this painting, and in Part 2 I will attempt to define what Futurist Art actually was, and as importantly what Futurism is today. It is ironic that Futurism defined itself by a series of manifestos that cover everything from Poetry, Sculpture and Painting to Lust and Cookery, and hence became a tradition as entrenched and defined as the “Passeist’s”. The end of Futurism however was expected from Marinetti’s very first  Founding Manifesto.

Futurist Painting: Balla, after his Futurist phase

Section Five “The end of Futurism? The First World War”

From the beginning Futurism had expressed themes of War and Conflict  as social hygiene – chilling sentiments with hindsight…

“We will glorify war – the world’s only hygeine.”

Their creed of danger and love of conflict made it inevitable that as the First World War began they would immediately call for Italy’s entry into the conflict, on the side of what they saw as the French and British worker against Austrian and German imperial aggression. When Italy did enter the conflict in 1915 many Futurists immediately entered the conflict, and as a result the movement lost some of it’s greatest names. Marinetti was to say that thirteen leading Futurists died in the war, but the most tragic blow was the loss of Boccioni, always the driving force besides Marinetti himself. By the end of the war the tragic implications of modern technology and war were obvious to all, and much pre-war futurist rhetoric seemed empty and facile. Even Balla began to stray, and Carra who had survived the war largely owing to his institutionalization as a lunatic by an army doctor (who did not understand his painting or his enthusiasm and patriotism for the war) became increasingly disenchanted. During the war years Boccioni and Carra had become interested in Cubism and the movement began to drift apart. By the cessation of conflict in 1919 the first wave of Futurism was effectively over, exactly as Marinetti had predicted in The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism when he wrote

“The oldest of us is thirty: so we have at least a decade for finishing our work. When we are forty, other younger and stronger men will probably throw us in the wastepaper basket like useless manuscripts- we want it to happen!”

In the event Futurism refused to lay down gracefully and die, and as soon as the war was over Marinetti set about creating a new Futurism.

FROM THE NEW YOOXER | SOS – SENSE OF STYLE

This month’s YOOXCOVER realized by Alberto Biagetti, it’s inspired by the constructed geometries and the cocooning shapes of futurist’s sculptures. The enlightened colors and the sharp cuts of the cover-dress suggest new style inputs, between art and couture that continue to best embody the “avant-garde” mindset.

Thanks to Futurism, we now take for granted the ability to “break the rules” established by classical art and academia, these artists also explored all the fields of art, including fashion, designing sketches and fashion collections. During the 30’s Thayaht, an Italian futurist’s painter transformed himself into a designer, working for famous fashion house Madeleine Vionnet, also lauching the first overalls prototype, that nowadays designers such as Antonio Marras made it become a best seller in his collection. Designers of our times owe a lot to art, Laura Biagiotti invented a collection named LaurArt in year 2007, to tribute her collections of futurist’s art paintings. The new names of fashion like Nicolas Guesquière for Balenciaga, the young talent Gareth Pugh, or the established Consuelo Castiglioni for Marni, put the dynamism of the futurist art into fashion, with structural outfits and vibrant colors.

Today’s fashion carries the echoes of these ideas, conceived a century ago, and continues to reverberate with bright color palettes, sculptural shapes, and the provocative courage to push boundaries. The New Yooxer gives homage to this celebration with an editorial photoshoot, to dress with art, interpreting the concept of a new ‘wearable art’.

View the entire Futurism Selection at Yoox

Left: Miu Miu, 2008 / Right: Umberto Boccioni, Forme uniche della continuita’ nello spazio, 1913