Asger Jorn SMK Q8 R1 Layout 28/01/14 11.27 Page 1

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Asger Jorn SMK Q8 R1 Layout 28/01/14 11.27 Page 1 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8_r1_Layout 28/01/14 11.27 Page 1 ASGER JORN Restless Rebe l STATENS MUSEUM FOR KUNST COPENHAGEN PRESTEL MUNICH · LONDON · NEW YORK 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8_r2_Layout 29/01/14 11.3811.37 Page 2 ASGER JORN RESTLESS REBEL NEW CARLSBERG FOUNDATION IS SUPPORTED BY C.L. DAVID FOUNDATION AND COLLECTION . JUNI FONDEN GEORGE JORCK AND EMMA JORCK FOUNDATION BECKETT FOUNDATION NOVO NORDISK FOUNDATION TOYOTA FOUNDATION GANGSTED FOUNDATION DANISH AGENCY FOR CULTURE 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 08.49 Page 3 ASGER JORN Restless Rebe l CONCEPT DORTHE AAGESEN AND HELLE BRØNS ARTICLES DORTHE AAGESEN RUTH BAUMEISTER HELLE BRØNS HAL FOSTER STEVEN HARRIS NIELS HENRIKSEN HENRIK HOLM KAREN KURCZYNSKI KLAUS MÜLLER*WILLE ROBERTO OHRT 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 08.49 Page 4 LENDERS ANNE & LARS OLESEN,S COLLECTION AROS AARHUS KUNSTMUSEUM BAYERISCHE STAATSGEMÄLDESAMMLUNGEN MÜNCHEN * PINAKOTHEK DER MODERNE BIRCH EYDE MØLLER FAMILY CANICA ART COLLECTION, OSLO CARL*HENNING PEDERSEN & ELSE ALFELTS MUSEUM, HERNING COBRA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, AMSTELVEEN COLLECTION E. VAN ZUYLEN COLLECTION PIERRE & MICKY ALECHINSKY THE DANISH ART LIBRARY, COPENHAGEN DESIGNMUSEUM DANMARK, COPENHAGEN ESBJERG KUNSTMUSEUM FLUID ARCHIVES FÆNØ GODS HENIE ONSTAD KUNSTSENTER, HØVIKODDEN JACQUELINE DE JONG JENS OLESEN,S COLLECTION KAREN & FINN ERSKOVS SAMLING KUNSTEN MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, AALBORG KUNSTHALLE EMDEN KUNSTHALLE ZU KIEL LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, HUMLEBÆK MONICA AND IB NYMARK HEGELUND MUSEO NACIONAL CENTRO DE ARTE REINA SOFÍA, MADRID MUSEUM BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN, ROTTERDAM MUSEUM JORN, SILKEBORG NIELS COLLECTION, BRUSSELS RANDERS KUNSTMUSEUM THE ROYAL LIBRARY, COPENHAGEN SILKEBORG BIBLIOTEKERNE S.M.A.K., STEDELIJK MUSEUM VOOR ACTUELE KUNST, GHENT SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN, KUPFERSTICHKABINETT STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERLIN, NATIONALGALERIE STEDELIJK MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM TATE, LONDON TROELS JORN,S COLLECTION THE WORKERS, MUSEUM AND THE LABOUR MOVEMENT LIBRARY AND ARCHIVE AND PRIVATE LENDERS WHO WISH TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 5 CONTENTS FOREWORD PETER NØRGAARD LARSEN [01] INTRODUCTION HELLE BRØNS AND DORTHE AAGESEN [02] ASGER JORN IN, ON AND ABOUT SURREALISM STEVEN HARRIS [03] ART FOR THE PEOPLE DORTHE AAGESEN [04] FROM WORD)PICTURES TO THE WILD ARCHITECTURE OF THE BOOK KLAUS MÜLLER*WILLE [05] HUMAN BEASTS HAL FOSTER [06] FOLK ART, SCIENCE FICTION AND THE MATTER OF PAINTING HELLE BRØNS [07] A THING FINISHED IS A THING DEAD RUTH BAUMEISTER [08] FIN DES MODIFICATIONS ROBERTO OHRT [09] AN ABSTRACT ART THAT DOES NOT BELIEVE IN ABSTRACTION KAREN KURCZYNSKI [10] VANDALIST REVIVAL: ASGER JORN+S ARCHAEOLOGY NIELS HENRIKSEN [11 ] POKING TONGUES HENRIK HOLM BIOGRAPHY ANNA VESTERGAARD JØRGENSEN WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION BIBLIOGRAPHY THE AUTHORS PHOTO CREDITS COLOPHON 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 6 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 7 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 8 FOREWORD In recent decades, Asger Jorn’s art and thinking