The Bolted Machine Book: Depero Futurista 1913-1927. A Project by Fedele Azari and Fortunato Depero

Abstract

Depero futurista 1913-1927 is the (self)advertising book by Fortunato Depero and Fedele Azari that commemorated three lustrums of Depero’s futurist militancy. Renowned for its binding with nuts that allowed it to be disassembled, recomposed, and have material added or subtracted, it promoted the publishing house Dinamo Azari and the Casa d’Arte Depero, representing a philosophy that took up Depero’s work, envisioned Azari's interests and would be projected in the commercial dimension of the following decade in favour of an art with advertising power.

This article reconstructs the collaborative project between Depero and Azari to produce the book-machine, starting from the reference point of the visuality of futurist literature linked to the second series of Poesia. Rassegna internazionale diretta by F. T. Marinetti (1906-1909), which would take shape in the free words —and their sonorous quality— investigated by Russolo, Cangiullo and Carrà, the theoretical basis of onomolanguage, Depero’s first differentiated literary experience. It also traces its conceptual process and influence on other futurist and international avant-garde models.

The research has been carried out by means of the original documentation of the project —through the letters between Depero and Azari—, the original books and facsimiles contained in the Fondo Depero of the Archivio del ’900 del Mart Rovereto and the bibliographical and newspaper revision of both authors. Depero futurista 1913-1927 is a nodal work in the futurist trajectory of Depero and Azari, which initiated the policy of book-objects developed in the years of collusion with fascism. The article concludes that the book was a paradigmatic model and one of the great books of Futurism and the European avant-garde of the 20th century.