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 James Trier - 9789004402010 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 07:21:04AM via free access 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. James Trier - 9789004402010 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 07:21:04AM via free access Chronology of the LI and the SI 423 1957 – In January, Debord excludes Wolman from the LI. – In May, Debord and Jorn collaborate on a détourned map titled The Naked City, the most well-known visual representation of psychogeography and the dérive. – Also in May, Jorn and Debord collaborate on another détournement—Jorn’s book Fin de Copenhague. – The Situationist International’s founding conference is held in late July in the remote village of Cosio d’Arroscia in northern Italy. The founding mem- bers are Debord and Bernstein of the LI; Asger Jorn, Giuseppe Gallizio, Wal- ter Olmo, Piero Simondo, and Elena Verrone of the IMIB; and the British artist Ralph Rumney. – During the week of meetings at Cosio, Debord presents his essay Report on the Construction of Situations. – In December, Debord and Jorn collaborate on Debord’s collage book Mémoires. – By the end of 1957, Debord publishes the last issue of Potlatch. 1958 – On January 25–26, the SI’s second conference is held in a bar in Paris; the main decision made is to exclude SI founding members Simondo, Olmo, and Verrone. – In mid-April, the SI perpetrates its “Battle of Brussels” intervention of the International Assembly of Art Critics conference at the Brussels World’s Fair, also called Expo ’58. – On May 30, the first exhibition of Gallizio’s industrial painting takes place at Gallery Notizie in Turin, Italy. – In June, the first issue of Internationale Situationniste is published, which includes Chtcheglov’s 1953 “Formulary for a New Urbanism,” as well as a note on the exclusion of Ralph Rumney. – In the fall, Jorn exhibits paintings at a gallery in Munich, where he meets the artists of the Spur group: Lothar Fischer, Heimrad Prem, Helmut Sturm, and Hans Peter Zimmer. – Also in the fall, Debord visits Constant Nieuwenhuys in Amsterdam and encourages him to become more active in the SI; they collaborate on “The Amsterdam Declaration.” James Trier - 9789004402010 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 07:21:04AM via free access 424 Appendix 4 – In November, Debord détourns the event “Is Surrealism Dead or Alive?” by delivering his insulting critique of surrealism via a tape-recording. – In December, Debord publishes issue two of Internationale Situationniste. 1959 – In April, the SI’s third conference takes place in Munich; several new mem- bers attend, including Constant and the Spur group artists. – On May 1, International Worker’s Day, Debord publishes Mémoires. – On May 4, Constant presides over an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam of work that he had been doing on New Babylon. – On May 6, Jorn opens an exhibition at the Galerie Rive Gauche in Paris of a series of paintings that he called “Modifications.” – On May 13, Gallizio opens his Cavern of Anti-Matter exhibition at the Drouin Gallery in Paris. – In the fall, Debord finishes editing his second film, On the Passage of a Few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time. – In December, Debord publishes issue three of Internationale Situationniste. 1960 – Early 1960, Debord meets Henri Lefebvre. – In March, Debord pulls out of the SI’s “The World as Labyrinth” exhibit at the Stedelijk Museum. – In late May, Debord excludes founding SI member Giuseppe Gallizio. – In June, Constant resigns from the SI after disputes with Debord over the latter’s exclusions of two fellow Dutch members. – In the summer, Jorn recruits his brother Jorgen Nash, his lover Jacqueline de Jong, and a group of Scandinavian artists into the SI. – Debord also recruits new members into the SI, including Attila Kotanyi. – In June, Debord publishes the fourth issue of Internationale Situationniste. – In July, Debord publishes the tract “Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program,” co-authored by Daniel Blanchard, who was a mem- ber of the leftist group Socialism or Barbarism. – In the fall, Debord becomes a dues-paying member of Socialism or Barba- rism. – In August, Bernstein’s détournement novel All the King’s Horses is published by the prestigious publishing house Buchet-Chastel. James Trier - 9789004402010 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 07:21:04AM via free access Chronology of the LI and the SI 425 – From September 24–28, the SI’s fourth conference is held, when nine mem- bers representing the French, Belgian, German, and Scandinavian sections convene in London. – In October, Debord and Bernstein sign the “Manifesto of the 121.” – In December, Debord publishes the fifth issue of Internationale Situationniste. 1961 – In early 1961, Debord invites Raoul Vaneigem to join the SI. – In early spring, Debord films and edits his third film, Critique of Separation. – In April, Asger Jorn resigns from the SI but continues to financially sup- port the group and occasionally contributes articles under the pseudonym George Keller. Jorn and Debord remain friends until Jorn’s death in 1973. – In April, Debord resigns from the Socialism or Barbarism group. – In May, Debord’s tape-recorded lecture titled “Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life” is played at an academic conference organized by Henri Lefebvre; Debord does not appear at the conference. – In August, Debord publishes the sixth issue of Internationale Situationniste. – In late August, the SI’s infamous fifth conference takes place in Gothenburg, Sweden. Tensions erupt into arguments between the artists aligned with Jorgen Nash and the members aligned with Debord. – After the Gothenburg conference, Debord, Vaneigem, and Kotanyi stop in Hamburg, where they produce “The Hamburg Theses.” – In September of 1961, Bernstein publishes her second détournement novel, The Night. – In November, the Spur artists get into legal trouble with Munich authorities because of the “pornographic” nature of an issue of their journal. 1962 – On February 10–11, the SI’s Central Council meets in Paris; Debord, Vanei- gem, Kotanyi and others exclude the Spur artists. – The Spur artists’ exclusion precipitates the resignations of Nash, de Jong, and the rest of the Scandinavian artists in March, marking the end of the SI’s first phase. – In April, Debord publishes issue seven of Internationale Situationniste; it includes part one of Raoul Vaneigem’s important article “Basic Banalities” (part two appears in issue eight). James Trier - 9789004402010 Downloaded from Brill.com09/30/2021 07:21:04AM via free access 426 Appendix 4 – In the summer, Nash, de Jong, and several other Scandinavian artists offi- cially announce the formation of the Second Situationist International. – In November, the SI holds its sixth conference in Antwerp. 1963 – In January, Debord publishes issue eight of Internationale Situationniste. – Early in 1963, Debord meets Alice Becker-Ho; they begin living together shortly after. For a time, Bernstein continues on as an SI member.