Born in Fondo (Val di Non) in 1892, Fortunato Depero moved to Rovereto with his family where he attended the Scuola Reale Elisabettina, in a middle-European atmosphere that awakened diverse stimuli, ranging from irredentist ambitions to the echoes of the nascent futurist revolution .When he did not pass the entrance test to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, he began working as a sculptor. He moved to Rome in December 1913 where he met Balla, Cangiullio, Marinetti and Sprovieri. In March 1915, together with Giacomo Balla, he published the Ricostruzione Futurista dell’Universo [Futurist Reconstruction of the Universe] in which they projected Futurism in life, beyond painting and sculpture, and towards the applied arts. In 1916 he met the Russian ballet entrepreneur Diaghilev, who visited his atelier and commissioned stage sets and costumes with plasticity for the Song of the Nightingale with music by Stravinsky and Il giardino zoologico [The Zoological Garden] by Cangiullo with music by Ravel, which were never performed. During that period he also met the ballerino Massine, the poet Cocteau and countless artists, including Picasso, Larionov and Gontcharova. He met the Swiss poet Gilbert Clavel with whom he went to Capri in 1971, illustrating the tale Un istituto per suicidi [Suicide’s Institute]; in the same year he also prepared plays and in 1918, in collaboration with Clavel the Balli Plastici [Plastic Dances], a marionette play that was performed in Rome, with five items, with music by Casella, Malipiero, Bartok and Tyrwhitt. In 1919 he opened the Casa d’Arte Depero [House of Futurist Art] in Rovereto where he produced objects of applied art, fabric intarsia and collages. During the same period he also made interior decorations and furnishings, for example that of the Cabaret del Diavolo [the Devil’s Cabaret]. In 1925, together with Prampolini and Balla, he represented Italy at the International Exposition in Paris. Two years later he published Depero Futurista 1913-1927 (Bolted Book), the first example of a Futurist book-object. In September 1928 he went to New York where he was very active in the sectors of theatre stage design and advertising. In 1930 he returned to Italy and between ’31 and ’36 he founded and directed the magazine Dinamo [Dynamo], published the Liriche radiofoniche [Radio Lyrics] as well as taking part in numerous national and international exhibitions. In 1940 he published his autobiography, Fortunato Depero nelle opera e nella vita [So I think, So I paint]. He returned to the United States in 1947, where he was to stay for two years. In 1951 he took part in the IX Milan Triennale with a room dedicated to his work, and in 1952 he exhibited his works in the Sala dei Maestri at the XXVI Venice Biennale. He then completed the decorations for the Sala del Consiglio Provinciale in Trento (1953-56). In 1955 he participated in the VII Rome Quadriennale and the following year, together with the Rovereto City Council, he began work on the Galleria Permanente and Depero Museum, an institution that now has over 3,000 exhibits, including paintings and drawings, around 7,500 manuscripts and an extensive library on Futurism. The museum was opened in 1959. In the same year he exhibited his work at the exhibition held to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the first futurist manifesto. He died in Rovereto in 1960.