A new exhibit on the second floor of Doheny Memorial Library highlights the avant-garde movement futurism, founded by Italian artist and poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. In 1909 he published in the French newspaper Le Figaro the first manifesto articulating the goals of his crusade, which was nothing less than a “reconstruction of the universe,” where everything that was old was to be ridiculed and disposed of. Speed, technology, industry, and violence were the new buzzwords of this forward-looking movement. One of the objects on display is Les Mots en Liberté Futuristes (Futurist Words in Freedom), a key example of Marinetti’s use of unrestrained typography. His revolutionary aesthetic catalyzed an onslaught of literary and artistic experimentation. The exhibit was prepared by students Madeline Karabian, Zoe Kemp, Gabriella Koek, Michael Ramsey, and Emma Ross under the supervision of Professor Gian-Maria Annovi as part of the course "Modern and Postmodern Italian Literature."
