Ep. 51: Futurism [TEASER]

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration

Futurism was an Italian art movement focused on speed, technology, and violence that began in 1909 after Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published the Manifesto of Futurism. Italian Futurists thought that their nascently-industrialized country was developing at a slow pace due to the weight of Italy’s past and they wanted to break free; artists like Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Luigi Russolo, and Tullio Crali depicted “futuristic” subjects like cars, trains, and airplanes in dynamic ways that challenged existing cultural conventions. On this week’s episode of Silent Generation Nathan and Joseph analyze Futurism using an urbanist lens. Amongst other things they discuss the problematic link between Futurism and Fascism in post-WW1 Italy, the Cubo-Futurist style of the short lived Russian Futurist movement, the absurdity of Futurist food, and the beauty of Tullio Crali’s Aeropittura paintings of airplanes and aerial landscapes.

Links:

Futurism Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/silentgeneration/futurism/

Manifesto of Futurism by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Scene of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's accident, 15 October 1908

Screenshot from Italian Futurism: Speed, dynamism, and the fight at La Fenice

Manifesto of Futurist Woman by Valentine de Saint-Point

Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe

Boccioni Recreated

Recreating Boccioni's striding sculptures from 1913

How Italian Futurism Influenced the Rise of Fascism by Jad Dahsan

When Futurism Led to Fascism—and Why It Could Happen Again

What Is Russian Futurism? by Anastasiia S. Kirpalov