Situationist International

Internationale situationniste 1, Jun 1958, Log.

Guy Debord, The Society of Spectacle, 1967–, Log.

Ken Knabb (ed.), Situationist International Anthology, 1981/2006, Log, EPUB, HTML.

Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Jakob Jakobsen (eds.), Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere, 2015, Log, PDF.

Founded in July 1957, the Situationist International brought together currents of experimental poetry, avant-garde art, and radical social criticism to explore new techniques of engagement in cultural protest and revolutionary praxis. Although the organization itself remained small and disbanded in 1972, the SI shaped the interaction of art and politics at crucial moments in the evolution of postwar culture, including the transnational uprisings of 1968 and 1977. Its influence continues to be felt today. (Source)

Protagonists

• Michèle Bernstein
• Constant Nieuwenhuys
• Guy Debord
• Gruppe 66
• Gruppe SPUR
• Gyllene Flottan
• Jacqueline de Jong
• Asger Jorn
• Attila Kotányi
• Katja Lindell
• Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio
• Ralph Rumney
• Situationist Times
• Raoul Vaneigem

Publications

Periodicals

• Internationale situationniste. Bulletin central éd. par les sections de l'Internationale situationniste, 12 numbers, ed. Guy-Ernest Debord, Paris, Jun 1958-Sep 1969, HTML. (French)
  • Internationale Situationniste. Réédition d’articles (Supplement a 4 Millions de Jeunes Travailleurs), Paris: Les Amis de 4 millions de jeunes travailleurs, [1970], 44 pp.
  • Internacional Situacionista, 1: La realización del arte, numbers 1-6, trans. Luis Navarro, 1999. (Spanish)
• Spur. Organ der Situationistische Internationale, 7 numbers, ed. Gruppe Spur, Munich, Aug 1960-Jan 1961. [1] [2] (German)
• The Situationist Times, 6 numbers, eds. Jacqueline de Jong (1-6) and Noël Arnaud (1-2), Hengelo (NL), Copenhagen and Paris, May 1962-Dec 1967. Numbers 4 & 5, Sample pages, Context, CCIndex. (English)
• Situationistisk revolution: centralorgan for den skandinaviske sektion af situationistisk internationale, 3 numbers, ed. J.V. Martin, 1962 & 1967 & Oct 1970; repr., Aarhus: After Hand, 2013. [3] [4] [5] (Danish)
• Der Deutsche Gedanke. Organ der Situationistischen Internationale für Mitteleuropa, 1 issue, ed. Raoul Vaneigem, Brussels, Apr 1963. First issue of the Internationale situationniste in Germany, Der Deutsche Gedanke was meant to replace Spur after the exclusion of the group. [6]. (German)
  • English trans.

Books

• Asger Jorn, Pour la forme. Ébauche d’une méthodologie des arts, Paris: Internationale situationniste, 1957; new ed., pref. Guy Debord, Paris: Allia, 2001, 157 pp. (French)
• Asger Jorn, Critique de la politique économique suivie de La Lutte Finale, Paris: Internationale Situationniste, [1960], 38 pp. (French)

• Guy Debord, La Société du Spectacle, Paris: Buchet-Chastel, 1967; 2010. (French)
  • Society of the Spectacle, trans. Fredy Perlman and Jon Supak, 1970. (English)
  • Die Gesellschaft des Spektakels, 1978; 1996. (German)
  • La societa dello spettacolo, 1979. (Italian)
  • Society of the Spectacle, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, 1995. (English)
  • Gösteri Toplumu. ve Yorumlar, trans. Ayşen Ekmekçi and Okşan Taşkent, 1996. (Turkish)
  • A sociedade do espetaculo, 1997. (Portuguese)
  • Society of the Spectacle, trans. Ken Knabb, 2002; 2005.
  • La sociedad del espectacul, 2002. (Spanish)
  • Društvo spektakla, trans. Aleksa Golijanin, anarhija/blok 45, 2003; Anarhistička biblioteka, 2012. (Serbian)
  • De spektakelmaatschappij, 2005. (Dutch)
  • Spektákulum társadalma, 2006. (Hungarian)
  • Społeczeństwo spektaklu oraz Rozważania o społeczeństwie spektaklu, 2006. (Polish)
  • Společnost spektáklu, 2007. (Czech)
  • Societatea spectacolului, trans. Cristina Savoiu, Bucharest: RAO, 2011. (Romanian)
  • Η Κοινωνία του Θεάματος. (Greek)

