I Remember You From the Future
This is the work of Futurist architect Antonio Sant’Elia—it was drawn in 1914. I wish I could see it with 1914 eyes. He imagined a “New City”—mechanized, whirring, clean, and punctuated by bright, raw colors. I don’t know what it’s like to have your hand connected to your brain in a way that lets you draw what you dream.
A soldier in WWI’s Italian army, Sant’Eila died at age 28 while lined up against the Austro-Hungarian army in one of twelve battles of the Isonzo. It took twelve before everyone decided to go home. There were many Futurists among the casualties—their manifestoes did not protect them, and their politics were generally less pretty than their parchments.
It’s too romantic to imagine that New Cities sprang up all over the battlefield like bubbles—inflate, pop—as the Futurists checked out, their dreams jumping away from their corpses. It’s too mawkish to imagine a handful of gleaming, sci-fi capitals latticed by terraces, bridges and aerial walkways complete, for a moment, on the shores of the opaque, quartz-blue Soča while the wagon wheels of horse-drawn supply lines rolled on.
I’m doing it anyway.
Brand New Monster
LCA Flickr
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