has generated renewed and growing interest in Denmark and abroad, and his central role within European post-war art is becoming firmly established. The centenary of Jorn’s birth on 3 March 2014 is the occasion prompting the SMK and Museum Jorn in Silkeborg to commemorate the artist by presenting two major ex - hibitions and two books. For both museums, the intentions reach much further than simply to celebrate Jorn as a major figure in Danish art and culture. The objective is to appraise his art in a nuanced manner, based on the most recent art historical research, and to create a solid basis for reassessing his importance as a major figure within 20 th century art history. In its capacity as the National Gallery of Denmark, the SMK puts emphasis on arranging large-scale monographic exhibitions featuring important artists in Danish art his tory. In recent years, the museum has shown special exhibitions that highlight artists such as Laurits Andersen Ring, Nicolai Abildgaard, and Wilhelm Freddie. But apart from a relatively small-scale exhibition of Jorn’s prints shown at the Royal Collection of Graphic Arts in 1976, this event marks the first time that the SMK truly engages with Jorn’s art. His anniversary provides a welcome occasion to finally, through this major, research-based exhi - bition and book project, put Jorn on the agenda, presenting his work on an expansive scale. Right from the outset, it was obvious that the exhibition could not be realised without entering into close interplay with Museum Jorn, which possesses a large collection of Jorn’s works, extensive archives, and considerable expert insights. The co-operation between the two museums led to the planning of two closely co-ordinated exhibitions and books, each of which adopts its own distinctive perspective as it unfolds significant aspects of the artist’s body of work. Both approaches mark a break away from a traditional, biographically founded perception of Jorn’s work and the prevailing focus on painting that has characterised past exhibitions. While the SMK presents Jorn’s art in a monographic retrospective that includes all facets of his artistic production, including Jorn’s work as a theorist, Museum Jorn shows a dialogical exhibition that presents Jorn’s art alongside works by other artists who served Jorn as sources of inspiration and collaborative partners. The duality between the individual and the collective is a central aspect of Jorn’s artistic project. On the one hand, his art is based on the personal mode of expression that he believed was fundamental to human ex - perience, while on the other hand, it is founded on social co-operation, which held an equally important position within his overall endeavour. Thus, the two exhibitions take their point of departure in different, but equally fundamental principles at play in Jorn’s work, and they can be regarded as presentations that complement and supplement each other, combining to outline a more complete picture of Jorn’s art than a single exhibition could. Any project of this magnitude requires the help and engagement of many individuals and institutions. First of all, we at the SMK wish to thank our colleagues at Museum Jorn for 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layoutjorn_SMK_q8_r1_Layout 23/01/14 28/01/14 09.07 10.36 Page Page 9 9 many months of intense sparring, particularly the museum’s Director Jacob Thage, Curator Karen Friis, Guest Curator Karen Kurczynski, and others from the museum staff who have helped us with matters big and