Page 36 - Studio International - April 1973

The political The fundamental elements, the ingredients of Eleven years later, Marinetti himself, answering
the accusation of the absurdity of gathering
which Marinetti's political ideology is
ideology of compounded, are clearly set out in the first together all these schemes, said, 'One of the
manifesto, published in Paris in Le Figaro,
sentences of the first manifesto . . . glorifying at
Futurism 20 February 1909. It is not difficult to the same time patriotism and the destructive
gesture of the libertarians, seemed madness or
summarize them. They are derived from the
decadents and the symbolists : 'We had stayed simply joking to political mentalities. Everyone
up all night, my friends and I, under mosque found it absurd or ridiculous that the libertarian
Mario de Micheli lanterns . . . We had trampled underfoot our idea went hand in hand with that of the
atavistic accidie on opulent eastern rugs . . .'; fatherland for the first time . . . How come the
or taken from the anarchists: 'we wish to glorify idea, destructive gesture of the libertarians, was
. . . the destructive gesture of the libertarians not that day accompanied by its inseparable
. . .'; or euphoric eulogies of positivist myths : friend, antipatriotism? Enormous shock for
`we affirm that the magnificence of the world has those brains, so-called political, nourished on
been enriched by a new beauty - speed. A commonplaces and bookish ideologies,
racing car with its fascination of great tubes like absolutely unable to understand life, race,
serpents with explosive breath . . . a roaring car crowds, individuals. But their shock was even
seeming to run on a machine gun is more greater when, during that glorious May of 1915,
beautiful than the Winged Victory of they again saw the strange couple walking the
Samothrace'; and finally, in a paroxysm, the turbulent squares of Milan and Rome:
treacherous confession of nationalism and Destructive Gesture of the Libertarians and
imperialism: 'We wish to glorify war - sole Patriotism, with the new names of Mussolini,
hygiene for the world - militarism, Corridoni, Corradini, Garibaldi, Marinetti, to
(Below) patriotism . . the cry of 'War on Revolution'. 'We, today,
Boccioni At first sight it appears a question of separate the idea of the Fatherland from that of
The Charge of the Lancers 1915 contradictory motifs, opposed to each other, and reactionary, clerical Monarchy. We unite the
Tempera and collage on card 32 x 5o cm.
Coll. Dr Riccardo Jucker, Milan the contradictions are substantially real; but, in idea of Fatherland with that of daring Progress
and of anti-police revolutionary
Marinetti's experience in particular, and in that democracy.'1
(Right)
Carrà of Futurism in general, it is fairly easy to But Marinetti's 'logic', on an analysis going
Study for the Funeral of the Anarchist Galli 1910 discover a dense network of suggestion and back to its very origins, evidences a complex of
Coloured pencil historical reason, linking them closely and themes beyond the limits of Futurism, occupying
58 x 87 cm.
Coll : Galleria Annunciata, Milan giving their heterogeneity a single motivation. a whole European cultural-political zone at that

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