The future in Futurism

Abstract

‘Future’ is the keyword that gave its name to Marinetti’s movement, around which all the art from the group of Italian artists and also from many artists from the European avant-garde period was built and developed. It is an ancient word but, over the centuries, it has significantly changed its meaning. In the years of Futurism, philosophical and scientific thought currents such as Bergson’s intuitionism and Einstein’s theory of relativity profoundly changed the concept of time. The idea of chronological continuity was replaced by that of ‘real duration’, in other words, the flow, the indivisible change of all things in a single moment of perception of consciousness. In the concept of the Futurists, the future is the positivity of progress, as opposed to the negativity of tradition. The whole art of the Futurist movement will be realized trying to give visible form to this faith in the élan vital that recalls Bergson’s theories.