Tomaž Toporišič The New Slovene Theatre and Italian Futurism: Delak, Černigoj and the Historical Avant-garde in Venezia Giulia Abstract: The Slovene avant-garde movements of the first three decades of the twentieth century can be clearly linked to Italian Futurism. All three generations of the Slovene historical avant-garde were familiar with Futurist activities from their very beginnings. The third generation Slovene avant-garde, represented by Ferdo Delak and Avgust Černigoj and his Triestine circle, adapted some Futurist innovations, but the complicated and controversial relation of Italian Futurism to Fascism made them turn away from Futurism and move into the realms of Constructivism. Ideologically and politically linked to Russian Constructivism as well as to its intermediaries at the Bauhaus, the manifestos of the Young Slovene Theatre were filled with Russian Constructivist terminology, but they also echoed the proclamations issued by Marinetti, Prampolini and other Futurists. In this essay, I outline the specific political circumstances of the Slovene reception of Italian Futurism and, on this basis, investigate its influence on the Slovene the- atrical avant-garde of the 1920s. This evokes the specificity of the interrelation of the two movements that can be explained by an artistic and political game of liaisons dangereuses. Keywords: Ferdo Delak, Avgust Černigoj, Srečko Kosovel, Sofronio Pocarini, Giorgio Carmelich, Edvard Stepančič, Tank, Novi oder, Der Sturm, the historical avant-garde in Venezia Giulia, Constructivism, Zenitism, Bauhaus Introduction: Futurism in the region of Venezia Giulia When linking the Slovene historical avant-garde to Futurism, we immediately encounter two important figures belonging to the former movement, namely, the painter and visual artist Avgust Černigoj (1898–1985) and the theatre director Ferdo Delak (1905–1968). Both were Slovenes who came from the Julian March in North-Eastern Italy (the former Austrian Littoral named ‘Venezia Giulia’ in Italian, ‘Julijska krajina’ in Slovene). Futurism’s impact in the region between Trieste and Gorizia was marked by three events: 1) Marinetti’s appearance in Trieste in 1908 at the memorial service for the irredentist ‘martyr’ Guglielmo Oberdan, who had been arrested and sentenced to hanging by Austrian police following his failed assassination attempt on Emperor Franz Joseph; 2) the first Futurist serata at the 10.1515/futur–2013-0024