Destruktion af RSG-6: en kollektiv manifestation af Situationistisk Internationale (1963) [DK/FR/EN]

Catalogue for an Internationale Situationniste exhibition held at the Galerie EXI in Odense, Denmark, 22 June-7 July 1963.

“The name of the exhibition is an homage to Spies for Peace’s Official Secret – RSG6 action, in which the anti-war activist group revealed that, in the event of a nuclear attack, the British government had conceived a plan to house key central government personnel in a secret bunker known as Regional Seat of Government number 6 (RSG-6). The intent was to insure continuity of law and order in the event of a nuclear holocaust. The information was published in the Danger! Official Secret RSG-6 pamphlet, of which 4,000 copies were produced, then mailed to key officials and distributed on the streets.

The catalogue includes photographic portraits of Guy Debord, Michele Bernstein, J.V Martin and Jan Strijbosch, as well as reproduction of original artwork by these members of the S.I. It also serves as the first edition of Guy Debord’s important text ‘Les Situationnistes ou les nouvelles formes d’action dans la politique ou l’art’, published in the original French as well as in Danish and English translations.

Featured pieces – all the result of some form of detournement – include Debord’s “Directives”, Bernstein’s “Victories”, and J.V. Martin’s “Thermonuclear maps” (paintings representing various regions of the globe during World War III), among others. All the artwork is shown in a gallery setting that invokes a post-nuclear world – one area, for instance, was a reconstruction of an oppressive nuclear bomb shelter.

This catalog is particularly scarce because most copies (and, in a rather ironic twist of the fate, the bulk of the artwork shown at EXI) were destroyed by a fire bomb on 18 March 1965.” (Source)

Publisher Galerie Exi, Odense, [1963]
26 pages
via Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Exhibition review: Else Steen Hansen (Swedish, 1963).
Commentary: Frances Stracey (2006), Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen (2011).

PDF (15 MB)
JPGs

nul = 0: The Dutch Nul Group in an International Context (2011)

“The legendary art collective Nul was founded in Amsterdam in 1961. Its members–Armando, Jan Henderikse, Henk Peeters, Jan Schoonhoven and (briefly) herman de vries–revolutionized Dutch art, allying themselves with the German Zero group, the French Nouveau Réalistes and the Japanese Gutai group, as well as with artists such as Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana. Alongside these groups, Nul set the tone for the climate of the European avant-garde in the 1960s. The group collaborated on manifestos, happenings and publications, and individually produced serial, minimalist sculptures, installations and assemblages, which they exhibited collectively. Nul = 0 accompanies the Stedelijk Museum’s 2011 survey of the movement, offering extensive historical analysis through interviews, essays, archival photographs and an illustrated chronology. Featuring a die-cut cover (with two concentric zeroes), it constitutes a definitive overview of Nul’s activities, its kindred spirits and its legacy.”

With contributions by Colin Huizing, Antoon Melissen, Tijs Visser, Pietje Tegenbosch, Caroline de Westenholz, Renate Wiehager, Midori Yamamura, and Atsuo Yamamoto.

Edited by Colin Huizing and Tijs Visser
Publisher Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, and NAi Publishers, Rotterdam, 2011
ISBN 9789056628383
192 pages
via Zero Foundation

Video from The Nul’s 1962 exhibition at Stedelijk
Exhibition, 2011.
Nul at Wikipedia-NL

Publisher
WorldCat

PDF (8 MB)

Soňa Švecová: Striptease (c1967)

“Soňa Švecová was born in 1946 in the former Czechoslovakia and was a central figure in Aktuální umění (also known as Aktual Art or simply Aktual), a small group of artists based in Prague during the 1960s. The group—whose members included Milan Knížák, Švecová’s husband and later the director of “Fluxus East”; the brothers Jan and Vit Mach; Jan Trtílek; and Robert Wittmann (who joined the group in 1966)—organized collective actions in the streets and throughout the city, aiming to challenge “the indifference and emotional apathy so typical for modern man,” as they declared in their 1964 manifesto. Although the Aktual group had no knowledge of Fluxus until around 1965 (and vice versa), the two movements shared an interest in bringing art into life, initiating events that transformed viewers into participants and reimagined everyday actions as artworks. Švecová was the only woman associated with Aktual and very little has been written about her work; however, her participation in Aktual—and the intersections of her own practice with Aktual’s activities—appears to be quite significant.

Striptease is a small, handmade album. Its intimate scale, and the cover’s floral fabric and closeup portrait of the artist, suggest a diary or keepsake book. Within the volume’s pages Švecová recorded and reflected on her work, which ranges from pasted photographs and typed descriptions of Aktual group activities to a decorated comb and hand-stitched statements conveying her interest in clothing design and fashion (“Be a tailor for yourself”). The title, Striptease—which is a title that was later given the book based on what Švecová wrote on the opening page and therefore may not represent the artist’s intentions—is derived from her performance at the 2nd Manifestation of Aktual Art, in May 1965, during which, for the event’s closing activity, she disrobed in front of a bonfire, around which participants and onlookers sang national songs. A photograph of the work is included in the book, opposite a page featuring a cutout red-felt silhouette of a female figure, thereby juxtaposing a generalized “type” with the artist’s own form.

The various texts and statements in the book are in English, rather than in Czech, suggesting that it was created for export. Švecová and Knížák made a number of contacts with international artists associated with Fluxus, especially following the Fluxus festival that was organized in 1966 in Prague. Americans Jeff Berner, Dick Higgins, and Alison Knowles were there, as were French artists Serge Oldenburg and Ben Vautier. By this time, mail correspondence with George Maciunas in New York and Willem de Ridder in Amsterdam had further broadened the network. This book, for example, was part of an extensive series of correspondences begun in 1967 between Švecová and Knížák and the California-based artist Ken Friedman, who was associated with Fluxus and particularly interested in bringing Aktual to the West Coast.” (Kim Conaty)

[29] pages, 20 x 13.7 cm
via Post

PDF (3 MB, low res)