small, including Lars Bay, Lars Hamann, Teresa Østergaard Ped ersen, and Elisabeth Wildt. We also wish to extend our warm thanks to the artist’s son Troels Jorn for his great support and interest throughout the preparatory process. Thanks are also due to the authors presented in the present book; several of them offered important input in the ongoing discussions while the exhibition was still under development, and the new thoughts and ideas presented in their pioneering texts add gravitas and nuance to this project. At the SMK, the overall curatorial and research responsibility for the project resided with Curator and Senior Researcher Dorthe Aagesen, ably assisted by PhD Fellow Helle Brøns. The exhibition itself was created in close co-operation with the exhibition architect Pernille Jensen, while the multi-faceted presentation and educational materials were entrusted to Mathilde Schytz Marvit and Louise Springborg. Anna Vestergaard Jørgensen provided in - valu able assistance throughout the preparation of the exhibition, presentation materials, and publication. Amongst the many people who have assisted us in various ways we also wish to give our special thanks to: Troels Andersen, Ole Arent, Tracey Bashkoff, Anette Birch, Luca Bochicchio, Lene Borch, Hilde de Bruijn, Claus Carstensen, Tom Christoffersen, Danilo Demi, Steinar Gjessing, Axel Heil, Per Hovdenakk, Jacqueline de Jong, Anders Kold, Peter Laugesen, Marie-José van de Loo, Anna von Lowzow, Giovanni and Piero Poggi, Niels Raben, Birger Raben-Skov, Rebecca Rabinow, Dominique Radrizzani, Bart Rutten, Knut Stene-Johansen, Christian Vind, Katja Weitering, Sylvie Wuhrmann, and Lis Zwick. Ultimately, the success of any exhibition is determined by the loans it can attract. We wish to thank the many museums and art collectors in Denmark, Belgium, Brazil, France, Ger many, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Spain, the UK, and the USA who have gen erously made their works available to the exhibition. One last crucial factor for the realisation of the exhibition and book project is the monetary support provided by enterprises and foundations. First of all, we wish to direct our warmest thanks to the Augustinus Foundation, which is the main sponsor of the exhi - bition. We also wish to thank the Novo Nordisk Foundation, the New Carlsberg Foundation, the Danish Agency for Culture, the C.L. David Foundation and Collection, 15. Juni Fonden, George Jorck and Emma Jorck Foundation, the Beckett Foundation, the Toyota Foundation, and the Gangsted Foundation, all of which have helped enable us to translate our many ambitions and wishes into reality. Peter Nørgaard Larsen Head of Collections and Research 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 10 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.07 Page 11 95530_asger jorn_SMK_q8__Layout 23/01/14 09.0708.49 Page 12 [0 1] IT HAS NEVER INTERESTED ME TO GO, UNLESS I COULD GO TO THE EXTREMES INTRODUCTION “We need a Ministry of Disturbance, a regulated source of annoyance, a destroyer of routine, an underminer of complacency, or, in other words, a ministry of aesthetic activity.” 1 HELLE BRØNS AND DORTHE AAGESEN Statements such as this are typical of Jorn in every way. It is startling, surprising, and humorously worded, but at the same time Jorn is being perfectly serious. To Jorn, art was a question of using creativity to interact with and intervene in the world. Art should challenge existing notions and norms, thereby creating opportunities for understanding the world in new ways.
