In the beginning of the century, capitalist society suffered a number of global crises. The First World War was not the beginning of the crisis. It was a way to resolve it, the consequence that revealed all social contradictions that existed for a long time and were aggravated from year to year. As those contradictions flared up, millions became "infected" with revolutionary ideas. Art, as a form of social consciousness, could not stay out of this process. Not surprisingly that futurism and fascism in Italy became two different manifestations of the same, complex and contradictory phenomena of life. In Italy, the Fascist Party and the movement of the Futurists were born as movements designed to establish a new just order. But the views of the fascists and futurists of order and justice significantly differed which later became the reason of their conflict. At the same time, it is quite obvious that fascism contained some elements of futurism. The cult of speed, desire for strong solutions, contempt for the masses and at the same time exciting appeal to them, the tendency to the hypnotic power of crowds, the exaltation of patriotism, and aversion to bureaucracy - all these features of futurism shifted in almost unchanged form to fascism. In Italy, the Futurists - poets, artists, architects - thought of themselves as fascists. Their innovative poetry, painting, theater, etc. were subject to fascist ideas.
It is difficult to understand fully the events that shook the planet in the first half of the twentieth century without paying particular attention to the radical changes in the public consciousness, which largely determine the face of human culture today. Major trends of these changes quite clearly were reflected in the art. The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by the emergence of a huge number of different art movements. Young artists, writers and musicians tried to find a new artistic language, to go beyond the old forms, which did not, in their opinion, fit the requirements of modernity. They wanted to create radically new, advanced art. Not accidentally a set of directions in the visual arts, literature and music of the time was united under the general name of "avant-garde". The word comes from the military lexicon and means the unit which moves ahead of the troops. Futurism takes a special place among the avant-garde movements. The avant-garde could not express their feelings and aspirations through artistic, literary and musical images, so that their agenda would be clear to the public. Therefore, the majority of movements began with the publication of manifestos, where in some detail the representatives described how they see life, how they think and feel the art of the past, present and future, and, finally, what they want to tell the world with their works of art.
Like the other Avant-garde movements, futurism was an anarchic response to the crisis of bourgeois culture, the collapse of the liberal ethics of 19th century. They expressed the anticipation of a new historical era that is characterized by scientific and technological progress and popularization of culture. Futurists accepted unconditionally the future, with the optimism and faith in technology as the cause of the contemporary socio-cultural shift. Futurism combined the cult of hero-superman who invaded the world and shook the old aesthetic and moral principles with the cult of violence - war as a "hygiene of the world" and rebellion in general. In rejecting the cultural and artistic heritage, futurists have proclaimed the principles of eccentricity and mockery of traditional Intimate feelings, ideals of love. Kindness and happiness were declared as human weakness; emotions and sensations were assessed by physical qualities of strength, power, and speed (Appolonio, 2009)
A key idea in the literature of the Italian Futurists became concluded in the phrase "Words on the loose!” Not verbalize the meaning with the words but give the word the control over the meaning (or nonsense) of the poem. One of the contemporaries described the way he used to read Marinetti`s poem about the war: "Boom, boom .. those are cannons. Boom, boom the shell breaks. Peak, peak, peak - a swallow flies over the battlefield. Marinetti growls so that through the cabinet doors lackey shows his frightened face - the wounded mule is dying". (Humphrey, 1999, p.213)
Drawings, collages, game with fonts and mathematical symbols - all this, in the opinion, of the futurists must destroy traditional, unambiguous connection between the word and the meaning and create new and modern meanings. In painting and sculpture, Italian Futurism became the forerunner of many subsequent artistic discoveries and trends. Boccioni, who used a variety of materials in his sculptures (glass, wood, cardboard, iron, leather, horse hair, clothes, mirrors, light bulbs, etc.), was a harbinger of pop art. In his futuristic sculptures, he sought to unite the plastic form, color, movement and sound. He also anticipated Kineticism and synthetic arts. (Cohen, 2004)
Italian futurists introduced sound in their paintings and sculptures. "Our canvases – wrote Karra - will express the plastic equivalents of sounds, noises and smells in the theater, music, cinema hall, in a brothel, railway stations, ports, garage, hospital, workshop, etc. To do this, the artist must be a whirlwind of sensations, a picturesque power and energy, not a cold logical intellect”. (Cohen, 2004, p. 146)
For the Italian futurists it was very important to have a direct contact with the public. Artists were present at their exhibitions, shocking the public with their appearance and speeches. The poets wanted people to be not only spectators, but also participants of a certain action. "We will rush to the future the engines of our inspiration," - declared Marinetti, and the audience began to imitate whistles of steam coming from the locomotives. Orange peels flying from the audience onto the stage, police arriving at the end of speech - it was almost mandatory and desirable part of the performances of "people of the future." Futurists urged to destroy museums, libraries and all kinds of academies, proclaim anathema to all professors. (Cohen, 2004)
An Italian politician Giuseppe Pretstsolini spoke of the parallel existence of futurism and fascism: "No doubt, Mussolini has an amazing futuristic character. Fascism, if I'm not mistaken, craves hierarchy, tradition and honor of the government. Fascism tends to conjure up the old Rome and the classical past. Fascism wants to stay in the categories of thought drawn by the great Italians and large Italian institutions, including Catholicism. Futurism, on the contrary, is the opposite of fascism. Futurism is a protest against the tradition, the fight against museums, classical institutions and respect for teachers. Futurism wants to destroy the museums, libraries, and moralism, crush opportunist and utilitarian cowardice." (Gentile, 2003, p. 58) Futurism does not agree with fascism that is trying to restore all the moral values of Italy. Marinetti determined that futurism is the art of free verse, free expression, words in freedom, but instead, fascism proclaims greater rigor in art and education. So the key question here: how futuristic art can keep pace with Italian fascism? It was a misunderstanding that was born only because of proximity of two people Marinetti and Mussolini. Phantom of unity of futurism and fascism through the friendship of their ideologists worked well only in the days of the revolution, but became unbearable at times of the fascist government and public order. Italian fascism could not accept destructive program of futurism, as fascism was destined to restore the same values that contradicted the values of futurism. Discipline and hierarchy in politics is also discipline and hierarchy in literature and art. Words are empty when political hierarchy is ineffective. Fascism used futurism as the first stimulus and then suppressed in the latter everything revolutionary and rebellious in terms of art, public order and discipline. Futurism in Italy during fascism did not become prevalent because it was in opposition; it was destructive to the classic and traditional ideas.
Works Cited
- Humphreys, Richard. Futurism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Print.
- Gentile, Emilio. The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2003.
- Becker, David. A Futurist Movement: A Description and Evaluation. , 1982.
- Cohen, Milton A. Movement, Manifesto, Melee: The Modernist Group, 1910-1914. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004.
- Apollonio, Umbro. Futurist Manifestos. London: Tate, 2009.
