Prampolini Enrico

Prampolini was a painter and designer, becoming initially associated with the Futurists in 1912. Holding positions in the Futurist magazines "Noi" and "Stile Futurista", he had frequent contact among contemporary international avant-garde art movements - the Bauhaus, the Dadaists and Der Stürm for example.

In 1914 he published the manifesto Futurist Atmosphere-Structure. Basis for an Architecture that was to be the Futurists first tentative steps in this discipline. In 1915 he published his manifesto Futurist Scenography in which he called for self-illuminated and luminous scenery in the theatre to replace traditional painted backdrops and ultimately for actors to be replaced by luminous, dynamic actor-gases. "Vibrations, luminous forms (produced by electric currents and colored gases) will wriggle and writhe dynamically, and these authentic actor-gases of an unknown theatre will have to replace living actors."

During the 1920's Prampolini's design skills as a scenographer were put to frequent use in the Futurist theatre. In 1923 Prampolini co-signed, with Pannaggi and Paladini, the manifesto Mechanical Art . Prampolini designed the Futurist Pavilion for the 1928 exhibition held in the Parco Valentino, Turin. The result, a multi-colored construction of varied planes, shapes and space, was a concrete demonstration of Futurist architectural principles. Marinetti asked Prampolini to design the Como War Memorial. Prampolini's initial designs were not taken through to completion however and the project was handed over to Guiseppe Terragni. Terragni completed the memorial in 1933 after substantially modifying Prampolini's design.