Julia Zeisberger

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, “The Foundation Manifesto of Futurism”

 

With his spectacular publication of the first futurist manifesto in the French newspaper “Le Figaro”, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti founded the Futurist movement.

 

The text is divided into three parts: An introduction, 11 thesis and practical directions, all written in an dictatorial, provocative style and language. Marinetti doesnÂ’t plead us for changing the world, he demands that.

 

In the introduction, Marinetti introduces us into a meeting with friends, who seem to be waiting for something. This group of people is pictured as if they beam with pride in the awareness that something special will happen this night and they are part of it. Signalized through an immense noise, cars appear in the scene and the fascination of these cars knows no bounds for Marinettis group. The reader huddles on the car with Marinetti and the race begins. In the intoxication of the speed, Marinetti seems to have the power over his car and the circumstances. The possibility of his own death becomes a game, which he is sure to win. The own power of being able to kill with his magical machine attracts and fascinates him. The relationship between him and the car almost seem to culminate in a kind of emotional climax, when two cyclists appear. Marinetti dodges and drives his car into a ditch. With the help of fishermen he can release his car out of the mud and surprisingly it seems to be dirty but okay. In this situation, where he has just cheat death, he declares his eleven theses.

 

The eleven theses are structured by several elements. Marinetti wants the reader to fight against traditional orders: Revolt and revolution are main themes which Marinetti wants to be realised through aggressive actions which include the possibility of the death. According to this, Marinetti praises the struggle and its function to clean. Besides the quest for anarchy, Marinetti banks on speed and energy, while feeling detached from the rules of time and space. In the awareness of his own youth and power, Marinetti condemns standstill, but praises the never-ending power of machines, which seem to be stronger than the nature.

 

The last part can be seen on the one hand to give directions to his Futurist movement, and on the other hand, as future prospects. Marinetti repeats the main elements of the thesis and demands struggle against the traditional knowledge centred in universities and museums to save the new movement from traditional influences and the power of the past. In his prospects, his successors will fight the same struggle, this time against himself to build their own conviction in aggression, hate and speed.

 

Marinettis manifesto shows in the way it is written the ideals of emotion, power and speed. In the awareness of his youth and the obvious oppression of the traditional rules and orders, Marinetti builds his own new rules and world based on violence, speed and the glorification of machines, which seem for him to break the rules of the possible.

But doesnÂ’t every new system need an order to stabilize? Who manages a system which is ruled by anarchy and war? If we destroy the knowledge of our ancestors, how should the next generation be educated? What happens if the glorified machines break and nobody is there to repair it, because the knowledge to repair has been destroyed? Who will be there to struggle against Marinettis generation, if the nations have killed each other in the war for patriotism and Marinettis idea? Who will be able to deliver the next generation if the women are not respected and not well-treated anymore? What would Marinetti say, if his loved masses of men are lying dead on mother earth because hate and the lack of individual thinking has made them kill each other in the power of their youth?