Evola and Futurism

A new exhibition entitled Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe opened at the Guggenheim New York on February 21 and runs until September 1, 2014. Evola is not among the Futurists exhibited, but Valentine de Saint Point is, and her "Manifesto of the Futurist Woman" is among those excerpted on the excellent exhibition website. So is the original 1909 "Manifesto of Futurism" of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, generally accepted as the founder of Futurism. This makes clear that Evola's earlier participation in Futurism before his engagement in Traditionalism was not an aberration but a preparation: Futurism, like Traditionalism, included a radical critique of the status quo. "There is no beauty that does not consist of struggle," wrote Marinetti in his Manifesto. "We intend to glorify war—the only hygiene of the world." Ten years later, in 1919, Marientti helped write the Fascist Manifesto (Il manifesto dei fasci italiani di combattimento).