Avant-Garde Art and Politics: A Lost Chance?

Art is always political, for avantgarde art the relation is even more visible and ambiguous at the same time. The artistic breakdown of the Futurist avant-garde, for example, was a cultural break born from a situation of social and intellectual stagnation. The basic terrain had been laid by the revolutionary thinking that had developed since the second half of the nineteenth century from the revolutionary crisis of 1848. In this, Italy was unquestionably the tail end of an intellectual ferment that had formed around ideals of social liberation, especially in France, as the central territorial space of the European continent.

On the role of the Fascist party in relation to the spread of Futurism, Teige took a precise stance, influenced by reading Prezzolini who, in his criticism of Marinetti’s book Futurism and Fascism stated that links between Fascism and Futurism essentially dated back to Marinetti’s personal friendship with Mussolini: “However, in reality, Fascism was the antithesis to and a reaction against Futurism rather than an analogy of it. In other words, the exact opposite of Futurism." In this paper I will inquire the relation between arts and politics especially by the first Twentieth century avant-garde, taking into account Baudrillard's and Badiou positions on art critique and art implication to power.