-and-

Gli Anni Trenta. Omaggio a Tullio Crali

Now until April 5, 2010

Concurrent exhibitions and events:

Dopo il Futurismo. Chersicla per l’avanguardia
February 26 – April 5, 2010
Palazzo Della Torre (Fondazione Carigo)

Futurismo-Moda-Design. La ricostruzione futurista dell’universo quotidiano
Musei provinciali di Borgo Castello
December 19 – May 1, 2010

Treno in corsa (Futurist Evening)
Friday, March 12 at 6pm

Serata Futurista
Friday, March 19 at 6pm

more info

We are planning a panel for the 2011 American Historical Association convention in Boston entitled “Reconsidering Futurism.”  If approved, it would appear under the auspices of the Society for Italian Historical Studies.

On the hundredth anniversary of Futurism in 2009 there were a number of conferences, exhibits, and symposia that celebrated the event.  Often times, however, much of the attention was focused on extolling the cultural influence of the movement and the emphasis was on the period of “First” or “Heroic” Futurism.

We are looking for papers that specifically question the standard notions of any aspect of Futurism and promote new areas of research.  Thus, we envision each speaker providing a very brief overview of the existing state of the literature in their specific area of expertise in addition to presenting their particular contributions to Futurist studies.  We welcome submissions dealing with all elements of Futurism, but encourage papers dealing with “Second” Futurism (ca. 1920-1944).

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

-political Futurism and its specific connections to Fascism
-biographies of the leading Futurists
-how Futurist women challenged/appropriated/shaped the Futurist message
-Futurist reaction to the role of the Church under the Fascist regime
-Futurism and the Race Laws
-the role of dissident and/or left-wing Futurists under the Fascist regime
-how Futurists were viewed from abroad
-the political context of Futurist art and/or Futurism’s many other cultural initiatives (Cucina futurista, Naturismo, etc.)

Please send a 250 word abstract and your CV by March 15, 2010 to: eialongo@hostos.cuny.edu

Sincerely,

Ernest Ialongo
Assistant Professor of History
Dept. of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Hostos Community College, CUNY
500 Grand Concourse, B-317
Bronx, NY  10451
718-319-7933

“Ma la vita a New York e estremamente dispendiosa ed ardua. Occorrono nervi d’acciaio, dosi di pazienza all’infinito e MOLTI DOLLARI.”
- Fortunato Depero in New York to F.T. Marinetti, 31 October 1929.

Daniele Lombardi – The bad boys of piano

March 11 – 14, 2010
Teatro Nazionale - Roma

link

Nuovo appuntamentocon la danza al Teatro Nazionale con il titolo “Daniele Lombardi – The bad boys of piano” I ragazzacci del pianoforte, titolo che si ispira all’autobiografia di George Antheil, The bad boy of music, spiritoso ed interessante spaccato di vita parigina degli anni Venti. Una escursione nella musica del “Futurismo” in forma di concerto pianistico, realizzazione scenica di balletto ed altre sorprese, un omaggio al movimento omonimo che prese il via dal Manifesto di Fondazione del Futurismo di Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, scritto cento anni or sono e che provocò in pochi anni una incredibile produzione in tutte le Arti in una apertura sulla modernità e la sperimentazione internazionale.

Spettacolo con l’Architettura scenica di Franco Purini, i costumi di Anna Biagiotti, la regia di Beppe Menegatti, la Consulenza musicale di Francesco Sodini, il Disegno luci di Patrizio Maggi. Interpreti dello spettacolo la danzatrice Carla Fracci, l’attrice Olimpia Carlisi, nel doppio ruolo di coreografa-interprete Ileana Citaristi nota per lo studio e la ricerca sui due stili di danza classica indiana, l’attore Italo Dall’Orto, Tadashi Endo anch’egli nel doppio ruolo di coreografo-interprete e noto per aver fuso le tradizioni teatrali di danza Orientali e Occidentali, e i danzatori Massimo Garon, ospite del Teatro, Gaia Straccamore, Guido Pistoni, Vito Mazzeo e Damiano Mongelli del Corpo di Ballo del Teatro dell’Opera. La prima rappresentazione giovedì 11 alle 20.30, le repliche venerdì 12 alle 11 per le scuole, sabato 13 alle 18 e domenica 14 alle 16.30.

Theatre, Performance and the Historical Avant-Garde

By Günter Berghaus

Palgrave Macmillan, 2006
ISBN (hardcover): 1-4039-6955-8 / (paperback) 0-230-61752-2
400 pages
35 b/w illus

This comprehensive study traces the origins of European modernism in nineteenth-century Paris, then branches out to examine four major movements of the theatrical avant-garde that sprung from this epicenter in the early twentieth-century: Expressionism, Futurism, Dadaism, and Constructivism.

Fortunato Depero 50

February 19 – March 12, 2010
*Vernissage, February 26, 2010
*Closing Event, March 12, 2010
Italian Cultural Institute, Washington DC
Curated by Maurizio Scudiero

Check out this review of the opening by Susana

Review in the Washington Post

The exhibition represents the techniques employed by Depero for his graphic work and advertisements. It is an ensemble of Depero’s graphic design works spanning over the course of 35 years.

Curated by art critic Maurizio Scudiero, responsible for the Archivio Depero in Rovereto, and by the Studio 53 Arte (a futurism dedicated gallery), the exhibition illustrates 41 works and 10 vintage prints.

