Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero With the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting and the preface to the catalogue of the Futurist Exhibition in Paris (signed by Boccioni, Carrà, Russolo, Balla, Severini), with the Manifesto of Futurist Sculpture (signed by Boccioni), the Manifesto of the Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells (signed by Carrà), with the volume Futurist Painting and Sculpture by Boccioni and Carrà's Warpainting, pictorial Futurism has succeeded in the course of six years in progressing beyond Impressionism and in solidifying it, proposing plastic dynamism and the molding of the atmosphere, interpenetration of planes and states of mind
The lyrical appreciation of the universe, by means of Marinetti's words-in-freedom and Russolo's Art of Noises, combines with plastic dynamism to provide a dynamic, simultaneous, plastic and noise-ist expressionof the universal vibration.We Futurists, Balla and Depero, seek to realize this total fusion in order to reconstruct the universe making it more joyful, in other words by a complete re-creation
We will give skeleton and flesh to the invisible, the impalpable, the imponderable and the imperceptible
We will find abstract equivalents for every form and element in the universe, and then we will combine them according to the caprice of our inspiration, creating plastic complexes which we will set in motion
Balla initially studied the speed of automobiles, thus discovering the laws and essential line-forces of speed
After more than twenty exploratory paintings, he understood that the flat plane of the canvas prevented him from reproducing the dynamic volume of speed in depth
Balla felt the need to construct, with strands of wire, cardboard sheets, fabrics, tissue paper, etc., the first dynamic plastic complex
Abstract
Dynamic
Relative movement (cinematographic) + absolute movement
Extremely transparent
Because of the speed and volatility of the plastic complex, which must appear and disappear, light and impalpable
Brightly colored and extremely luminous (using internal lights)
Autonomous, that is, resembling itself alone
Transformable
Dramatic
Volatile
Odorous
Noise-creating
Simultaneous plastic noisiness with plastic expression
Explosive, elements appear and disappear simultaneously with a bang
The free-wordist Marinetti, when we showed him our first plastic complexes, said enthusiastically: ?Before us, art consisted of memory, anguished re-evocation of a lost Object (happiness, love, landscape), and therefore nostalgia, immobility, pain, distance
With Futurism art has become action-art, that is, energy of will, optimism, aggression, possession, penetration, joy, brutal reality in art
(e.g
onomatopoeia; e.g.intonarumori = motors), geometric splendor of forces, forward projection
Art becomes Presence, a new Object, the new reality created with the abstract elements of the universe
The hands of the traditionalist artist ached for the lost Object; our hands longed for a new object to create
That is why the new object (plastic complex) appears miraculously in yours.? MATERIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLASTIC COMPLEX Necessary means: Colored strands of wire, cotton, wool, silk, of every thickness
Colored glass, tissue paper, celluloid, wire netting, every sort of transparent and bright material
Fabrics, mirrors, sheets of metal, colored tin-foil, every sort of gaudy material
Mechanical and electrical devices; musical and noise-making elements, chemically luminous liquids of variable colors; springs, levers, tubes, etc
With these means we will construct: Rotations: Plastic complexes rotating on a pivot (horizontal, vertical, oblique)
Plastic complexes rotating on several pivots: in the same direction but with varying speeds; in opposite directions; in the same and opposite directions
Decompositions: Plastic complexes which break up: into volumes; into layers; in successive transformations (cones, pyramids, spheres, etc.)
Plastic complexes which break up, talk, make noises and play music simultaneously
Decomposition, Transformation → Form + Expansion → Onomatopoeias, Sounds, Noises
Miracle Magic: Plastic complexes which appear and disappear: slowly; by repeated jerks (in scales); with unexpected explosions
Pyrotechnics?Water?Fire?Smoke
THE DISCOVERY?INFINITE SYSTEMATIC INVENTION Using complex, constructive, noise-producing abstraction, in short, the Futurist style
Every action developed in space, every emotion felt, will represent for us a possible discovery
Examples: Watching an aeroplane swiftly climbing while a band played in the square, we had the idea of plastic-motor-noise music in space and the launching of aerial concerts above the city
The need to keep changing our environment, together with sport, led us to the idea of transformable clothes (mechanical trimmings, surprises, tricks, disappearance of individuals)
The simultaneity of speed and noises inspired therotoplastic noise fountain
Tearing up a book and throwing it down into a courtyard resulted in phono-moto-plastic advertisement and pyrotechnic-plastic-abstract contests
A spring garden blown by the wind led to the concept of the Magical transformable motor-noise flower
? Clouds flying in a storm suggested buildings in noise-ist transformable style
THE FUTURIST TOY In games and toys, as in all traditionalist manifestations, there is nothing but grotesque imitation, timidity (little trains, prams, puppets), immobile objects, stupid caricatures of domestic objects, antigymnastic and monotonous, which can only cretinize and depress a child
With plastic complexes we will construct toys which will accustom the child: to completely spontaneous laughter (through absurdly comical tricks); to maximum elasticity (without resorting to thrown projectiles, whip cracking, pin pricks, etc.); to imaginative impulses (by using fantastic toys to be studied under a magnifying glass, small boxes to be opened at night containing pyrotechnic marvels, transforming devices, etc.) to the continual exercise and sharpening of his sensitivity (in the unbounded realms of acute and exciting noises, smells and colors) to physical courage, to fighting and to war (with gigantic, dangerous and aggressive toys that will work outdoors)
The Futurist toy will be very useful to adults too, keeping them young, agile, jubilant, spontaneous, ready for anything, untiring, instinctive and intuitive
THE ARTIFICIAL LANDSCAPE By developing the first synthesis of the speed of an automobile, Balla created the first plastic ensemble
This revealed an abstract landscape composed of cones, pyramids, polyhedrons, and the spiral of mountains, rivers, lights and shadows
Evidently a profound analogy exists between the essential line-forces of speed and the essential line-forces of a landscape
We have reached the deepest essence of the universe and have mastered the elements
We shall thus be able to construct
THE METALLIC ANIMAL Fusion of art + science
Chemistry, physics, continuous and unexpected pyrotechnics all incorporated into a new creature, a creature that will speak, shout and dance automatically
We Futurists, Balla and Depero, will construct millions of metallic animals for the greatest war (conflagration of all the creative energies of Europe, Asia, Africa and America, which will undoubtedly follow the current marvelous little human conflagration)
The inventions contained in this manifesto are absolute creations, generated entirely by Italian Futurism
No artist in France, Russia, England or Germany anticipated us by inventing anything similar or analogous
Only the Italian genius, which is the most constructive and architectural, could invent the abstract plastic ensemble
With this Futurism has determined its style, which will inevitably dominate the sensibility of many centuries to come.
