the verve that distinguishes you

“Have immediately printed, with your usual ultra-Futurist energy, 15,000 flyers like the one enclosed or even half that size, but keep the same proportion of letters. Take paper of different colors, but they must be bright, otherwise the print will be illegible. Then, take a car and . . . make a tour through the principal streets of Messina, throwing the flyers with the verve that distinguishes you.”

F.T. Marinetti, from a letter of October 15, 1913, printed in Guiseppe Miligi, Prefuturismo e primo futurismo in Sicilia, 1900–1918, 1989. As quoted in Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde by G’nter Berghaus, 2005.

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