FUTURISM AND THE FUTURISTS

Mario Carli

Warlike Literary Portrait of Mario Carli by Tato. 1930

Mario Carli was born in Sansevero in 1889.

Lacerba started up in early 1913 to support avant-garde literature and art by Papini, Soffici and other writers later gave life to La Difesa dell'Arte, an anti-Futurist literary paper, edited by Mario Carli with Emilio Settimelli and Virgilio Scattolini, with the collaboration of Bruno Corra.

Carli converted to Futurism prior to 1914 and was a member of the Florentine group with the likes of Arnaldo Ginna, Corra and Rosa Rosà (with whom he worked frequently).

In 1916 he co-signed, with Ginna, Remo Chiti, Settimelli, Oscar Mara and Neri Nannetti, the Manifesto of Futurist Science published in L'Italia Futurista, Florence, on 15 June.

During the war, he joined the Arditi assault troops and his brochure Noi Arditi personified the Arditi as the essential Nietzschean Futurist Übermensch.

In 1918, he formed a local fascio of the Futurist Political Party in Rome, which he headed with Remo Chiti, Alberto Bucinelli and Piccardo Calcaprini. The amalgamation of Arditism and Futurism was seen as the melding of the political and literary avant-gardes and the union of art and life.

"Notte Filtrate" 1917
Illustrated by Rosa Rosà

Shortly after 1920, Carli became co-editor of Roma Futurista with Gino Galli, Giacomo Balla, Settimelli and Marinetti. As spokesman for the Arditi in Roma Futurista, Carli effectively linked the two movements and was responsible for bringing many Arditi into the Futurist Political Party. On 1 January 1919, Carli founded the Associazione fra gli Arditi d'Italia in Rome.

He published four important Ardito-Futurist documents - The First Appeal to the Flames (the Flames were the insignia of the Arditi units) was published in Roma Futurista on 20 September 1918. The Second Appeal to the Flames was published on 10 December 1918 in the same journal. The Association Between the Arditi - Programme and Statute for the Post-War Period was published in May 1919. Finally, the Futurist political statement Manifesto of the Futurist Ardito was published in November 1919.

From May 1919, the Arditi had their own journal L'ardito which was edited by Carli, Marinetti, Ferrucio Vecchi and Barabandi in which he wrote "Futurist art and politics are the complement to Arditism".

1919 was the time of the Ardito-Futurist alliance with the Fascists which was, to say the least, somewhat tenuous. As the Ardito-Futurists vied with the Fascists Carli, together with Vecchi and Ambrosini, refused point-blank to join Mussolini's fascia preferring instead the Socialist Movement. Indeed, it appears that the Arditi-Futurists generally were beginning to distance themselves more and more from Fascism. The crack widened when, in July 1919, Carli published Parties of the Avant-garde - What if we tried to collaborate?

In September 1919, Carli was in Fiume with other Futurists supporting d'Annunzio's 'Fiume adventure'. He organised, with Marinetti and Vecchi, some Futurist events - mainly poetry readings. On 1 October, Marinetti was expelled from Fiume after carrying out Republican propaganda and from then onwards Carli and Mino Somenzi shared leadership of the Futurists in Fiume. They founded a newspaper La testa di ferro, edited by Carli. The first issue was published on 1 February 1920. Carli's Bolshevik propaganda in the newspaper disturbed the military leadership of Fiume who ordered the inspection of the publication. In order to avoid censorship, Carli moved the paper to Milan in June 1920. From its new base, the newspaper continued to criticise the passéist Fiume leadership with impunity.

1927

During 1920 the Arditi were beginning to factionalize towards the political extremes. On 23 May, Carli and Settimelli published their manifesto Italian Empire that attempted to remind Mussolini of Futurism's input to the Italian claim for Imperial status. At the second Fascist Congress in May 1920, Marinetti criticised Fascism generally and Mussolini in particular.

On 29 May, he resigned from the Central Committee and the Fasci di Combattimento. Although Carli led the pro-Fascist faction of the Futurists, he followed Marinetti's lead and thereafter tried to justify the former Futurist-Fascist alliance in his newspaper.

Carli was considered as a dissident and the security forces built up a large file on him. He was repeatedly subjected to political investigation and was even tried by the Fascist party's special tribunal.

Mario Carli died in Rome in 1935.