For the opening of a 1912 exhibition of Futurist paintings at Galerie Georges Giroux in Brussels, Valentine de Saint-Point recited her Manifeste de la Femme futuriste, a response to Futurism’s well-known misogyny: her statement adopted a tone of fierce invective towards the feminism of the time, attacking all women –scornfully termed “females” – who failed to adopt a virile, violent, heartless attitude that would make them intellectually independent. In keeping with the principles of this declaration, which would later be repeated in her Manifeste futuriste de la luxure (1913), de Saint-Point herself seems to have led a very restless life, as a woman who liked to provoke but was equally intent on pursuing a versatile artistic career. In 1914 she turned all her attention to dance, presenting a new kind of performance that she called Métachorie – from the Greek for “beyond the chorus” – alternating movement with the recital of poems alongside projected images and perfumes, which were captured in a series of etchings on a black ground, with quickly scratched marks that convey the mystic ambience of the set. Having drawn heavy criticism from her former Futurist allies, she moved to Egypt, converted to Sufism, and died in Cairo in 1953, alone and forgotten.
Stefano Mudu
