Publication
Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food
| Summary: | During the short period between 1930 and 1932, the avant-garde Italian Futurists produced a series of works contending with the edible. The aspirations of this Futurist cuisine, as it would be self-referentially dubbed, were outlined explicitly in the “Manifesto della Cucina Futurista” (1930) and in the book-length La Cucina Futurista (1930) co-authored by the movement’s leader, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and artist Luigi Colombo Fillìa. These publications documented a variety of Futurist culinary productions including, but not limited to, the opening of the Futurist restaurant Santo Palato in Turin (1931), and a series of banquets and culinary lectures held across Italy and in France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Tunisia. A stubborn reverence for these visual, physical, and textual – in other words, material – documents have become the norm in studies of Futurist cuisine. The field’s recurrent failure to critically address the immaterial aspects of Futurist cuisine, whose edible ephemera could not have existed – as a canvas might have – outside of the unglamorous realities of agriculture, trade, economic policy, war, famine, and colonialism, has produced an acute political neutralisation of Futurist cuisine in both Anglo-American and Italian contexts. This paper seeks to investigate the extent to which these disciplinary oversights are caused by Futurist cuisine’s use of food as its medium, and on a larger scale, to understand the disciplinary assumptions and trivialisations that compromise art history’s capacity to contend with immaterial modes of production such as this. |
|---|---|
| Main Authors: | Ramaswamy, Lea |
| Subject: | Futurist cuisine Immateriality Italian fascism Right-wing avantgarde Food in art Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Historiography Museum studies |
| Year: | 2025 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Document type: | article |
| Access type: | unknown |
| Associated institution: | Universidade Católica Portuguesa |
| Language: | English |
| Origin: | Diffractions |
| _version_ | 1868421891460431872 |
|---|---|
| author | Ramaswamy, Lea |
| author_facet | Ramaswamy, Lea |
| author_role | author |
| country_str | PT |
| creators_json_txt | [{\"Person.name\":\"Ramaswamy, Lea\"}] |
| datacite.creators.creator.creatorName.fl_str_mv | Ramaswamy, Lea |
| datacite.rights.fl_str_mv | http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 |
| datacite.subjects.subject.fl_str_mv | Futurist cuisine Immateriality Italian fascism Right-wing avantgarde Food in art Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Historiography Museum studies |
| datacite.titles.title.fl_str_mv | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv | Ramaswamy, Lea |
| dc.format.none.fl_str_mv | application/pdf |
| dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv | https://doi.org/10.34632/diffractions.2025.16144 |
| dc.language.none.fl_str_mv | eng |
| dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv | Universidade Católica Portuguesa |
| dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv | http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2 |
| dc.rights.rights.copyright.fl_str_mv | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| dc.source.none.fl_str_mv | Diffractions; No. 9 (2025): Beyond the Object: Immaterial Pasts, Immaterial Futures; 91-116 Diffractions; N.º 9 (2025): Beyond the Object: Immaterial Pasts, Immaterial Futures; 91-116 2183-2188 10.34632/diffractions.2025.n9 |
| dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv | Futurist cuisine Immateriality Italian fascism Right-wing avantgarde Food in art Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Historiography Museum studies |
| dc.title.fl_str_mv | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| dc.type.none.fl_str_mv | http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501 |
| description | During the short period between 1930 and 1932, the avant-garde Italian Futurists produced a series of works contending with the edible. The aspirations of this Futurist cuisine, as it would be self-referentially dubbed, were outlined explicitly in the “Manifesto della Cucina Futurista” (1930) and in the book-length La Cucina Futurista (1930) co-authored by the movement’s leader, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and artist Luigi Colombo Fillìa. These publications documented a variety of Futurist culinary productions including, but not limited to, the opening of the Futurist restaurant Santo Palato in Turin (1931), and a series of banquets and culinary lectures held across Italy and in France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Tunisia. A stubborn reverence for these visual, physical, and textual – in other words, material – documents have become the norm in studies of Futurist cuisine. The field’s recurrent failure to critically address the immaterial aspects of Futurist cuisine, whose edible ephemera could not have existed – as a canvas might have – outside of the unglamorous realities of agriculture, trade, economic policy, war, famine, and colonialism, has produced an acute political neutralisation of Futurist cuisine in both Anglo-American and Italian contexts. This paper seeks to investigate the extent to which these disciplinary oversights are caused by Futurist cuisine’s use of food as its medium, and on a larger scale, to understand the disciplinary assumptions and trivialisations that compromise art history’s capacity to contend with immaterial modes of production such as this. |
