In the last decade of the 19th century, in Europe there was a general recovery from the economic crisis of the years 1873-1895.

Industrialized countries went through a period of development and general improvement of living conditions. Confidence in the positive aspects of life increased: this period (until about 1914) was known as la belle époque (‘the beautiful era’), especially in European capitals such as Paris.

Advertising poster of the Moulin Rouge by Alfred Choubrac (1896)

The world of culture, though, was aware of a general sense of pessimism, uncertainty, and

solitude which was confirmed by the outburst of World War I (1914-18). All the certainties which

characterized the late 19th century were destroyed and a strong antipositivistic sentiment developed.

The Sarajevo Attempt by Achille Beltrame, opening page of La Domenica del Corriere of 5.7.1914

Einstein’s theory of relativity (1916) changed the ideas at the basis of the concepts of space, time, and speed. People thought that these aspects were absolute and indisputable,

but Einstein proved that they were relative.

Freud’s theories on the unconscious (1899) and on psychoanalysis went against all the certainties on human sciences and proved that the human self was composed of different aspects sometimes fighting one against the others.

In the field of arts and literature, the

Historical Avant-gardes were very important.

Historical Avant-gardes were movements which, in the first two decades of the 20th

century, rejected the traditional ways of arts expressed by Realism and Naturalism, and experimented with new forms of expression.

Vasilij Kandinsky, Yellow, Red, Blue (1925)

They wanted to represent the new industrial reality (Futurism) and deny the middle-class values and mass society (Expressionism and Surrealism).

They thought that art was a group experience with many links between different forms of art like literature, painting, music, and cinema.

They used magazines to share and spread their ideas.

Metropolis by Fritz Lang (1927)

The movement was born in Paris in 1909 when artist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published his Manifesto of Futurism in Le Figaro of 20 February.

In Italy, the Manifesto was published in the magazine Poesia in February-March 1909.

Lacerba (1913-15) was the magazine which supported and spread the ideas of Futurism.

When Lacerba stopped its publications, the movement was supported by the magazine L’Italia futurista. The movement’s main focus was now on the theatre, on cinema, and on politics.

Lacerba, issue nr. 1 (1913)

Some critics say that Futurism ended around 1916, while others say that it came to an end in the 1920s.

With the advent of Fascism, most of Futurist main ideas were included in Fascist ideology. Futurism therefore wasn’t considered an avant-gard any longer.

Alessandro Bruschetti, Fascist Synthesis (1935)

It adapted its artistic language to the machine civilization and created a way of writing based on movement and speed, on the free association of ideas, on graphic experimentation, and on free verse.

Poetry looked at the future and not at the past.

Tullio Crali, Acrobatics in the Sky, 1930

It exalted courage, action, dynamism, and speed.

It celebrated modernity, technological progress, and industrial civilization.

It also celebrated militarism, nationalism, and war as a means of ‘cleaning the world’.

Achille Funi, cover of Marinetti’s poems Lussuria velocità, 1921 (detail)

It despised the symbols of traditional culture like libraries, museums, and academies.

Fortunato Depero, Lightning Composer (1926)

Futurism was a composite movement which included a large number of interconnected arts: literature (poems and novels, with authors like Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Ardengo Soffici, Corrado Govoni, Aldo Palazzeschi), the theatre, painting and sculpture (with artists such as Umberto Boccioni and Giacomo Balla).

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913 (cast 1931)

As of 1910, Marinetti started to organize the ‘futurist evenings’. These events took place in theatres of art galleries: artists read poems, performed music, and presented paintings. The audience were actively involved in the performances which often resulted in verbal confrontations and riots.

Umberto Boccioni, Riot in the Gallery, 1910

Words in freedom are a characteristic of futurist poetry which follows the rules of futurist poetics such as the abolition of syntax and punctuation, the use of verbs in the infinitive, and the use of onomatopoeia (sound words).

The words are placed on the page to form an image (words-in-freedom tables). In this way, the reader can see and understand the sensations that the author wants to convey through free associations of thought (‘wireless imagination’), and visual reading is favoured over linear reading.

The concept of words in freedom was introduced by Marinetti in his Technical Manifesto of Futurist Literature (1912) and Destruction of Syntax-Wireless Imagination-Words in Freedom(1913).

It was partly influenced by French Symbolism. It influenced Apollinaire’s Calligrams.

F. T. Marinetti, Indifference, from Zang Tumb Tumb (1914)

F. T. Marinetti, Futurist March (1916)

Corrado Govoni, The Diver, from Rarefactions and Words in Freedom (1915)

G. Apollinaire, from Poems to Lou (1915).

It describes and visually represents the poet’s lover. The different parts of the face

(hat, eye, nose, mouth, and neck) use words associated with that particular part.

G. Apollinaire, The Tie and the Watch, from Calligrams (1918)

G. Apollinaire, The Tie and the Watch (detail), from Calligrams (1918)