Exhibition from Kröller-Müller Museum Shows How Broad and Influential the Futurism Movement Was

To many, thinking of futurism might equal thinking of the future, but at the Kröller-Müller Museum it is all about a fascinating vision of the future that dates from over a hundred years ago. Futurism was, without doubt, the most radical avant-garde movement at the dawn of the twentieth century. The new exhibition ‘Futurism & Europe. The Aesthetics of a New World’ shows how broad and influential futurism was. Communication agency KesselsKramer created the campaign for the exhibition.

The Kröller-Müller Museum is the only museum in the Netherlands that counts several important futurist works among its permanent collection. Although the movement has been underexposed for a long time, and was overlooked even by founder Helene Kröller-Müller, the influence of futurism is widely represented in this exhibition. To attract all of the Netherlands and beyond to the Hoge Veluwe, KesselsKramer created a campaign that shows all that futurism is, and it has impacted.

The futurists wanted to transform everyday life into a futuristic universe, an ‘opera d'arte totale’. This idea resonated with other movements, such as Bauhaus in Germany, De Stijl in the Netherlands, Omega Workshops in England and Constructivism in Russia. The exhibition showcases a lively exchange of ideas, as well as the mutual competition between the European avant-gardists at the time.

THIS IS FUTURISM

The campaign and the exhibition show how broad futurism was. Under the slogan ‘This is Futurism’, the campaign shows its masterpieces and its multidisciplinary nature. That boils down to a broad selection of drawings, clothes, toys, furniture and even the iconic Campari Soda bottle, making the exhibition an absolute must visit for anyone working in the creative industry.

“By pinpointing directly what futurism exactly is and can be, we make the exhibition appealing to a wider audience that is likely to be less familiar with futurism than, for example, De Stijl or Bauhaus," copywriter Sophie Rijnaard explains. 

With a varied visual style that builds on the gradients of color that the futurists themselves used to visualise movement, speed, sound and action, futurism is once more becoming part of the streetscape and online spheres a little more than a century later.

The exhibition is open to the public from April 29th, and will be on view until Sept. 3, 2023.

Order tickets at krollermuller.nl.