Futurism: Manifestos and Other Resources

Futurism was an international art movement founded in Italy in 1909. It was (and is) a refreshing contrast to the weepy sentimentalism of Romanticism. The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was then upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world’s comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible. Fearing and attacking technology has become almost second nature to many people today; the Futurist manifestos show us an alternative philosophy.

Too bad they were all Fascists.

• The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, by F.T. Marinetti
  (Paris) Le Figaro, February 20, 1909. (Here’s one alternative translation; and here’s another, this one translated as The Joy of Mechanical Force)

• The Manifesto of the Futurist Painters, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini
  (Milan) Poesia, February 11, 1910.

• Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting, by Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, and Gino Severini
  (Milan) Poesia, April 11, 1910.

• Technical Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture, by Umberto Boccioni
  April 11, 1912.

• The Manifesto of Futurist Musicians, by Balilla Pratella
  Musica futurista per orchestre riduzione per pianoforte, 1912.

• Abstract Cinema—Chromatic Music, by Bruno Corra
  Il pastore, il gregge e la zampogna, 1912.

• Futurist Manifesto of Lust, by Valentine de Saint-Point
  Published as a leaflet January 11, 1913.

• Destruction of Syntax—Imagination without Strings—Words-in-Freedom, by F.T. Marinetti
  (Florence) Lacerba, June 15, 1913.

• The Art of Noises, by Luigi Russolo
  Published as a booklet July 1, 1913.

• The Painting of Sounds, Noises, and Smells, by Carlo Carrà
  August 11, 1913.

• Manifesto of Futurist Architecture, by Antonio Sant‘Elia
  (Florence) Lacerba, August 1, 1914.

• Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe, by Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero
  March 11, 1915.

• War, the World‘s Only Hygene, by F.T. Marinetti
  1915.

• The Futurist Cinema, by F.T. Marinetti, Bruno Corra, Emilio Settimelli, Arnaldo Ginna, Giacomo Balla, and Remo Chiti
  (Milan) L‘Italia futurista, November 15, 1916.

• A Slap in the Face of Public Taste, by David Burliuk, Alexander Kruchenykh, Vladmir Mayakovsky, and Victor Khlebnikov
  1917.

• The Futurist Universe, by Giacomo Balla
  1918.

• Universal Camp of Radio-Modernists, by David Burliuk
  1926.