Recommended publications
  • From Artist-As-Leader to Leader-As-Artist Is a Critical Examination of the Image of Contemporary Leadership and Its Roots
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UVH Repository from from from artist - as artist-as-leader - leader to to to leader leader-as-artist - as From artist-as-leader to leader-as-artist is a critical examination of - artist the image of contemporary leadership and its roots. Through the lens of modern management texts, Pieterse explores the the dutch Beat poet and performer link between contemporary management speak and the artistic critique of the avant-garde movements of the 1950s in the Netherlands, simon Vinkenoog as exemplar of leadership focusing specifically on the Dutch Fiftiers group, the Cobra movement and 1960s countercultural activism. Subsequently, a neo- in contemporary organizations management discourse is generated whereby the figure of the artist becomes the model for the modern leader: charismatic, visionary, intuitive, mobile, creative, cooperative, open to taking risks and strong at networking. Such a discourse appeals to the values of self- actualization, freedom, authenticity and “knowledge deriving from personal experience” (Boltanski and Chiapello 2007: 113), the very values of the artistic critique that have been absorbed into modern- day capitalism. Pieterse explores this transformation of the artistic critique into contemporary leadership rhetoric by unfolding the life and work of ISBN 978-90-818047-1-4 the Dutch Beat poet and performer Simon Vinkenoog, a highly influential leader in the artistic critique. In doing so he examines the dilemmas, paradoxes and contradictions present within contemporary leadership. Vincent Pieterse is a Program Director at de Baak Management Centre, one of the largest management training institutes in the Vincent Pieterse NUR 600 Netherlands.
    [Show full text]
  • Else Alfelt, Lotti Van Der Gaag, and Defining Cobra
    WAS THE MATTER SETTLED? ELSE ALFELT, LOTTI VAN DER GAAG, AND DEFINING COBRA Kari Boroff A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2020 Committee: Katerina Ruedi Ray, Advisor Mille Guldbeck Andrew Hershberger © 2020 Kari Boroff All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Katerina Ruedi Ray, Advisor The CoBrA art movement (1948-1951) stands prominently among the few European avant-garde groups formed in the aftermath of World War II. Emphasizing international collaboration, rejecting the past, and embracing spontaneity and intuition, CoBrA artists created artworks expressing fundamental human creativity. Although the group was dominated by men, a small number of women were associated with CoBrA, two of whom continue to be the subject of debate within CoBrA scholarship to this day: the Danish painter Else Alfelt (1910-1974) and the Dutch sculptor Lotti van der Gaag (1923-1999), known as “Lotti.” In contributing to this debate, I address the work and CoBrA membership status of Alfelt and Lotti by comparing their artworks to CoBrA’s two main manifestoes, texts that together provide the clearest definition of the group’s overall ideas and theories. Alfelt, while recognized as a full CoBrA member, created structured, geometric paintings, influenced by German Expressionism and traditional Japanese art; I thus argue that her work does not fit the group’s formal aesthetic or philosophy. Conversely Lotti, who was never asked to join CoBrA, and was rejected from exhibiting with the group, produced sculptures with rough, intuitive, and childlike forms that clearly do fit CoBrA’s ideas as presented in its two manifestoes.
    [Show full text]
  • Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist
    COSMONAUTS OF THE FUTURE Texts from The Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere Edited by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen & Jakob Jakobsen 1 COSMONAUTS OF THE FUTURE 2 COSMONAUTS OF THE FUTURE Texts from the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere 3 COSMONAUTS OF THE FUTURE TEXTS FROM THE SITUATIONIST MOVEMENT IN SCANDINAVIA AND ELSEWHERE Edited by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen & Jakob Jakobsen COSMONAUTS OF THE FUTURE Published 2015 by Nebula in association with Autonomedia Nebula Autonomedia TEXTS FROM THE SITUATIONIST Læssøegade 3,4 PO Box 568, Williamsburgh Station DK-2200 Copenhagen Brooklyn, NY 11211-0568 Denmark USA MOVEMENT IN SCANDINAVIA www.nebulabooks.dk www.autonomedia.org [email protected] [email protected] AND ELSEWHERE Tel/Fax: 718-963-2603 ISBN 978-87-993651-8-0 ISBN 978-1-57027-304-9 Edited by Editors: Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen & Jakob Jakobsen | Translators: Peter Shield, James Manley, Anja Büchele, Matthew Hyland, Fabian Tompsett, Jakob Jakobsen | Copyeditor: Marina Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen Vishmidt | Proofreading: Danny Hayward | Design: Åse Eg |Printed by: Naryana Press in 1,200 copies & Jakob Jakobsen Thanks to: Jacqueline de Jong, Lis Zwick, Ulla Borchenius, Fabian Tompsett, Howard Slater, Peter Shield, James Manley, Anja Büchele, Matthew Hyland, Danny Hayward, Marina Vishmidt, Stevphen Shukaitis, Jim Fleming, Mathias Kokholm, Lukas Haberkorn, Keith Towndrow, Åse Eg and Infopool (www.scansitu.antipool.org.uk) All texts by Jorn are © Donation Jorn, Silkeborg Asger Jorn: “Luck and Change”, “The Natural Order” and “Value and Economy”. Reprinted by permission of the publishers from The Natural Order and Other Texts translated by Peter Shield (Farnham: Ashgate, 2002), pp. 9-46, 121-146, 235-245, 248-263.
