Situationist International

The Situationist International SI was an international company of social revolutionaries presentation up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, as well as political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its outline in 1957 to its dissolution in 1972. the intellectual foundations of the Situationist International were derived primarily from libertarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada as well as Surrealism. Overall, situationist idea represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a innovative and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism.

Essential to situationist belief was the concept of the spectacle, a unified critique of sophisticated capitalism of which a primary concern was the progressively increasing tendency towards the expression and mediation of social relations through objects. The situationists believed that the shift from individual expression through directly lived experiences, or the first-hand fulfillment of authentic desires, to individual expression by proxy through the exchange or consumption of commodities, or passive second-hand alienation, inflicted significant and far-reaching damage to the classification of human life for both individuals and society. Another important concept of situationist theory was the primary means of counteracting the spectacle; the construction of situations, moments of life deliberately constructed for the goal of reawakening and pursuing authentic desires, experiencing the feeling of life and adventure, and the liberation of everyday life.

The situationists recognized that capitalism had changed since theory of alienation. In their expanded interpretation of social alienation and commodity fetishism were no longer limited to the essential components of capitalist society, but had now in advanced capitalism spread themselves to every aspect of life and culture. They rejected the idea that advanced capitalism's obvious successes—such as technological advancement, increased productive capacity, and a raised general breed of life when compared to previous systems, such(a) as feudalism—could ever outweigh the social dysfunction and degradation of everyday life that it simultaneously inflicted.

When the Situationist International was first formed, it had a predominantly artistic focus; emphasis was placed on concepts like unitary urbanism and psychogeography. Gradually, however, that focus shifted more towards revolutionary and political theory. The Situationist International reached the apex of its creative output and influence in 1967 and 1968, with the former marking the publication of the two near significant texts of the situationist movement, The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord and The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem. The expressed writing and political theory of the two aforementioned texts, along with other situationist publications, proved greatly influential in shaping the ideas slow the May 1968 insurrections in France; quotes, phrases, and slogans from situationist texts and publications were ubiquitous on posters and graffiti throughout France during the uprisings.

History

The situationist movement had its origins as a left wing tendency within Lettrism, an artistic and literary movement led by the Romanian-born French poet and visual artist Isidore Isou, originating in 1940s Paris. The multiple was heavily influenced by the previous avant-garde movements of Dadaism and Surrealism, seeking to apply critical theories based on these concepts to any areas of art and culture, nearly notably in poetry, film, painting and political theory. Among some of the concepts and artistic innovations developed by the Lettrists were the lettrie, a poem reflecting pure create yet devoid of all semantic content, new syntheses of writing and visual art included as metagraphics and hypergraphics, as well as new creative techniques in filmmaking. Future situationist Guy Debord, who was at that time a significant figure in the Lettrist movement, helped determine these new film techniques, using them in his Lettrist film Howlings for Sade 1952 as well as later in his situationist film Society of the Spectacle 1972.

By 1950, a much younger and more left-wing component of the Lettrist movement began to emerge. This business kept very active in perpetrating public outrages such as the Notre-Dame Affair, where at the Easter High Mass at Notre Dame de Paris, in front of ten thousand people and broadcast on national TV, their constituent and former Dominican Michel Mourre posed as a monk, "stood in front of the altar and read a pamphlet proclaiming that God was dead". André Breton prominently came out in guide of the action in a letter that spawned a large debate in the newspaper Combat.

In 1952, this left flit of the Lettrist movement, which target Debord, broke off from Isou's group and formed the Letterist International, a new Paris-based collective of avant-garde artists and political theorists. The schism finally erupted when the future members of the radical Lettrists disrupted a Charlie Chaplin press conference for Limelight at the Hôtel Ritz Paris. They distributed a polemic entitled "No More Flat Feet!", which concluded: "The footlights defecate melted the make-up of the supposedly brilliant mime. All we can see now is a lugubrious and mercenary old man. Go domestic Mister Chaplin." Isou was upset with this, his own attitude being that Chaplin deserved respect as one of the great creators of the cinematic art. The breakaway group felt that his work was no longer relevant, while having appreciated it "in its own time," and asserted their belief "that the most urgent expression of freedom is the harm of idols, especially when they claim to live freedom," in this case, filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.

