MARINETTI, Filippo Tommaso (Alessandria d'Egitto, 1876 - Bellagio, 1944)Umberto Boccioni. Opera completa

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti completed most of his studies in Paris and initially made a name for himself as a poet writing in French (La conquête des étoiles, 1902; Destruction, 1904; La ville charnelle, 1908). In 1905, he founded the magazine Poesia in Milan, still influenced by symbolism and Art Nouveau, in which he gave ample space to many Italian and French avant-garde poets, publishing, among other things, in 1905, in 1905, he published, again in French, the four-act satirical tragedy Le Roi Bombance, a remarkable work, even if it did not live up to the social goals that M. had set himself. In 1909, with a “manifesto” published in Le Figaro in Paris, he launched the Futurist movement; in 1910, he published the novel Mafarka il futurista in French and Italian, which sparked heated controversy and already featured the poetics of “words in freedom”. In search of immediacy and expressive dynamism, it exaggerated D'Annunzio's “sensual love of words” to the point of onomatopoeic mechanisation.
And M.'s subsequent works, whether in prose or verse, despite certain lyrical impulses (see Zang Tumb Tumb, 1914; L'alcova d'acciaio, 1921; Novelle colle labbra tinte, 1930; Spagna veloce e toro futurista, 1931; L'Aeropoema del Golfo della Spezia, 1935), is rather turgid oratory and political-literary action (of gradually diminishing effectiveness) than, as he would like, liberating art at the forefront of a total renewal. Therefore, his most important works remain the “manifestos” of his early period, some of which (such as those on variety theatre, synthetic theatre, etc.) are rich in ideas, insights and foresight. An interventionist (Guerra sola igiene del mondo, 1915) and combatant in the First World War, M. stood alongside Mussolini from the origins of fascism to the Republic of Salò, extolling his military exploits. He was a member of the Accademia d'Italia. Part of M.'s published and unpublished work is collected in Teoria e invenzione futurista (Futurist Theory and Invention, 1968) and La grande Milano tradizionale e futurista (Traditional and Futurist Milan, 1969), edited by L. de Maria. In 1971, Poesie a Beny (Poems to Beny) was published, a collection of poems written by M. in French (1920-38) for his wife Benedetta (from treccani.it).