In 1916 the Italian Futurist artist Arnaldo Ginna filmed, edited and generally oversaw the creation of Vita Futurista (Futurist Life), the only officially “Futurist” film ever made. Created by a committee of futurists, including sculptor, painter and writer Giacomo Balla, playwright and poet Remo Chiti, writer Bruno Corra (also the brother of Ginna, and the co-creator of Ginna’s hand painted completely abstract films of 1909), founder of Futurism, poet, and declaimer F.T. Marinetti, poet and Author Emilio Settimelli, painter and Ginna’s film assistant Lucia Venna and Paolo Ungari, Vita Futurista directly took up several of the ideas proposed by “The Futurist Cinema” manefesto, which delacred that film was the “expressive medium most adapted to the complete sensibility of the Futurist artist.”

On the occasion of Performa 09’s celebration of Futurism, Performa, SFMOMA and Portland Green Cultural Projects had invited an incredible group of contemporary film and video artists to create their own versions of the original segments in Vita Futurista, re-imagining this film in relation to our future.

Michael Smith’s Futurist Lunch was inspired by the “Futurist Lunch (aka Scene at the Restaurant of Piazzale Michelangelo)”.

Inspired by “Futurist Lunch” (aka

Michael Smith has been producing videos, performances and installations for over three decades, often via his performance persona “Mike”. Smith’s work has been aired on television, presented in nightclubs, and exhibited in museums and galleries around the world. He was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial and in the Metrpolitan Museum of Art exhibition The Pictures Generation 1974 – 1984. Smith is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation fellowship, a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He lives in Brooklynn and in Austin where he teaches at the University of Texas.

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