Although underrepresented throughout art history, women were innovative and integral to the Futurist movement.
I used to assume that Futurism was an all-boys-club; not only because of the overtly misogynistic statements in the Futurist manifesto (Marinetti proclaiming 'We want to glorify war [...] and contempt for woman'), but also applying my knowledge of feminist theories retroactively, I had assumed that independent, unconventional, and avant-garde women would not participate in a movement that had such a passion for destruction.
Participation in a movement that had glamorised violence and destruction seemed like
being swept away by androcentric world views. How did women fit into Marinetti’s desire
to 'demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and
utilitarian cowardice’? The avant-garde, however contra the mainstream, still fashioned
itself against 'the Other', so it is possible to simply assume that women who wanted to get their foot in the door would have needed to imitate macho conventions. However, I refuse to believe that the whole picture is of subjugation and of passive acceptance of intellectual models readily available.
Furthermore, it is reductive to flatten a diverse group into an abstract and homogenous
entity, without considering their specific and situated productions within the movement.
Though the complexity of opinions across this nebulous group can not be abridged in the activities of a few, I’d briefly like to touch upon some of the discourses on gender, expressed in the writings and other forms of cultural production, by women in the Futurist movement in Italy, as well as the Russian offshoot.
Valentine de Saint-Point
Valentine de Saint-Point, having participated in the movement briefly between 1912 and
1914, was a blatant ‘anti-feminist’. Her 1912 text the Manifesto of Futurist Women was thought to be ‘anti-feminist’ as it calls for an eradication of womanhood, but also of all gendered subject positions. Degrading half of the human population into an inferior position, she says, is a hindrance to all of humanity on our stride towards the future. Saint-Point’s anti-feminist futurist position calls for an eradication of womanhood alongside all gendered subject positions. Instead, she strove to grasp an autonomy outside of binary gender roles and existing social structures, including the patriarchy, as these seemed old-fashioned and obsolete. This radical drive can be identified in the works of other female Futurists as well.
Giannina Censi
A claim to androgyny as such is an effort in categorical blurring and declassification, that Rosalind Krauss identifies as a fundamentally feminist endeavour. Such a slippage in identity is achieved in ballerina Giannina Censi’s performance Aerodanza (1931), in which she couples the rhythmicity of her body with the depiction of the mechanical structure of aeroplanes. By not disguising or robotising her body with heavy and rigid costumes, Censi communicated principles of aerodynamics exclusively through expressive body movements. hrough dance, a medium usually associated with femininity, Censi troubles gendered distinctions. Censi’s performance is conceptually evermore relevant amidst current Posthumanist and cybernetic feminist discourses, as she acknowledges the relations between human and non-human subjects, a subject often explored in Futurism.
Maria Ginanni
Visual writer Maria Ginanni also challenged gender theory in the context of war in Europe happening at the time. It is interesting to see how women made themselves present in a field as male-dominated as wartime culture. In articles published by the Futurist journal L’Italia futurista, Ginanni’s rejection of traditional gender roles aligned with a desire to take Italy into an improved future, with men and women equally working for the common good of the country. Ginanni invokes an aspiration, for men and women alike, to become beings that transcend the limits of nature and human weakness. It could be argued that through such nationalistic overtones, while she rejects one form of differential politic, she takes up another. Yet it being a time of war, it is also not surprising that women would also make art in the spirit of patriotism, and it is interesting to see how they made themselves present in a field as male-dominated as war-art.
Women Futurists in Russia
In a Russian offshoot of Futurism, artists married the aforementioned themes of technology and progress with the emerging stylistic tropes of Suprematism, a movement characteristic for its use of bold colours and dynamic geometric shapes. In this style, artist Olga Rozanova depicted cityscapes, war scenes, and technological innovations through abstracted images, highlighting the dynamics of these complex terrains. At the time Russia was going through drastic cultural reforms and the inclusion of women into the workforce can be seen in Rozanova’s work, as well as how women’s insight into the rapidly changing cultural and technological landscape was becoming valued through art.
Though Natalia Goncharova denounced Marinetti’s chauvinistic statements, she expressed alliance with ‘Futuristic militarism’, i.e adopting a rhetoric of violence for hacking at the decaying and antiquated parts of society. Incarnating an Amazon warrior persona, Goncharova, like Rozanova, made work responding to the Great War. Women were held exempt from the task of depicting war-time culture; such lack of expectation granted female Futurists to respond to the conflict in new ways by unsettling common war-art tropes. Far from reiterating the vision of their male-counterparts, Goncharova and he were able to transcend gendered perspectives on politics, and present crisp, nuanced insights.
Regina Cassolo Bracchi
Across modernisms, many women artists developed hybrid approaches, often flirting with Futurism. A rejection to adhere to any given conceptual or aesthetic orthodoxy is perhaps the purest demonstration of the futurist spirit. A final artist I’d like to present in this inconclusive and expandable list is Regina Cassolo Bracchi. Regina (typically known by her first name) was involved in painting and sculpting, as well as in cinema and theater. Most distinctively, she produced costumes and masks from aluminium for various avant-garde productions. Regina was averse towards Futurism’s Fascist leanings, though she was charmed by its vision of positive progress and its anticipatory attitude towards the future. Her experimentation with form and unconventional materials is indicative of her inquisitive spirit, perhaps not limitable to any single movement in the avant-garde.
Despite our inclination to consider figures of the past merely as products of their time, it is important to recognise modes of resistance, inventiveness, claims to empowerment and agency, however hidden or seemingly overshadowed by sovereign powers. Though often only mentioned as footnotes, by thinking and producing in the so-called peripheries of already established movements, women often insurgently produced truly complex and unique work. Navigating in hostile, gendered spheres, women still enact paradoxical subject positions and foster complex ideologies today. Emancipation is often a subtle process. Thus it is an important feminist practice to be attentive to what resides in the margins and to read between the lines.
Images:
Photographs from Giannina Censi's performance Aerodanza (1931): 'Mart, Archivio del ‘900, Fondo Giannina Censi'
Maria Gianni in the Italian Futurist group, 1916: 'Futuristi italiani: Remo Chiti, Nerino Nannetti, Bruno Corra, Emilio Settimelli, Arnaldo Ginna, Maria Ginanni, Vieri Nannetti, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti'
Olga Rozanova's painting Fire in the City (1914)
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