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| format | article |
| id | diff_82b417c27893cbbe62847beeddff2efc |
| identifier.doi.fl_str_mv | https://doi.org/10.34632/diffractions.2025.16144 |
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| institution | Universidade Católica Portuguesa |
| instname_str | Universidade Católica Portuguesa |
| language | eng |
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| organization_str_mv | urn:organizationAcronym:ucp |
| person_str_mv | Ramaswamy, Lea |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publisher.none.fl_str_mv | Universidade Católica Portuguesa |
| reponame_str | Diffractions |
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| service_str_mv | urn:repositoryAcronym:diff |
| spelling | en-USInstrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and foodRamaswamy, LeaFuturist cuisineImmaterialityItalian fascismRight-wing avantgardeFood in artFilippo Tommaso MarinettiHistoriographyMuseum studiesCopyright (c) 2025 Lea Ramaswamyhttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2https://doi.org/10.34632/diffractions.2025.16144DOIhttps://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/diffractions/article/view/16144URLHasVersionhttps://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/diffractions/article/view/16144/16987URLHasVersionhttps://doi.org/10.34632/diffractions.2025.16144DOI2025-02-28en-USDuring the short period between 1930 and 1932, the avant-garde Italian Futurists produced a series of works contending with the edible. The aspirations of this Futurist cuisine, as it would be self-referentially dubbed, were outlined explicitly in the “Manifesto della Cucina Futurista” (1930) and in the book-length La Cucina Futurista (1930) co-authored by the movement’s leader, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and artist Luigi Colombo Fillìa. These publications documented a variety of Futurist culinary productions including, but not limited to, the opening of the Futurist restaurant Santo Palato in Turin (1931), and a series of banquets and culinary lectures held across Italy and in France, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Tunisia. A stubborn reverence for these visual, physical, and textual – in other words, material – documents have become the norm in studies of Futurist cuisine. The field’s recurrent failure to critically address the immaterial aspects of Futurist cuisine, whose edible ephemera could not have existed – as a canvas might have – outside of the unglamorous realities of agriculture, trade, economic policy, war, famine, and colonialism, has produced an acute political neutralisation of Futurist cuisine in both Anglo-American and Italian contexts. This paper seeks to investigate the extent to which these disciplinary oversights are caused by Futurist cuisine’s use of food as its medium, and on a larger scale, to understand the disciplinary assumptions and trivialisations that compromise art history’s capacity to contend with immaterial modes of production such as this.Universidade Católica Portuguesaapplication/pdfen-USDiffractions; No. 9 (2025): Beyond the Object: Immaterial Pasts, Immaterial Futures; 91-116pt-PTDiffractions; N.º 9 (2025): Beyond the Object: Immaterial Pasts, Immaterial Futures; 91-1162183-218810.34632/diffractions.2025.n9engjournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501literatureVoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| spellingShingle | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food Ramaswamy, Lea Futurist cuisine Immateriality Italian fascism Right-wing avantgarde Food in art Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Historiography Museum studies |
| status | SINGLETON |
| status_str | VoR |
| subject.fl_str_mv | Futurist cuisine Immateriality Italian fascism Right-wing avantgarde Food in art Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Historiography Museum studies |
| title | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| title_full | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| title_fullStr | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| title_full_unstemmed | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| title_short | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| title_sort | Instrumentalising the immaterial: Italian Futurism and food |
| topic | Futurist cuisine Immateriality Italian fascism Right-wing avantgarde Food in art Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Historiography Museum studies |
| topic_facet | Futurist cuisine Immateriality Italian fascism Right-wing avantgarde Food in art Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Historiography Museum studies |
| url | https://doi.org/10.34632/diffractions.2025.16144 |
| visible | 1 |