Saturday 27 June 2009, 11.00–17.00

This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their 'avant-garde' practices. Speakers engage with various forms of Futurist art, performance and film, including the use of manifestos and demonstrations. Italian Futurism will be viewed in relation to other radical art practices across Europe. The Futurists' disdain for traditional values and their pursuit of an 'art of modern life' will be explored in relation to prevailing concepts of modernity and 'avant-garde' utopias. 

Speakers include curator Matthew Gale, art historians Mary Ann Caws and David Cottington, historian Alex Danchev, film historian Lutz Becker and writer and artist Tom McCarthy.

This symposium will be of particular interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of modern and contemporary art, and those studying Open University courses AA318 (Art of the Twentieth Century), A216 (Art and its Histories) and the MA in Art History.

Tate Modern  Starr Auditorium
£15 (£12 concessions), booking recommended
Price includes entry to the exhibition

    

11.00	Welcome by Marko Daniel and Gill Perry
11.10	David Cottington: Futurism and The Avant-Garde It is a commonplace of art history to observe that Italian futurism was among the first movements of the artistic avant-garde. But these terms, and the implications for understanding both futurist art and its significance for western modernism, are not often examined. What was ‘the avant-garde’, why did it emerge when it did, and what influence did it have on the sudden appearance of futurism on the European cultural stage? These are some of the questions that this talk will address, with particular attention to the impact of cubism on the development of futurist painting and sculpture, and to the ways in which its innovations were adapted, and re-exported, by the Italian artists.
11.40	Matthew Gale: ‘The raging broom of madness’: making an exhibition of Futurist The presentation will cover some of the ideas, issues and decisions that went into making Futurism at Tate Modern. It will cover a range from conception to installation, including such concerns as how to present the manifestos and what happened to Balla's dog?
12:10	Alex Danchev: Futurism: art and life and politics The Futurist project was ambitious, not to say grandiose. It outran art to embrace life. It was also intensely political. This talk will broach the politics of Futurism—its connections with various other isms, including anarchism and Fascism, and its position on militarism, violence, and war.
12.40	Round table and Q&A chaired by Gill Perry
13.10	Break
14.40	Introduction to afternoon session
14.45	Lutz Becker A new version of Becker's acclaimed film ‘Vita Futurista’ is being released on the occasion of the 2009 Centenary of Italian Futurism. It covers the story of Futurism from its beginnings in 1909 till the 1930s. The exhibition presented by Tate Modern concentrates on the first phase of Futurism which ended with the death of Boccioni in 1916. The film continues the history of Futurism through its second phase. During the 1920s and 30s Marinetti, in an effort to re-establish Futurism, led a new generation of artists to develop concepts and projects of continuing significance. This new beginning was exemplified in the Manifesto ‘The Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe’ signed by Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero. Fascism eventually usurped the modernising energy of the Futurists, which affected the historical reputation of the movement. Only now, with the distance of time, can Futurism be fully appreciated as one of the most important sources of essential concepts of modern art.
15.15	Mary-Ann Caws: Manifesting A look at a selection of visual manifestos, in their relation to verbal ones – what sorts of crossover features might we determine (or invent) , with our post-event imaginations running high, as in the original big and loud futurist ones? A quick dada/surrealist spin might be put on the whole thing, with additional thoughts after the Venice Biennale sneaking in.
15.45	Refreshments served in the Starr Auditorium Foyer
16.15	Tom McCarthy: 'These panels are our only models for the composition of poetry, or, How Marinetti taught me how to write.' Marinetti's proclamations about literature—what it should and shouldn't be, the operations that it should attempt and tendencies that it should shun—outline a vision whose scope goes far beyond the boundaries of the middle-brow novel. This talk, by a crossover novelist/artist, asks what characteristics a genuinely Marinettian contemporary literature might have.
16.45	Round table and Q&A chaired by Marko Daniel
17.15	End

This event is related to the Futurism exhibition