Appendix 4 Chronology of the Lettrist International and the Situationist International

1951

– In April, Guy Debord meets Lettrist leader Isidore Isou and several other Lettrists at the Cannes Film Festival. – In the summer, Debord graduates from high school in Cannes, moves to Paris, and joins Isou and the Lettrists. – Throughout 1951, Debord spends much of his time at his favorite bar, Chez Moineau, where he meets several people who would become important to him during that time, including Gil Wolman, Michele Bernstein, Ivan Cht- cheglov, Eliane Papai, and Jean-Michel Mension.

1952

– In February, Wolman screens his only film L’Anticoncept. – In June, Debord screens his first film, Howls in Favor of Sade; the audience erupts in anger, halting the screening. – In October, Debord, Wolman, and two other Lettrists perpetrate the “No More Flat Feet!” scandal against Charlie Chaplin, an action Isou distanced himself from in a newspaper article. – In December, Debord, Wolman, and other Lettrists split from Isou to form the Lettrist International (LI).

1953

– In early 1953, Debord artistically manifests the LI’s contempt for wage slav- ery when he scrawls “Ne Travaillez Jamais!” (“Never Work!”) on a wall on the rue de Seine. – In October, Chtcheglov presents Debord with his poetic manifesto, “Formu- lary for a New Urbanism.”

© koninklijke brill nv, leideN, 2019 | DOI: 10.1163/9789004402010_014 422 Appendix 4

1954

– In June, the LI publishes the first issue of Potlatch, which will continue to be published semi-regularly through much of 1957, when the Situationist International is formed. – In June, Chtcheglov is excluded from the LI after he is arrested for destroy- ing a bar during a drunken rage and is committed to a psychiatric institu- tion, where he remained for several years. – In June, the LI contributes an article about psychogeography and the dérive to the journal La Carte d’Apres Nature, published by the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. – In August, Debord and Bernstein marry in Paris. – By December, fifteen issues of Potlatch have been published.

1955

– In early 1955, Danish artist Asger Jorn (1914–1973), founder of the avant- garde group the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (IMIB) in 1953, contacts Debord after a friend gives him a copy of Potlatch. – In September, Debord’s article about psychogeography, titled “Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography,” is published in Belgian surrealist Marcel Marien’s journal Les Levres Nues (The Naked Lips). – By December, issues 16–24 of Potlatch have been published.

1956

– In May, Debord and Wolman publish “Method of Détournement” in Les Levres Nues. – In September, Jorn and fellow IMIB member and artist Giuseppe Gallizio (1902–1964), hold the First World Congress of Free Artists in Alba, Italy. The congress draws a dozen artists from eight countries. Gil Wolman is the sole representative for the Lettrist International. – In November, Debord publishes “Theory of the Dérive” in Les Levres Nues. – By December, issues 25–27 of Potlatch have been published.