Synaesthesia of colour, taste and mood: the Futuristic cuisine as a global art

Among all the avant-garde movements Futurism was that which pursued the more radical convergence of the arts in a synthesis of the five senses. No longer conceived as a pure response to the need for nourishment, cooking has evolved as a true "art of the palate" with an inevitable relationship with the visual aspect. The renewal followed the publication of the "Manifesto of Futurist cuisine" as well as a related research that recognized food as a matter of formal expression, which could stimulate the enjoyment of all the senses. Marinetti’s and Fillia’s cookbooks of Futurist cuisine highlighted the role of the artist in the elaboration of a new conception of food, in which plastic and chromatic aspects were privileged because of their interaction with sight and touch. The research illustrates the role of colour in the gustatory synaesthesia which involved food as well as the room in which it was consumed. A didactic experience verified the mood described in some special futuristic menus of Marinetti’s with photo collages. Students’ interpretation evidences a relationship between the mood and the colours in the choice of similar palettes.