On February 20, 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti published "The Founding Manifesto of Futurism" in French newspaper Le Figaro. Man's consciousness was to be transformed, it proclaimed, bringing him up to the speed with the new century.

"We will sing of great crowds excited by work, by pleasure and by riot; we will sing of the multicolored polyphonic tides of revolution in the modern capitals; we will sing of the vibrant nightly fervor of arsenals and shipyards blazing ... greedy railway stations that devour smoke-plumed serpents; factories hung from clouds by the crooked lines of their smoke," Marinetti wrote.

The futurist movement in Italy was a sharp break from the past, celebrating technology and full of optimism about the world's industrialized future. It spread across the arts from drama to poetry, painting and sculpture. In Russia, where the movement began to gain a foothold in 1912, it was led by some of the most famous cultural figures of the last century, such as Vladimir Mayakovsky and Mikhail Larionov.

Now, for the first time Italian futurists are shown with their Russian counterparts in an exhibition at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts called "Futurism -- Radical Revolution. Italy-Russia." The exhibition celebrates almost 100 years of the movement with sculptures, archive materials, paintings and posters shown in separate Russian and Italian rooms.

"Futurism is rebelliousness. It's this prankster mentality through which groups could find another language and underground culture," said Alexandra Danilova, the curator of the exhibition.

In 1910, fruit stalls in Italy often sold out before futurist performances as people bought vegetables to throw at those on stage. Seats would be sold twice to inspire fights in the theater. Posters abandoned syntax, and words were celebrated for the way they sounded and the way they looked on the page rather than for their relevance of meaning. Even through the '30s, Marinetti was still fighting against conventional norms when he wrote "The Futurist Cookbook." The book had a chapter on abolishing pasta.

"The defenders of pasta are shackled by its ball and chain like convicted lifers or carry its ruins in their stomachs like archaeologists. And remember too that the abolition of pasta will free Italy from expensive foreign grain and promote the Italian rice industry."

"Futurism was the first movement that realized the importance of PR," Danilova added.

Pushkin Museum Of Fine Arts Mussolini's profile can be seen from all angles in Bertelli's sculpture.

The paintings of Italian futurists are characterized by their fractured appearance, with buildings, people and machinery depicted in contrasting colors and in constant movement. Giacomo Balla's "Dynamism of A Dog On A Leash," where a Dachshund's legs blur with speed, captures the rush of the era.

Gino Severini's "Souvenir de Voyage" has a busy foreground contrasted with a peaceful mountain backdrop. The painting is chaotic, conveying noisiness and activity: A train, houses, a couple embracing, a yellow double-decker bus and a horse and carriage clash at acute angles.

Sculptures are also caught in motion, walking away or rotating, severing the link with the traditional sculptures of artists such as Auguste Rodin. Umberto Boccioni's "Unique Form of Continuity in Space" is a statue of a bronze man, whose angular muscles protrude, with flame-like shapes emerging from his calves and his body. The rippling body -- half human, half machine -- captures the transformation that futurism celebrates.

Russian futurism was not marked by the machine-driven obsession of Italy (this came to Russia during the industrialization of the late '20s). Instead, futurism was celebrated as a break with traditional forms of art. Russian futurism was born in 1912 in St. Petersburg with the publication of the manifesto "A Slap in the Face for Public Taste," which included poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky.

"Russian futurism occurred as a result of Italian futurism, it also occurred alongside and in direct opposition to the Italian movement," Danilova said.

Pushkin Museum Of Fine Arts Severini's painting shows nature submerged beneath machinery.

When Marinetti came to Moscow in 1914, he was greeted with a mixed reaction. Some futurists saw him as their leader, but others, like experimental poet Ilya Zdanevich, were against the direction that the movement was going in. "Your current tactics and propaganda is not only unnecessary to art, but is also damaging. I hope that the independence of Moscow [futurists] will cool your dictatorial tendencies," Zdanevich wrote in a letter.

One of the leaders of Russian futurism in art was Larionov, whose picture "Ray Lines" is on display. This work, consisting of intersecting lines in pink and red to the left and blue and black to the right, is an example of rayonism, the first style of abstract art in Russia, which Larionov created. Early work by Kazimir Malevich, and Alexander Rodchenko is also exhibited.

"Each artist called their art movement something different," Danilova said. "Rayonism looks at the reflection of light rays and how light forms the shape of the objects. Light was also one of the central themes of Italian futurism."

The paintings of Larionov's wife, Natalia Goncharova, are closer to the Italian futurist style. "Landscape With a Train (Airplane Above a Train)" is a busy painting, whose title helps to decipher the cacophony of shapes.

This celebration of the power of machines and war was not without irony. Antonio Sant'Elia, a futurist architect, died in World War I, as did Boccioni. Sant'Elia's architectural drawings of factory buildings on an awe-inspiring scale hang between halls in the Pushkin Gallery. He perished before any of his buildings were realized.

"It is ironic because no one welcomed the war more than the futurists," Danilova said.

"This cleansing of the old was exactly what they were working toward."

Even though it had lost two of its most important members, the movement remained significant. Its ideals of the new against the old and its worship of technology resonated with fascist ideology, and futurism became the official fascist aesthetic. Renato Bertelli's sculpture "Continuous Profile -- Head of Mussolini," where his infamous profile could be seen at every angle was manufactured in large numbers and placed in many government offices.

While Italian futurism continued until the late '30s, Russian futurism fizzled out.

"Malevich went on to suprematism and Rodchenko started playing with ideas of constructivism, while Larionov moved more into poetry and theatre," Danilova said. "The energy of futurism was transferred into other art forms."

"Futurism -- Radical Revolution. Italy-Russia" (Futurizm -- Radikalnaya Revolyutsia. Italia-Rossia) runs to August 24 at The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, located at 12 Ulitsa Volkhonka. Metro Kropotkinskaya. Tel. 203-7998, 203-9578.