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Bitter Victory: the Art and Politics of the Situationist International

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Bitter Victory: the Art and Politics of the Situationist International on the Passage ofafewpeople through 'J'lIea:hibl1ionW1ISOrgmiUd by Peter_en arather brief moment and ~ FnmciS, with Paul·Herve I'ar.Iy, in consuIrationwithThomalI Y. Levin, GrdI Man:us, and I!llsabcIhSwoIman intime: EIiIaIIeIII SuaIaI. fIIIIor ....1IIIIIIInaId'art~ TIlE SITUATIONIST tInIre GiDIIII'GmpidaI Paris. frInI:II INTERNATIONAL ~21.1III!I-AprII9. 1111!1 InIIIIIdIIIII CanfiIImIIOI3IY Ads 1957-1972 ~EIIgIaIId _23, 1111!1-'-13, 1111!1 'II1IIIIIIIIII8111 CGnII!nIIIInIY Art 8G11Dn, ,. twIlls 0I:iJIIIr20. 1III!I-..IaIIIaIY 7. 1M I'IIbIlahcd _ tbc .-neeolThc GettyGtontl'I:tIp'&m ___COWldIon tbcAns __tleo. MdI_lundInflpnM<ledbytbcLilll~-' TheMlTPreSs '1111 ..... 111 t:IInIiImpar8ylld Cambridge, ~_ttsand Loodon, l!QgIand D\gesI; Fund ........ ".1' ..... The ~ ()I1hB Passage 01 aFtNII'eopIe /1Irour1I aRIiIhBrBtilt MonrIntInTimB: 1/IeSl/JJaliOlliStInlllmlJtJlnal, l!IS7-197:1is funded by tile National Ef1doMT1enIIOr II1e Ans, Massachuse!Is CoIJIIdI on II1e Ans and HullWlilles, andAssociatlOn ~ d'lldionArtisliqI.lll, Contents o 1969lns1iW18 ofConlemporary Art and Massad1IJsetts Institute of1'edmology CI 'It's All OYer: The MabIriaI (and Anti-MabIriaI) Evfdence' by Man! Fr.u1ds I'nIfII:II vi ill> '1!iUer'llidmy: The Art and Politics of the SIluaIiooisIln1lImaIIooaI' Dllvid A. Ross byf'ell!r1Mlllen Publication of 'Siblalionist Dam (Chronology), by permission of InImiucIIon 2 Editions Gerant Lebovk:i, Paris, TIliIlSIatioo ill> Institute of CoIl!e!TlllOrary EI.isabetb Sussman Art and Massadlusetts InSIiMB ofTedmology, 1989, Original f'nlnttl ~ ap!JNIlId in JearrJacqtJes Raspaud and Jean-Piell'll Voyer, L'1nIIImaiionil/I sitlJaDonnisIB: ChrrInoIogieIBiblif:Jgrap/fiiPrrlt11(Jonfstlls ItUllo.:111, Material {and AnII-Mal8Iial, Evidence 16 (AlIIICunimJllxdal1l1ll1S insuItIis) (Paris: Editions CllampUbfe, 1972). Mark Franc!s I'IIoIo1IraphsofSI membe!stalQln atCosiod'AmJscia, Italy, courtesy of Collection Jacquelina do Jong, AmSlBfdam, are by Ralph Rumney, london. InsIlIIIatioo phutographs, courtesy of MUSIIe national d'art IIIIIIIr Victory: 1111 Art and I'IIIItIcs Dlthe SltuatlonlS! 20 hlllmldDllal modeme, Centre Georges Rlmpidou, were taIQln by Bl!atrice Halala and KonsIanIInos Ignatiadis. PeterWollen All righls _Md. No partofthis book may be "'IIfOGuced inanylOnn by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, Alger Jam and Ihe SlIDaIIoaisllnlBmallDllal 62 1OOII1IIlng, or information SlDrage and 18IlievaI) wiIIloutpermisSioI1 in Troels J\.ndctscn writing from tile pubIishef. ThIs book was pIin!ed and bound in the UniIed Sla1es of America All EmImIous and UaIInIIn CllemlcalIIeactlDII: 67 11111 &peI~1IIII11a1l.abaratDry.1 MIa LiIIIIry 111 __CaIIIoIInI-In-P II' "R IlIda MlreJJa BmdiIli On tile passage of afew people 1hmugh a ratIlerbrief moment In 1lme: tile SIIuadonisIln1lImaIIooaI, 1957-19721 ErISabetll Sussman, editor, DIsmadIng Ihe Speclacle: 11111 Ciaema DIS", DelJanI 72 p. em, TItonw! Y. LevIn 'E:d1ibIIIon was QI93IlIZ!III by PI!!er Wollen and Man! Francis, wiIh I'I1llI­ HeM PaBy, in consullalion wiIh Thomas Y. Levin, GreiI Marcus, and EIIsabe1h Sussman.' sur Debord's MBmoIt8s: ASltuatIonisl PrImer 124 'Dales of exhibition: MusOO national d'art madame, Centre GeoIlJllS GrrlIMucus Rlmpidou, Paris, France, FOOruatY 21, 1989 -Apnll989; ICA london, Juna23, 1989-; ICA IIosIon, Octnber20, 1989-January7, 1990.' ISBN 1J.262·23146-8 ASeleclllm 01 SlluatlOIIIsI.WIllIng: 132 1. IIII1m3lionaIe siIuaIionnlsle-Exhlbitlons. 2. MI. Modem-201h ImagIaaIy Maps of the Real WIIrId century-Europe-ExI1IbiIlons. 3.Awnt-ganie (Aesthetics)-Eumpe SeI«tec:I and Inlmduced byGrrll Mucus, -HIsIory-201h cenfury-Exilibilions. translated and annotated byTho.....Y. Levin I. Sussman, EbabeIh, 1939-. 1I.lnstitllteofConlemporaryArt (1IosIon, Mass.) III. MusOO natiooaI d'art modeme (1'r.IIM:e) rI. InstituI1! of Con!smporary MI (london, England) SIII1aIIaI1IIl DIIIII (C1lmnoIagy) 176 NX542.051989 .aabiagton Ott1vers1tZ CIreaIIst 01 tire ExIIlbItIoII .lI t & Rob. 189 700',9'045'074-d!:20 Il!FIM87 Li'bra.l:l tt.lll.berB !la11 DBlnlUOIlI elP 198 St, 'Louis. 