Curated by Ester Coen

On the centenary of F. T. Marinetti’s racketing, moon-killing Futurist Manifesto, Italy’s loudest and boldest avant-garde movement will be celebrated this year in three exhibitions, the first of which is in Rovereto. After most of their brightest lights were snuffed out by the First World War, the Futuristi were co-opted by Mussolini’s Fascists, and to this day remain in bad odor. No doubt seeking to burnish the soiled reputation of the better-known Italian contingent, the show includes French and German contributions to the cause, as well as those frenetic, half-forgotten efforts of the chest-pounding, Communist flag–waving Russian street contingent. Despite a keen interest in upsetting the bourgeoisie, surely these wicked poets, painters, and architects couldn’t have been both Fascists and Communists. Some coolheaded historical revisionism is in order.

— Bruce Sterling