    [Show full text]
  • Constant Nieuwenhuys-August 13, 2005
    Constant Nieuwenhuys Published in Times London, August 13 2005 A militant founder of the Cobra group of avant-garde artists whose early nihilism mellowed into Utopian fantasy Soon after the war ended, the Cobra group burst upon European art with anarchic force. The movement’s venomous name was an acronym from Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam, the cities where its principal members lived. And by the time Cobra’s existence was formally announced in Paris in 1948, the young Dutch artist Constant had become one of its most militant protagonists. Constant did not hesitate to voice the most extreme beliefs. Haunted by the war and its bleak aftermath, he declared in a 1948 interview that “our culture has already died. The façades left standing could be blown away tomorrow by an atom bomb but, even failing that, still nothing can disguise the fact. We have lost everything that provided us with security and are left bereft of all belief. Save this: that we live and that it is part of the essence of life to manifest itself.” The Cobra artists soon demonstrated their own exuberant, heretical vitality. Inspired by the uninhibited power of so-called primitive art, as well as the images produced by children and the insane, they planned an idealistic future where Marxist ideas would form a vibrant union with the creation of a new folk art. Constant, born Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys, discovered his first motivation in a crucial 1946 meeting with the Danish artist Asger Jorn at the Galerie Pierre, Paris. They exchanged ideas and Constant became the driving force in establishing Cobra.
    [Show full text]
  • How Language Looks: on Asger Jorn and Noël Arnaud's La Langue Verte*
    How Language Looks: On Asger Jorn and No ël Arnaud’s La Langue verte* STEVEN HARRIS In November 1968, the Paris publisher Jean-Jacques Pauvert brought out Asger Jorn and Noël Arnaud’s La Langue verte et la cuite , an event accompanied by a banquet for 2,000 at a Danish restaurant in Paris, and a considerable response from the press, though the book has largely dropped from view since. 1 Initially titled La Langue crue et la cuite , the book was written in French by artist Asger Jorn, founding member of Cobra and of the Situationist International, and revised by Arnaud, member of the Surrealist “Main à plume” group in occupied Paris, founding member of the Revolutionary Surrealist group in postwar Paris (with which Jorn was also involved), and later regent in the Collège de ’Pataphysique. 2 Jorn, in addition to writing the text, also chose the illustrations, while Arnaud added sections of his own and reordered the material in collaboration with Jorn. It is thus the collective labor of two individuals who had first met in Paris in 1946, and who were both involved in the Revolutionary Surrealist group, a splinter group of Communist persuasion that had seceded from the main body of the Surrealist group shortly before the opening of its exhibition Le Surréalisme en 1947 , at the Galerie Maeght. If Cobra was very much ori - ented against Arnaud when it was first formed in 1948, the paths of the two men crossed numerous times in subsequent years. Jorn turned to Arnaud as a trusted friend who was in in sympathy with his aims, who corrected Jorn’s rather casual French, and who in general was willing to lend a hand to the enterprise.