110, flI1. BITTER VICTORY: The Art and Politics ofthe Situationist International De Sade liberated from the Bastille in 1789, Baudelaire on the barricades in 1848, Courbet tearing down the Vendome Column in 1870-French political history is distinguished by a series ofglorious and legendary moments that serve to celebrate the convergence of popular revolution with art in revolt. In the twentieth Peter Wollen century avant-garde artistic movements took up the ban­ ner ofrevolution consciously and enduringly. The politi­ cal career ofAndre Breton and the surrealists began with their manifestos against the Moroccan war (the Riff war) in 1925 and persisted through to the "Manifesto ofthe 121," which Breton signed in 1960 six years before his death, denouncing the Algerian war and justifying resistance. In May 1968 the same emblematic role was enacted once again by the militants ofthe Situationist International (SI). The SI was founded in 1957 at Cosio d~roscia in north­ ern Italy (fig. 3.1 and 3.2), principally out ofthe union of two prior avant-garde groups, the International Move­ ment for an Imaginist Bauhaus (MIBI, consisting of Asger Jorn, Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio, and others) and the Lettrist International (LI, led by Guy Debord ).1 MIBI itself originated from splits In the postwar COBRA group 2fartists, whlchJorn had helped found, and the SI was soon joined by another key COBRA artist, Constant. The ancestry ofboth COBRA and Lettrism can be traced back to the international surrealist movement, whose breakup after the war led to a proliferation ofnew splinter groups and an accompanying surge ofnewexperimentation and position taking. 2 The SI brought together again many of 20 3.1 di\rrosCIa.~UY De~ord Italyand Piero Simondo at COSio 3.2 Cosio d'Arroscia. Italy the dispersed threads that signalled the decay and even­ d~roscia, Italy; 1958-Paris, France; 1959-Munich, tual decomposition ofsurrealism. In many ways, its Germany; 1960-London, England; 1961-Goteborg, projectwas that ofrelaunching surrealism on a new Sweden; 1962-Antwerp, Belgium) and by the journal, foundation, stripped ofsome ofits elements ( emphasis which was published once or twice a year in Paris by an on the unconscious, quasi-mystical and occultist think­ editorial committee that changed over time and repre­ ing, cult ofirrationalism) and enhanced by others, sented the different national sections. 5 within the framework ofcultural revolution. From the point ofview ofart, 1959 was an especially In its first phase (1957-1962) the SI developed a productive (or should one say, dialectically destructive?) ~number ofideas that had originated in the LI. ofwhich year. Three artists held major exhibitions oftheir work. the most significant were those ofurbanisme unitaire AsgerJorn showed his Modijications (peintures de­ ("unitary urbanism," integrated City-creation), psycho­ tournees, altered paintings) (fig. 3.3) at the Rive Gauche geography, playas free and creative activi ,derive gallery in Paris.6 These were over-paintings byJorn on , and d~tournement "diversion" semantic secondhand canvases by unknown painters, which he s e SI expounded its position in its journal, bought in flea markets or the like, transforming them Internationale situationniste, brought out books, and by this double inscription. The same year Pinot-Gallizio embarked on a number ofartistic activities. Artists were held a show ofhis Caverna de/l'antimateria (Cavern to breakdown the divisions between individual art ofanti-matter) at the Galerie Rene Drouin.7 This was the forms and to createSituations, constructed encounters culmination ofhis experiments withpittura tndustrlale and creatively lived moments in specific urban settings, (fig. 3.4)-rollsofcanvas up to 145 meters in length, instances ofa critically transformed everyday life. They produced mainly by hand, but also with the aid ofpaint­ were to produce settings for situations and experimental ing machines and spray guns with special resins devised models ofpossible modes oftransformation ofthe city, by Pinot-Gallizio himself (he had been a chemist before as well as to agitate and polemicize against the sterility he became a painter, linking the two activities under and oppression ofthe actual environment and ruling Jorn's encouragement). The work was draped all around economic and political system:' the gallery and Pinot-Gallizio also sold work by the meter by chopping lengths off the roll. His painting of During this period a number ofprominentpainters and this period was both a "diverted" parody ofautomation artists from many European countries joined the group, (which the SI viewed with hostile concern) and a proto­ and became involved in the activities and publications type ofvast rolls of"urbanist" painting that could engulf ofthe SI. With membersfrom Algeria, Belgium, England, whole cities. Later in 1959 Constant exhibited a number France, Germany, Holland, Italy, and Sweden, the SI be­ ofhis i1ots-maquettes (model precincts) (fig. 3.5) at the came a genuinely international movement, held together Stedelijk Museum inAmsterdam.8 These were part of organizationally by annual conferences (1957--Cosio his ongoingNew Babylon project, inspired by unitary 22 3.3 Asger Jorn Conte du nord, 1959 23 3.4 Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio Cavema delJ'antimateria (Cavern of Anti-Matter), 1959 3.5 Constant Ambiance de jeu (Environment for Play), 1956 urbanism-the design ofan experimental utopian city with changing zones for free play,
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