What do mohair berets have in common with fascism? The avant-garde art movement, Futurism has a lot in common with Italian fascism, but… What does futurism have in common with the Art of Touch? For over 5 weeks between January, and February 2019 I have been researching about that topic.
It started from the discovery that the founder of futurists Filippo Tommaso Marinetti was obsessed with touching different materials, and objects. In 1921 he created a “Tactile Manifesto”, where he writes: “(…) I started by submitting my sense of touch to intensive treatment, pinpointing the confused phenomena of will and thought on various points on my body, and especially on the palms of my hands. This training is slow but easy, and all healthy bodies can, through this training, give surprising and exact results (…) 1. It will be necessary to keep the hands gloved for many days, during which the brain will attempt to condense in them the desire for varied tactile sensations. (…)” It reminded me of one very popular characteristic in Poland. A pleasant object to touch, the mohair beret. Fluffy, delicate, lukewarm, soft, sensual. It a reminder of home, and yet also perverse. I am sharing my practice of discovering materiality of a mohair beret. I am dancing into the sense of mohair, and trying to reveal its symbolic complexity…
Here are some photographs from my research and performance:
alicjanauman.com 