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?