Futurism Exhibition and Italy's Tech Alliance with Musk Signal Shift in Art-Politics Dynamic

The Italian government is investing €2 million in the exhibition 'Il tempo del Futurismo' at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GNAMC) in Rome as part of a cultural strategy to rebrand Italy as a technological leader. This move parallels Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's potential $1.5 billion deal with Elon Musk's SpaceX for satellite connectivity, bypassing the European IRIS² program. Art critic Alessandra Mammì on Artribune argues that the right-wing government is appropriating Futurist symbolism to legitimize its embrace of global tech giants like SpaceX, Meta, and Alphabet. The article draws on philosopher Emanuele Severino's prediction that technology has shifted from a political tool to an autonomous end, dominating cultural and political forces. Recent events cited include Donald Trump's proposal to annex Canada, linked to Eric Schmidt's advice to befriend Canada for AI data center energy needs, and Meta's policy changes seen as a pivot away from liberal cultural agendas, evident in the last two Venice Biennales. The author, Marco Bassan, warns that contemporary art risks becoming propaganda for technology, losing its critical role. He calls for art to resist the logic of power and instead pursue meaning, framing the tension between technology and culture as a conflict between unlimited domination and existential truth.