    [Show full text]
  • Biography Else Alfelt 1910-1974 Else Alfelt at the Høst Exhibition, 1948
    By Lotte Korshøj biography Else Alfelt 1910-1974 Else Alfelt at the Høst exhibition, 1948. Photo: © Børge Venge Drawing from 1920. Crayon on paper, 11,2 x 16,2 cm on paper, 1920. Crayon from Drawing Else Alfelt, at her confirmation service, 1925 The young Communist, 1933-34. Oil on canvas, 49,5 x 38,5 cm Communist, 1933-34. Oil on canvas, The young 1910-25 1925-27 1927-29 1933-34 91 Else Kirsten Tove Alfelt was born on September 16th 1910 On leaving the orphanage Else knew that she wanted She did her first oil paintings in 1927, and in 1929, Not only was her interest in painting awakened at an in Copenhagen as the daughter of a senior bank clerk to work and live as an artist, and she therefore entered two years later, she submitted paintings to the Art- early age, Else also, very early on, felt a strong longing Carl Valdemar Alfelt and housewife Edith Thomsen. the Technical School in Copenhagen. The two-year ists’ Autumn Exhibition (KE) for the first time, but to go abroad. She dreamed of travelling the world to Her parents were divorced when Else was very young. training functioned as a preparation course for the Art was turned down; this would repeat itself several experience other cultures. In 1933 she was admitted When her father remarried, his new wife demanded Academy, but when she subsequently applied to the times in the following years, until she was finally as a student to the International Folk High School in that Else and her younger sister were sent away from Academy to study with Aksel Jørgensen she was turned accepted in 1936.
    [Show full text]
  • Yaacov Agam. Transformable - Transformables
    1 [AGAM]..YAACOV AGAM. New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery 1966. 22x21. 52 pp. including 4 pages on one folding leaf. More than 70 photos and reproductions including 10 in colour. Pictorial wrappers. 200 2 [AGAM]..YAACOV AGAM. TRANSFORMABLE - TRANSFORMABLES. New York, Galerie Denise René, 1971. 26x21. 52 pp. + 6 opaque leaves with drawings. 76 photos, 26 full-page including 2 in colour, plus 12 portrait photos etc. Pictorial wrappers. Exhibition publication with introduction by Jean-Jacques Lévèque. 300 4 3 Alechinsky, Pierre / Christian Dotremont. ABSTRATES. Printed in Denmark (Copenhagen) by Permild & Rosengreen 1963. Colour lithograph 64x87 with text rendered in "tapuscrit. No. 14 of 25 numbered copies, signed in pencil by Alechinsky. This copy also has a pencil inscription "Pour mon ami Rune J. / Christian Dotremont" (to the Swedish artist Rune Jansson). Very weak damp streak in lower left corner, otherwise fine. A collaboration of the two Cobra co-founders consisting of a vivid colour print made by Alechinsky around a text by Dotremont. 5000 4 Alechinsky, Pierre. L'AVENIR DE LA PROPRIETÉ. (Paris), Yves Rivière, 1972. 31x21. 64 pp. + a loosely inserted colour etching signed by Alechinsky. 35 facsimile reproductions including 15 full- or double-page. A beautiful copy in pictorial covers with protective glassine wrapper, kept in the original decorated slipcase. No. 159 of 999 copies, signed by Alechinsky and Rivière. From the total edition of 999, this is one of 151 copies numbered 100-250 and provided with an original colour etching printed on an 18th-century manuscript leaf. The etching is signed by Alechinsky and numbered 59 (of 151 plus 16 H.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Insinuation: Détournement and Gendered Repetition
    Patrick Greaney Insinuation: Détournement as Gendered Repetition Actif, passif, vieilles conneries. —Guy Hocquenghem, “Les culs énergumènes” The Gendered Concepts of Détournement and Spectacle ​Détournement is the Lettrist and Situationist term for a specific kind of montage or appropria- tion; it might seem to be a form of quotation, but it is “the antithesis of quotation, of a theoretical authority invariably tainted if only because it has become quotable.”1 Examples of détournement projects suggested by Guy Debord and Gil Wol- man in their 1956 “User’s Guide to Détourne- ment” include modified pinball machines and a new version of D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation that would accompany the film’s images with a voiceover narrating the history of the Ku Klux Klan.2 One of the better-known completed works that relies on détournement is René Viénet’s redubbing of a martial arts film with a voice track about the proletarian struggle, titled Can Dialec- tics Break Bricks?3 Debord also uses the term to describe his use of phrases from G. W. F. Hegel, Karl Marx, Georg Lukács, and others in The Society of the Spectacle. The South Atlantic Quarterly 110:1, Winter 2011 DOI 10.1215/00382876-2010-023 © 2010 Duke University Press 76 The South Atlantic Quarterly • Winter 2011 Debord’s Society of the Spectacle presents détournement as a “device” in the struggle against the spectacle (§206). There are many definitions of the spectacle in The Society of the Spectacle, but this temporal description is one of the most useful: “The spectacle, being the reigning social organi- zation of a paralyzed history, of a paralyzed memory, of an abandonment of any history founded in historical time, is a false consciousness of time” (§158; translation modified).