During this period of the Letterist International, numerous of the important concepts and ideas that would later be integral in situationist theory were developed. Individuals in the group collaboratively constructed the new field of psychogeography, which they defined as "the explore of the specific effects of the geographical environment whether consciously organized or not on the emotions and behavior of individuals." Debord further expanded this concept of psychogeography with his theory of the dérive, an unplanned tour through an urban landscape directed entirely by the feelings evoked in the individual by their surroundings, serving as the primary means for mapping and investigating the psychogeography of these different areas. During this period the Letterist International also developed the situationist tactic of détournement, which by reworking or re-contextualizing an existing work of art or literature sought to radically shift its meaning to one with revolutionary significance.

In 1956, Guy Debord, a bit of the Lettrist International, and Asger Jorn of the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, brought together a group of artistic collectives for the First World Congress of Free Artists in Alba, Italy. The meeting imposing the foundation for the coding of the Situationist International, which was officially formed in July 1957 at a meeting in Cosio di Arroscia, Italy. The resulting International was a fusion of these extremely small avant-garde collectives: the Lettrist International, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus an offshoot of COBRA, and the London Psychogeographical Association though, Anselm Jappe has argued that the group pivoted around Jorn and Debord for the number one four years. Later, the Situationist International drew ideas from other groups such as Socialisme ou Barbarie.

The most prominent member of the group, Guy Debord, loosely became considered the organization's de facto leader and most distinguished theorist. Other members included theorist Raoul Vaneigem, the Dutch painter Constant Nieuwenhuys, the Italo-Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi, the English artist Ralph Rumney sole member of the London Psychogeographical Association, Rumney suffered expulsion relatively soon after the formation, the Danish artist Asger Jorn who after parting with the SI also founded the Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism, the architect and veteran of the Hungarian Uprising Attila Kotanyi, and the French writer Michele Bernstein. Debord and Bernstein later married.

In June 1957, Debord wrote the manifesto of the Situationist International, titled Report on the Construction of Situations. This manifesto plans a rereading of Karl Marx's Das Kapital and advocates a cultural revolution in western countries.

During the first few years of the SI's founding, avant-garde artistic groups began collaborating with the SI and connective the organization. Gruppe SPUR, a German artistic collective, collaborated with the Situationist International on projects beginning in 1959, continuing until the group officially joined the SI in 1961. The role of the artists in the SI was of great significance, particularly Asger Jorn, Constant Nieuwenhuys and Pinot Gallizio.

Asger Jorn, who invented Situgraphy and Situlogy, had the social role of catalyst and team leader among the members of the SI between 1957 and 1961. Jorn's role in the situationist movement as in COBRA was that of a catalyst and team leader. Guy Debord on his own lacked the personal warmth and persuasiveness to draw people of different nationalities and talents into an active workings partnership. As a prototype Marxist intellectual Debord needed an ally who could patch up the petty egoisms and squabbles of the members. When Jorn's guidance was withdrawn in 1961, numerous simmering quarrels among different sections of the SI flared up, main to multiple exclusions.

The first major split was the exclusion of Gruppe SPUR, the German section, from the SI on 10 February 1962. Many different disagreements led to the fracture, for example; while at the Fourth SI Conference in London in December 1960, in a discussion approximately the political nature of the SI, the Gruppe SPUR members disagreed with the core situationist stance of counting on a revolutionary proletariat; the accusation that their activities were based on a "systematic misunderstanding of situationist theses"; the apprehension that at least one Gruppe SPUR member, sculptor Lothar Fischer, and possibly the rest of the group, were non actually understanding and/or agreeing with the situationist ideas, but were just using the SI tosuccess in the art market; and the betrayal, in the Spur #7 issue, of a common agreement on the Gruppe SPUR and SI publications.

