In RoseLee Goldberg’s first chapter,
she discusses early performances in Futurism. Goldberg begins the chapter by
explaining that these performances by the Futurists were, “…more manifesto than
practice, more propaganda than actual production (p. 11).” This claim is thoroughly
explored in the chapter and holds some truth. The manifestos, mostly written by
Tommaso Marinetti, described in detail the sort of rules and goals Futurist
performers should strive to complete. Futurist manifestos called for artists to
disrupt the public and despise their audiences (pp. 14 and 16). They also
believed that it was unimportant for their viewers to always necessarily
understand performances, and to explain the performances would mean indulging “the
primitivism of the crowd” (p. 27).
However, Marinetti praised variety
theatre in its ability to involve the viewer, liberating the audience from
voyeurism (p. 17). There seems to be some contradictions by the Futurists in that
they were not necessarily concerned with being easily comprehensible to the
audience, yet wanted the involvement of the viewer. This leads me to think that
Futurist artists were more concerned with the artist’s role in a performance
rather than establishing any sort of relationship with the audience. This is not to say that a performance’s
underlying meaning must always be legible, but I cannot help question the goal
of a performance if the viewer’s understanding is not considered. It seems a
bit exclusive in that only the artist and non-“primitive” individuals can comprehend
a performance. This is interesting to me considering that Marinetti praised the
audience for booing performers because it meant they were not blinded by “intellectual
intoxication” (p. 16).
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