L.2013.6.15: Les mots en liberté futurists

In his Futurist Manifesto of 1909, the Italian poet Marinetti rejected the art and culture of the past and embraced the speed of modern urban life. Futurist Words in Freedom is a radical version of free-verse poetry—what Marinetti called “parole in libertà,” words in freedom. To free language from the rules of syntax and punctuation, he experimented with different typefaces in various sizes and colors and unusual layouts. The book was a mass-produced paperback, a format that rejected the traditional handcrafted aesthetic of the artist’s book and introduced a new dynamic between image and text.