• Raoul Vaneigem, Traité de savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations, Paris: Gallimard, 1967. (French)
  • Tratado del saber vivir para uso de las jovenes generaciones, trans. Javier Urcanibia, 1977; 2008. (Spanish)
  • The Revolution Of Everyday Life, trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, Left Bank Books and Rebel Press, 1983; Rebel Press, 2001, 279 pp. (English)

Manifestos, proclamations

• "Manifeste", Internationale situationniste 4, ed. G.-E. Debord, Paris, Jun 1960, pp 36-38. Dated 17 May 1960. (French)
  • "Situationist Manifesto", trans. Fabian Tompsett, in Cosmonauts of the Future, eds. Bolt and Jakobsen, 2015, pp 47-49. (English)

• "Kampen om det situkratiska samhället. Ett situationistiskt manifest", Drakabygget. Tidskrift för konst, mot atombomber, påvar och politiker 2-3 (1962); repr. in Situationist Times 2 (1962). Signed by the members of the Stockholm Conference in August 1962. (Swedish)
  • "The Struggle of the Situcratic Society: A Situationist Manifesto", in Cosmonauts of the Future, eds. Bolt and Jakobsen, 2015, pp 89-95. (English)

• Adresse aux révolutionnaires d'Algérie et de tous les pays / Address to the Revolutionaries of Algeria and of All Countries / ..., Paris, Nov 1965, [28] pp. Circulated clandestinely in Algeria (July 1965) and reprinted as supplement to Internationale Situationniste 10 (Paris, March 1966). (French)/(German)/(Spanish)/(English)/(Arabic)

Catalogues

• Destruktion af RSG-6: en kollektiv manifestation af Situationistisk Internationale, Odense: Galerie Exi, 1963, 26 pp. (Danish),(French),(English)

Anthologies

• Situationister 1957-70, eds. Ambrosius Fjord and Patrick O'Brien [Jørgen Nash and Jens-Jørgen Thorsen], Copenhagen: Bauhaus Situationniste, 1971. Preface. Thorsen's text, (2). (Danish)
• Situationist International Anthology, ed. & trans. Ken Knabb, 1981; rev. & exp. ed., Berkeley, CA: Bureau of Public Secrets, 2006, 532 pp, Log, EPUB, HTML. (English)
• An Endless Passion... an Endless Banquet: A Situationist Scrapbook, ed. Iwona Blazwick, London: Verso, and London: Institute for Contemporary Art, 1989, 96 pp. Selected documents from the SI from 1957-1962, and documents tracing the impact on British culture from the 1960s to the 1980s. Review: Smith (Oxford Art J). (English)
• Beneath the Paving Stones: Situationists and the Beach, May 1968, ed. Dark Star, Edinburgh and San Francisco: AK Press, and Dark Star, 2001, 120 pp. Contains 3 pamphlets from the 1960s: The Poverty of Student Life; Totality for Kids; and The Decline and Fall of the Spectacular Commodity Economy; and other documents. (English)
• Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents, ed. Tom McDonough, MIT Press, 2002. (English)
• The Situationists and the City: A Reader, ed. Tom McDonough, London: Verso, 2010, 288 pp. [7] (English)
• Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere, eds. Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen and Jakob Jakobsen, Copenhagen: Nebula, and New York: Autonomedia, 2015, 304 pp. [8] (English)

More

• Publications on situationists at Monoskop Log
• Situationist Library at 1000 Little Hammers
• Libcom.org's reading guide
• Catalogue.

Film

• Debord's films on UbuWeb
• Viénet's films on UbuWeb
• Situationist Film at 0xDB

Documentaries

• On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972, documentary, 1989, 22 min.

