Politics as the Art of the Impossible: The Heteronomy of Italian Futurist Art-Action

This chapter looks at Italian futurism as a founding aesthetic revolution of the twentieth century. The chapter first argues that futurism is to be situated within a longer history, taking off with romanticism, which presents the inclusion of (so far) “ugly” or inaesthetic objects into art as a way to create new artistic advances. Futurism went rather far in this dynamic, as it looked at all everyday and specialized actions and practices as potential materials for artistic production, politics included, as is illustrated by the futurists’ attempt to install their own aesthetic-political party shortly after the Great War. It is argued in conclusion that one often neglected aspect, clearly manifested by futurism, of aesthetic revolutions is their destabilized institutional context. Closer readings of various texts and artworks by different artists are used throughout the chapter to illustrate claims.