Futurism 1986. "Accelerated speed or the first idea we got into our heads".

A contemporary theater with on stage six hats of the most diverse shapes inspired by futurist paintings. All around, as if composing an electronic proscenium of that ideal theater, twelve monitors with videos in rotation that, of those hats, illustrate the creative process, the inspiration, the figurine. Observing the scene, silent and attentive spectators, some 20 refined hats. This is the starting point of the exhibition "Accelerated speed or the first idea we put in our heads," presented by Laura Marelli in March 1986 at the Domus Center in Milan and a happy demonstration of the richness of the historical archive that characterizes the work of Gallia e Peter. Conceived by Metamorphosi Art and with videos created by Marco Poma, the exhibition is inspired by Futurist freedom and dynamism and lets them dialogue, intercede and intertwine with the ancient criteria of millinery. A perfect union from which arise, the opening invitation reads, "triangular, square, mechanical, invented, jointed, screwed, elastic, thin, solar, invarigular (i.e., spiral-wound), cylindrical, rattling, fragrant, abstract, dynamic, transparent, phonic, miraculous, plastic, metallic, sensitive, casual, tireless, howling, tearing, festive, glittering, fulminating, iridescent hats."

From futurism, you know, you have to be overwhelmed. Especially in a year like 1986, the same year in which the exhibition "Futurism & Futurismi" was held in the Venetian Palazzo Grassi and in which Bompiani published the epoch-making catalog of the same name. As l'Espresso, futurism is making a comeback as never before and, adds Lina Sotis in X, the unusual happening wanted in Milan by Laura Marelli shows how the hat is no longer just elegant frivolity but also concrete, very real, irrefutable contemporary artistic expression. The project by Gallia e Peter is based on the creative tension from which explosive mixtures are generated and involves many (and very different) professionals. The figurines, redrawn on Laura's sketches, are by Cristina Biraghi, the model is Sara Baldocchi, while Luisa Cevese of Agata Lunare Fabrics does the textile studio and decorations. A hotbed of ideas and impetuous creativity from which hats are born that will make history. One among all: the one photographed by Giovanni Gastel and donated in 1987 to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

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No longer just "hats", then, but "hat-sculptures", "hat-works of art" such as the famous Elastico for which Laura Marelli was inspired by a large painting from 1939. It is The Brooklyn Bridge by Joseph Stella, an Italian artist who emigrated to New York at the age of nineteen and the first representative of a futurism that tells of industrial America, its dynamism, its composing skylines never before imagined, with massive pointed arches that evoke modern Gothic churches. We are in the midst of American fervor, the kind in which cities explode with soaring spires, pointed skyscrapers flanked by the peremptory, mammoth tendons of suspension bridges. Elastico, with its strong upward propulsive thrust and its vertical lines rising imperiously, powerfully recalls the movement of oblique cables and metal strands, chosen by Stella in his painting as an emblem of dynamic motion, progress and modernity exploding in the luminous tones of red, blue and green. But, if he looks back to 1939, Elastico also leans toward the future and seems to anticipate the lines chosen a few years later by Renzo Piano for the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center in Numea, Oceania: a public building built between 1995 and 1998 and intended to promote the Kanak culture of the Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia. After all, "the first idea you come up with" often turns out to be the most apt one. It far exceeds the boundaries of an exhibition and is poised, when the twists and turns allow, to become legend.