Literature

• Mario Perniola, Agar-Agar 4: "I Situazionisti", Rome: Arcana, Apr-Aug 1972, 92 pp; repr. as I Situazionisti: il movimento che ha profetizzato la società dello spettacolo, Rome: Castelvecchi, 1998, 123 pp; repr., 2005. (Italian)
  • Los situacionistas: historia crítica de la última vanguardia del siglo XX, trans. Álvaro García-Ormaechea, Madrid: Acuarela, and Boadilla del Monte: A. Machado Libros, 2008, 175 pp. (Spanish)
  • Die Situationisten: Prophetie der "Gesellschaft des Spektakels", trans. Laura Albers, Vienna: Turia + Kant, 2011, 180 pp. (German)
• David Jacobs, Christopher Winks, At Dusk: The Situationist Movement in Historical Perspective, Berkeley: Perspectives, 1975, 91 pp, ARG. Commentary: NotBored. (English)
• Giorgio Agamben, Guy Debord, Enrico Ghezzi, Luisa Passerini, Alberto Piccinini, Francesco Poli, Filippo Scarpelli, Roberto Silvestri, Paolo Virno, I Situazionisti, Rome: Manifestolibri Set, 1991, 94 pp. (Italian)
• On the Passage of a Few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International, 1957-1972, ed. Elisabeth Sussman, MIT Press, and Boston: ICA, 1991, vii+200 pp. Catalogue for exh. held at Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1989; texts by David A. Ross, Elisabeth Sussman, Mark Francis, Peter Wöllen, Troels Anderson, Mirella Bandini, Thomas Y. Levin, and Greil Marcus. [9]. Review: Smith (Oxford Art J). (English)
• Sadie Plant, The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist International and After, London: Routledge, 1992, 240 pp. (English)
• Lund Art Press 2(3): "Bauhaus Situationist", 1992. Special issue on the Scandinavian Bauhaus Situationist movement. (English)
• Stewart Home (ed.), What Is Situationism? A Reader, Edinburgh and San Francisco: AK Press, 1996, 203 pp. (English)
• October 79: "Guy Debord and the Internationale situationniste", ed. Thomas F. McDonough, MIT Press, Winter 1997, PDF. (English)
• Simon Sadler, The Situationist City, MIT Press, 1998, ix+233 pp. (English)
• Catherine de Zegher, Mark Wigley (eds.), The Activist Drawing: Retracing Situationist Architectures from Constant's New Babylon to Beyond, New York: Drawing Center, and MIT Press, 2001. (English)
  • Mark Wigley, "Paper, Scisors, Blur", pp 26-68. On Constant's New Babylon.
• Archives et documents situationnistes, 5 issues, Paris: Denoël, 2001-05. Journal. [10] (French)
• Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Situationistisk Danmarkskort. Noter om Situationistisk Internationale i Danmark, Copenhagen: Copenhagen Free University, 2003, 35 pp. (Danish)
  • Situationist Map of Denmark: Notes on the Situationist International in Denmark, Copenhagen: Copenhagen Free University, 2004, 35 pp. (English)
• Simon Ford, Situationist International: A User’s Guide, London: Black Dog, 2004. (English)
• Stephan Grigat, Günther Friesinger, Johannes Grenzfurthner (eds.), Spektakel – Kunst – Gesellschaft. Guy Debord und die Situationistische Internationale, Berlin: Verbrecher, 2006, 250 pp. (German)
• T.J. Clark, Donald Nicholson-Smith, Pourquoi l'art ne peut pas tuer l'Internationale situationniste, Marseille: Egrégores, 2006, 47 pp. (French)
• Kelly Baum, "The Sex of the Situationist International", October 126, pp 23-43, Fall 2008.
• McKenzie Wark, The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International, Verso, 2011, 224 pp. (English)
• Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Jakob Jakobsen (eds.), Expect Anything Fear Nothing: The Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere, Copenhagen: Nebula, and New York: Autonomedia, 2011, 288 pp. (English)
• Tom McDonough, "Unrepresentable Enemies: On the Legacy of Guy Debord and the Situationist International", Afterall 28, Autumn/Winter 2011, pp 42-55.
• McKenzie Wark, The Spectacle of Disintegration: Situationist Passages out of the Twentieth Century, London: Verso, 2013. (English)
  • Spektakl dezintegracji. Sytuacjonistyczne drogi wyjścia z XX wieku, trans. Katarzyna Makaruk, Warsaw: Fundacja Bęc Zmiana, 2014, 313 pp. Excerpt. [11] (Polish)
• Grey Room 52: "Guy Debord's Cinema", Summer 2013. [12] [13] (English)
• Frances Stracey, Constructed Situations: A New History of the Situationist International, Pluto Press, 2014, ARG. Reviews: Cosma (review31), Memou (Phil Photography), Man (Mytho), Danchev (THE), Brulhart (Critique d'art, FR). (English)
• Daniel Birnbaum, Kim West, Life on Sirius: The Situationist International and the Exhibition after Art, Berlin: Sternberg, and Stockholm: Moderna Museet, 2017, 72 pp. [14] (English)
• Sam Cooper, The Situationist International in Britain. Modernism, Surrealism, and the Avant-Garde, Routledge, 2017, 185 pp. [15] (English)
• Wolfgang Scheppe, Roberto Ohrt, The Most Dangerous Game. Der Weg der Situationistischen Internationale in den Mai 68, 2 vols., Berlin: Merve, 2018, 908+80 pp. [16] [17] (German)