    [Show full text]
  • Situationists and Architecture, Debord Suggests, Albisola Can Be Seen
    peter wollen SITUATIONISTS AND ARCHITECTURE his is not a conventional scholarly essay. Instead I want to discuss a number of topics addressed by the Situationists, Tmaking a kind of collage of commentaries on what seem to me to be key elements of their thought in relation to archi- tecture and the city—which were, indeed, centrally important issues for them. These elements are as follows: 1, the minaret; 2, the gypsy camp; 3, dérive; 4, Mad King Ludwig; 5, the Postman Cheval; 6, the Merzbau; 7, Le Corbusier; 8, Paris; 9, psychogeography; 10, Love on the Left Bank; 11, white bicycles; 12, détournement; 13, the Cavern of Anti- Matter; 14, New Babylon; 15, Watts; 16, the Architecture of Despair; 17, Vienna’s Place—and fi nally: 18, Albisola. 1 I begin with the minaret. In 1948 Asger Jorn wrote an article titled ‘What is an Ornament?’, which was published in an obscure Danish journal. That same year, he had spent time in Djerba, Tunisia, which I believe is the same place that Paul Klee visited and which had such an infl uence on his calligraphic style of drawing. Among the illustrations to Jorn’s essay was one juxtaposing a ‘horsetail’ and a minaret. The horsetail is a kind of plant, whose structure is very similar to that of the minaret depicted next to it—a kind of telescopic series of towers, each with a nar- rower diameter than the last, piled on top of each other, fi nally ending with a tiny little turret at the topmost point. (The picture of the horsetail looks as if it was one of Blossfeldt’s famous series of photographs of plants, but I have not been able to check this.) The point Jorn wishes to make is summed up in his caption: ‘Horsetail and Minaret.