Editor

Günter Berghaus

Editorial Board

Matteo D’Ambrosio
Marjorie Perloff
Irina Subotić
Jorge Schwartz

The last twenty years has seen some major advances in the field of Futurism Studies. What in the first decades after WW II was frowned upon and regarded with political suspicion, has subsequently taken a remarkable development, both in academia and on the art/publication market. Futurism has now come to be regarded as Italy’s most important contribution to modern art and as having left a lasting mark on Italian literature. Consequently, in the 1980s and 90s, a pool of more than 500 artists and writers has been rediscovered, presented to the public by means of exhibitions and publications, and dozens of them promoted to an elevated status in the national pantheon. Every history of art and literature of the past twenty years has accorded Futurism a prominent position in the cultural history of the country.

Outside Italy, the development has been similar. Between 1945 and 1970, few publications were dedicated to the international branches of the Futurist movement, and even less to the leading figures in Italy. This situation changed remarkably after the epochal 1986 Palazzo Grassi exhibition, Futurismo e futurismi. A long series of international exhibitions throughout the Western world raised Futurism to a status on a par with Expressionism, Dada and Surrealism. Consequently, it entered the syllabus in academic institutions and became a standard topic, not only in courses of fine art, design and architecture, but also Italian Studies, Hispanic Studies, Slavonic Studies, Cultural Studies, Theatre History, Music History etc.

This trend has even been surpassed in Eastern and Central Europe. After the demise of the Communist régimes, the historical avant-garde could be thoroughly re-assessed and in many cases for the first time uncovered. A wealth of artistic creativity in the often short-lived democratic States of the 1910s and 20s has come to light, and the central position played by Futurism in it has now been firmly established. This has resulted in over 2,500 publications since the fall of the iron curtain in 1989.

The astounding development outlined above found a peak in the 2009 centenary of the foundation of Futurism. 300 exhibitions, 45 international conferences and an uncountable number of theatre and musical performances, radio and TV broadcasts have given Futurism an unprecedented prominence in the cultural calendar. Futurism Studies as an academic discipline is now firmly established and produces some 300-350 monographs annually (more than half of them outside Italy), tendency still rising. Yet, it is conspicuous that this discipline is strongly compartmentalized, not so much in terms of artistic media, but along national borders. Italian scholars rarely take note of the heaving research that is being carried out in the UK or US, not to mention Russia, Brazil or Germany; but also vice versa, Mexicans or Argentinians tend to be very knowledgeable about creacionismo, ultraismo and estridentismo, but publish few studies on Zenitizam, Zaum-poetry or Poetizmus.

One of the consequences that can be drawn from this situation – and it is one that I have presented, to considerable approbation, at numerous conferences in 2009 – is that the debate on Futurism must become more globalized and be less centred on Italy. Futurism had a world-wide impact and generated many international Futurisms. It made important contributions to numerous avant-garde movements, despite the fact that their agendas only partially overlapped with Marinetti’s aesthetic and political programme.

I have suggested at various academic gatherings in 2009 the founding of an International Yearbook of Futurism Studies, designed to act as a medium of communication amongst a world-wide community of scholars and a forum of debate on the manifold Futurist and para-Futurist phenomena in and outside of Italy. This idea has won widespread support, and half a dozen leading scholars have enthusiastically agreed to serve on the board of such a periodical. More colleagues will be approached in the next months to serve as contributing and consultant editors. Typically, they will be experts on the multifaceted influences of Futurism in their respective country, act as intermediaries to their academic community (especially of young scholars), solicit contributions for the Yearbook and act as referees for essays submitted.

Thus the Yearbook will facilitate contacts across national borders and academic disciplines and establish a global network of academics working in the field of Futurism Studies. The periodical will also act as a coordinating medium for bi-annual regional conferences (the first will take place on East and Central European Futurism, as part of the 2010 EAM conference at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznán/Poland, 9-11 September 2010; a second is planned on Latin-American Futurism for 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, a third on woman Futurists outside Italy for 2014 in Toronto).

The Yearbook will publish essays generated from those conferences, but also contributions focussed on other countries. It will have an interdisciplinary orientation and publish research concerned with literature, fine arts, music, theatre, dance, decorative arts, graphic design, fashion etc. Each volume will have some 250-300 pages and consist of the following sections:

1. Announcements of conferences, exhibitions, publication ventures (10-15 pp)
2. Essays related to world-wide Futurism (180-200 pp.)
3. Country surveys discussing recent work carried out on Futurism in individual countries (30-40 pp.)
4. Conference reports, reviews of books, performances, concerts, exhibitions (10-20 pp)
5. Bibliography of recent Futurism studies with a world-wide coverage, designed to serve as annual addenda to my Bibliographic Handbook of Futurism (15-20 pp)

Nuova Enciclopedia del Futurismo Musicale

Testi di Daniele Lombardi, introduzione di Gino Di Maggio
Milano: Edizioni Mudima, 2010
Nota lingua: Italiano
Pagine: 456

di Daniele Lombardi

introduzione di Gino Di Maggio e Achille Bonito Oliva

bibliografia di Carlo Piccardi

Gran Varietà Futurista

una produzione del Piccolo Teatro di Catania, affidata alla regia sapiente di Gianni Salvo

February 23-28, 2010
Teatro Erba di Torino

di Marinetti, Petrolini ed altri

con

TIZIANA BELLASSAI
GIUSEPPE CARBONE
NICOLA ALBERTO OROFINO
ANNA PASSANISI
GIANNI SALVO

musiche originali

Giuseppe Arezzo

scene e costumi

Oriana Sessa

more info

Sunday, February 28, 2010 | 11am
Vicolo Carpi 5,  Busto Arsizio

Conversation with the art critic Matteo Tosi and banquet.

more info

February 18, 2010 – ?
Studio d’arte la Margherita – Roma

18 works by Balla on display to inagurate this new gallery space.

more info