Encyclopedic entries

en Oxford DA, Tate, Wikipedia. it Treccani. cr Šuvaković.

Bibliography

• Simon Ford, The Realization And Suppression Of The Situationist International: An Annotated Bibliography 1972–1992, AK Press, 1996, 155 pp. [18] (English)

Resources

• Situationist International Online
• Situationist International Archives
• Situationist International in Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
• Situationist International resource compiled by Co Seegers
• Internationale Situationniste in English
• Situationist International on LibCom.org
• Copenhagen Free University: Situationistisk arkiv (Danish)
• Copenhagen Free University: Situationist research
• Scandinavian Situationism, timeline and text archive by Jakob Jakobsen.

Exhibitions

• Situationister 1957-71 Drakabygget, Skånska Konstmuseum, Lund/Sweden, 1971. Catalogue text.
• On the Passage of a Few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International, 1957-1972, Musée National d’Art Modern Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 21 Feb-9 Apr 1989; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, 23 Jun-13 Aug 1989; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 20 Oct 1989-7 Jan 1990. Catalogue published.
• An Army of Liars: Situationists in Scandinavia, Kunsthall Oslo, 25 Nov 2016-29 Jan 2017. First major exhibition to examine the legacy of the Situationist movement in the region. Archive material.
• The World We Must Leave: An Idea of Revolution by Jakob Jakobsen and Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen, Kunsthal Aarhus, 19 Nov 2010-9 Jan 2011; Kunsthall Oslo, 25 Nov 2016-29 Jan 2017. Works and documents from the SI and 3 short films. Exhibition guides: Aarhus, Oslo.
• Jacqueline De Jong: The Situationist Times, 1962-1967, exhibition, Boo-Hurray, New York, 9-25 May 2012.
• Jacqueline De Jong & The Situationist Times: Same Player Shoots Again!, exhibition, Torpedo/PUB, Oslo, 11 May-2 Sep 2018; Konsthall Malmö, 15 Sep 2018-13 Jan 2019; Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark, 31 Aug-1 Dec 2019. Curated by Ellef Prestsæter in collaboration with Torpedo and Jacqueline de Jong. Review: Henriksen (Kunstkritikk).
• An Army of Liars: Situationists in Scandinavia, Kunsthall Oslo, Oslo, 25 Nov 2016-29 Jan 2017. The first major exhibition to examine the legacy of the Situationist movement across Scandinavia. Review: Norton (Kunstkritikk, NO).
• The Most Dangerous Game: The Situationist International en route for May '68, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 27 Sep-10 Dec 2018. First reconstruction of the unfinished project Bibliothèque situationniste de Silkeborg outlined by Debord with Asger Jorn. Devised by Wolfgang Scheppe in collaboration with Roberto Ohrt and Eleonora Sovrani. Two-volume book published. Exh. review: Henriksen (Kunstkritikk).

See also

• Lettrist International, Lettrism