    [Show full text]
  • Het Elektrisch Bestaan. Schrijvers En Tijdschriften Tussen 1949 En 1951
    Het elektrisch bestaan. Schrijvers en tijdschriften tussen 1949 en 1951 Piet Calis bron Piet Calis, Het elektrisch bestaan. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam 2001 Zie voor verantwoording: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/cali002elek01_01/colofon.htm © 2007 dbnl / Piet Calis 6 VOOR MARJAN het licht willen zien, de zon willen vangen, iets afweten van het electrisch bestaan. HANS ANDREUS Piet Calis, Het elektrisch bestaan. Schrijvers en tijdschriften tussen 1949 en 1951 7 Woord vooraf In 1960 bracht ik enkele weken door op Ibiza in het plaatsje San Antonio Abad, waar zich toen nog vrijwel geen hotel en nauwelijks een toerist ophield. Het was die zomer voor het eerst in mijn leven dat ik palmen zag. Ik was er buitengewoon gelukkig. Ik zie me nog bij aankomst op een terrasje zitten, wachtend op enkele vrienden die me af zouden halen en genietend van een glas wijn en enkele donkere olijven. Daar in San Antonio Abad schreef ik elke ochtend in de tuin van die vrienden over de poëzie van Hans Andreus, die me met zijn liefde voor de zuidelijke zon natuurlijk extra wist te inspireren. Ik wist toen nog niet dat Andreus zelf me in dat plaatsje voor geweest was: in de zomer van 1952 hadden hij en zijn Franse geliefde Odile Liénard er in een pension gelogeerd. Het was ook verder een heerlijke vakantie. 's Middags - na van Andreus' verzen genoten te hebben - ging ik zwemmen in de baai en 's avonds trad er in het plaatselijke café een oude man met een gitaar op. Deze die zich met één kunstbeen voortbewoog, schroefde alvorens op te treden altijd dat been los en ging dan op een houten tafel zitten waar hij steevast begon met het schitterende lied ‘Si vas a Calatayud’.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cavern of Antimatter: Giuseppe "Pinot" Gallizio and the Technological Imaginary of the Early Situationist International
    The Cavern of Antimatter: Giuseppe "Pinot" Gallizio and the Technological Imaginary of the Early Situationist International The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Nicola Pezolet, "The Cavern of Antimatter: Giuseppe "Pinot" Gallizio and the Technological Imaginary of the Early Situationist International," Grey Room, Winter 2010, No. 38, Pages 62-89. (doi:10.1162/grey.2010.1.38.62) © 2010 by Grey Room, Inc. and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology As Published http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/grey.2010.1.38.62 Publisher MIT Press Journals Version Final published version Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/55965 Terms of Use Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. Pinot Gallizio, Asger Jorn, Piero Simondo, and friends working outside the Alba Experimental Laboratory, 1956. Courtesy of the Gallizio Archive, Turin. 62 The Cavern of Antimatter: Giuseppe “Pinot” Gallizio and the Technological Imaginary of the Early Situationist International NICOLA PEZOLET Perhaps the machine is the only instrUment qUalified to create that is inflationary and indUstrial and therefore based on the anti-patent; the new indUstrial cUltUre will only be “Made by the People,” or it will not be. —GiUseppe “Pinot” Gallizio, 1959 DUring its formative years (1957–1960), the SitUationist International (SI) charted a paradoxical relationship between an enthUsiasm
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: from the Notion of Spectacle to Spectacle 2.0: the Dialectic of Capitalist Mediations Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano
    CHAPTER 2 Introduction: From the Notion of Spectacle to Spectacle 2.0: The Dialectic of Capitalist Mediations Marco Briziarelli and Emiliana Armano 1. Context and Purpose Sometimes the literary fortune of a book can almost be unfortunate. We think this is the case of Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle, which on the one hand succeeded where most of our scholarship concerned with the production of critical knowledge tends to fail, by going beyond the constraining walls of aca- demic discourse and inspiring human emancipation. On the other hand, while the idea of the Spectacle has infiltrated the collective imagery, it has most fre- quently done so through the popularization of its most glaring surface, thus limiting its overall significance. It is indeed easier to think of the Debordian notion as spectacularly medi- ated content – such as media images and extravagant events – rather than the general process of mediation that for Debord propels the Spectacle. That is because we do live in a media saturated environment, but to the point in which How to cite this book chapter: Briziarelli, M. and Armano, E. 2017. Introduction: From the Notion of Spectacle to Spectacle 2.0: The Dialectic of Capitalist Mediations. In: Briziarelli, M. and Armano, E. (eds.). The Spectacle 2.0: Reading Debord in the Context of Digital Capitalism. Pp. 15–47. London: University of Westminster Press. DOI: https://doi. org/10.16997/book11.b. License: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 16 The Spectacle 2.0 the mediation logic that drives current conditions of life in many societies has gone beyond spectacular images, and is increasingly subsuming more spheres of social life to the total and integral Spectacle: capitalism.
    [Show full text]