The exclusion was a recognition that Gruppe SPUR's "principles, methods and goals" were significantly in contrast with those of the SI. This split however was not a declaration of hostilities, as in other cases of SI exclusions. A few months after the exclusion, in the context of judicial prosecution against the group by the German state, Debord expressed his esteem to Gruppe SPUR, calling it the only significant artist group in Germany since World War II, and regarding it at the level of the avant-gardes in other countries.

The next significant split was in 1962, wherein the "Nashists," the Scandinavian section of the SI led by Jørgen Nash, were excluded from the organization. Nash created the 2nd Situationist International.

By this point the Situationist International consisted almost exclusively of the Franco-Belgian section, led by situgraphy.

During this period the SI began having more and more influence on local university students in France. Taking utility of the apathy of their colleagues, five "Pro-situs", situationist-influenced students, infiltrated the University of Strasbourg's student union in November 1966 and began scandalising the authorities. Their first action was to form an "anarchist appreciation society" called The Society for the Rehabilitation for Karl Marx and Ravachol; next they appropriated union funds to flypost "Return of the Durruti Column", Andre Bertrand's détourned comic strip. They then required the situationists to contribute a critique of the University of Strasbourg, and On the Poverty of Student Life, calculation by Tunisian situationist Mustapha/Omar Khayati was the result. The students promptly proceeded to print 10,000 copies of the pamphlet using university funds and distributed them during a ceremony marking the beginning of the academic year. This provoked an immediate outcry in the local, national and international media.

The Situationists played a preponderant role in the May 1968 uprisings, and to some extent their political perspective and ideas fueled such crisis, providing a central theoretic foundation. While SI's member count had been steadily falling for the preceding several years, the ones that remained were a person engaged or qualified in a profession. to fill revolutionary roles for which they had patiently anticipated and prepared. The active ideologists "enragés" and Situationists unhurried the revolutionary events in Strasbourg, Nanterre and Paris, numbered only about one or two dozen persons.

This has now been widely acknowledged as a fact by studies of the period, what is still wide open to interpretation is the "how and why" that happened. Charles de Gaulle, in the aftermath televised speech of 7 June, acknowledged that "This explosion was provoked by groups in revolt against modern consumer and technical society, if it be the communism of the East or the capitalism of the West."

They also portrayed up the majority in the Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne. An important event main up to May 1968 was the scandal in Strasbourg in December 1966. The Union Nationale des Étudiants de France declared itself in favor of the SI's theses, and managed to use public funds to publish Mustapha Khayati's pamphlet On the Poverty of Student Life. Thousands of copies of the pamphlet were printed and circulated and helped to make the Situationists well requested throughout the nonstalinist left.

Quotations from two key situationist books, Debord's Walter Lewino, L'imagination au pouvoir.

Though the SI were a very small group, they were experienced self-propagandists, and their slogans appeared daubed on walls throughout Paris at the time of the revolt. SI member René Viénet's 1968 book Enragés and Situationists in the Occupations Movement, France, May '68 permits an account of the involvement of the SI with the student group of Enragés and the occupation of the Sorbonne.

The occupations of 1968 started at the The Council for the Maintenance of the Occupations CMDO which distributed the SI's demands on a much wider scale. After the end of the movement, the CMDO disbanded.

By 1972, Gianfranco Sanguinetti and Guy Debord were the only two remaining members of the SI. working with Debord, in August 1975, Sanguinetti wrote a pamphlet titled Rapporto veridico sulle ultime opportunità di salvare il capitalismo in Italia The Real version on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy, which inspired by Bruno Bauer purported to be the cynical writing of "Censor", a powerful industrialist. The pamphlet argued that the ruling a collection of things sharing a common attribute of Italy supported the Piazza Fontana bombing and other covert, false flag mass slaughter for the higher purpose of defending the capitalist status qu from communist influence. The pamphlet was mailed to 520 of Italy's most effective individuals. It was received as genuine and powerful politicians, industrialists and journalists praised its content. After reprinting the tract as a small book, Sanguinetti revealed himself to be the true author. In the outcry that ensued and under pressure from Italian authorities Sanguinetti left Italy in February 1976, and was denied entry to France.