2008 News Archive - Holidays - Italy celebrates centennial of Futurism

12 01 2009

Italy has long been renowned as a holiday hotspot for culture vultures but 2009 looks set to be a better year than ever for tourists with a taste for fine art.

The Italian tourist board has announced that a series of exhibitions will be put on across the country to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Futurism, one of the 20th century's most important artistic movements.

In conjunction with the Tate Modern and the Pompidou Centre, the Scuderie del Quirinale will be exhibiting a collection of futurist works in Rome, while Aosta, Brescia, Milan and Venice will also host exhibitions.

Futurism traces its origins as a concrete artistic movement to a manifesto published by the poet Marinetti in 1909.

The movement aimed to break completely with the artistic past, celebrating the destruction of war and giving rise to some of the most controversial and shocking art and poetry of the era.