Today’s topic: Futurism. For my final blog post I move from cinema into the artistic side of pop culture, a strange art form at that. For days my mind has been plagued by this peculiar ideology and nothing exemplifies the weirdness of the futurist movement better in my mind than ‘Italian Breasts in the Sunshine’. Formulated by futurist Aeropainter Marisa Mori, the dish is exactly as it sounds; a pair of breasts on a plate. Marisa Mori is notable for being one of the only female figures during the futurist movement, focusing more on the art rather than the violence that pursued. It’s impossible to talk about futurism without mentioning the position fascism had to do with influencing many of its political ideals. During the fascist regime, in an attempt to achieve autarky, official propaganda urged Italians to purchase only Italian foods and whenever possible to make do or go without for the sake of reducing national imports.
Futurism was an artistic avant-garde movement with political influence, fronted by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and aimed to leave Italy’s past behind and speed forwards into the future using new technologies. However, the hyper-nationalist and anti-traditional beliefs were not as well received. Nor was the idea to ban pasta- I like to believe it was this point that Italians were most furious about and a large factor in the movement’s failure.
This dish was relatively simple to prepare, however moulding the shape of the dish was quite a strange experience and almost felt like I was not making anything that resembled food at all but rather a sculpture.
From La cucina futurista:
“Form two firm half spheres of almond paste. Place a fresh strawberry on the centre of each of them. The whole may be sprinkled with strong pepper.”
The dish is presented in order to resemble the breasts of an Italian woman lounging on the beach.
When presented at the food fair, people were shocked and couldn’t help but laugh and take photos of my dish due to its unusual nature and overall they found it amusing. They weren’t keen on the taste, but I am unsure as to whether that was due to the strange combinations of ingredients or my lack of cooking ability.
Smile! Europe on Camera 