Discussion 2 This symposium explores the controversial status of Futurist movements in art history, and some of their ‘avant-garde’ practices. Speakers engage with various forms of Futurist art, performance and film, including the use of manifestos and demonstrations. Italian Futurism will be viewed in relation to other radical art practices across Europe. The Futurists’ disdain for traditional values and their pursuit of an ‘art of modern life’ will be explored in relation to prevailing concepts of modernity and ‘avant-garde’ utopias.

Mary-Ann Caws, Manifesting A look at a selection of visual manifestos, in their relation to verbal ones—what sorts of crossover features might we determine (or invent), with our post-event imaginations running high, as in the original big and loud futurist ones? A quick dada/surrealist spin will be put on the whole thing, with additional thoughts after the Venice Biennale sneaking in.Suggested Further Reading:Mary Ann Caws, ed.

Jennifer Mundy, Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, Three's a Crowd?  Jennifer Mundy, curator of Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, reflects on the exhibition, its making and its aims. Further Reading Jennifer Mundy ed., Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, Tate Publishing, London 2008.

TJ  Demos, Duchamp, Man Ray, Picabia, Dada and Exile  TJ Demos discusses the form and function of "exile" in relation to the work of Duchamp, Man Ray, and Picabia, a term that both defines the experiential circumstances of Dadaist artists and inflects Dada's aesthetico-political commitment.