"Crali. Futurist Testimonies": The dynamic and synoptic declamation

The exhibition Crali. Futurist Testimonies presents some fashion and theatrical sketches carried out by the artist at the beginning of the 30s: Crali was inspired by the manifestos of Volt (1920) and Prampolini (1924). The artist was embraced by Futurism in 1929 when he was 20. In order to legitimate his own authentic futurist faith, he follows very carefully the precepts of the theoretical manifestos. His deep relationship with Marinetti, especially in the last years of his life, crowns him as declaimer: he also stood in for the author in some performances.

It is possible to see in the exhibition the recitation of Zang Tumb Tumb, title of the volume dedicated to the siege of Adrianopoli, written by Marinetti in 1914; its theme is the first Balkan War, in which the poet took part as correspondent. In the poem prevails the idea of war as celebration, as expression of the biggest vitality to which Crali impresses the right meaning of it.

Also in this testimony, Crali was inspired by the Dynamic and Synoptic Declamation of the 11th March 1916, in which Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (who was waiting to be sent back to the front) begins the manifesto dictating the rules of the perfect futirist declaimer, who must:

1. Dress anonymously (a dinner jacket or tuxedo in the evening if possible), avoiding any clothes that might suggest some special ambience. No flower in the buttonhole, no gloves.

2. Completely dehumanize his voice, systematically doing away with every modulation and nuance.

3. Completely dehumanize his face, avoid every facial expression, every trick of the eyes.

4. Metallize, liquefy, vegetalize, petrify, and electrify his voice, merging it with the vibrations of matter itself as expressed by words-in-freedom.

5. Gesticulate geometrically, so giving his arms the sharp rigidity of semaphore signals and lighthouse rays in order to indicate the direction of forces, or of pistons and wheels, to express the dynamism of words-in-freedom.

6. Gesticulate in a draftsmanlike, topographical manner that synthetically creates in midair cubes, cones, spirals, ellipses, and so on.

7. Make use of a certain number of elementary instruments such as hammers, little wooden tables, automobile horns, drums, tambourines, saws, electric bells, so as precisely and effortlessly to produce different simple or abstract onomatopoeias and a range of onomatopoetic harmonies. In certain symphonic groupings of words-in-freedom works these instruments could function orchestrally, each handled by its own executor.

8. Make use of other declaimers, equal or subordinate, mixing or alternating their voices with his.

9. Move to different parts of the hall, running with greater or lesser speed or walking slowly, thus making his own body’s movement collaborate in the scattering of words-in-freedom. Each part of the poem will thus appear in its own special light, and the audience, though magnetized as it follows the figure of the declaimer, will nevertheless not statically submit itself to the lyrical force but will, as it turns toward different parts of the room, converge with the dynamism of the Futurist poetry.

10. Complement his declamation with two, three, or four blackboards placed in different parts of the hall, where he should rapidly draw theorems, equations, and synoptic tables of lyrical values.

11. Must in his declamation be a tireless creator and inventor:

  a) Instinctively deciding at every moment the point at which the tone-adjective and the atmosphere-adjective should be pronounced and repeated. Since words-in-freedom contain no precise indications, he must follow his own instincts in this respect, taking care to achieve the greatest geometrical splendor and numerical sensibility. That way he will collaborate with the freewordist author, intuitively casting out novel laws and creating unexpected new horizons in the words-in-freedom works that he interprets.

   b) As coldly as an engineer or a mechanic, clarifying and explaining the synoptic tables and equations of lyric values, which form zones of luminous, almost geographic simplicity (between the most obscure and complex parts of the words-in-freedom) as momentary concessions to the reader’s understanding.

   c) In and through everything he does, imitating motors and their rhythms (without worrying about the audience’s understanding) while declaiming these more obscure and complex parts, and especially all the onomatopoetic harmonies.

Nicoletta Boschiero – Exhibition manager of Depero Futurist House of the Arts and curator of the exhibition