To Objekter Praesenteret af Rene Vienet [Two Objects Presented by Rene Vienet] [1960s?]

Vienet, Rene. To Objekter Praesenteret af Rene Vienet. n.p.

For once, I would like to solicit the help of my readers with this particular piece of Situationist ephemera. Written in Danish, this leaflet that is unaccounted for: it is not to be found in any of the SI bibliographies (Gonzalvez, Berreby, Raspaud & Voyer), at any dealers, or in in OCLC. Information about the episode discussed is available here https://www.marxists.org/archive/lafargue/1886/05/decazeville.htm

The item came folded inside NY-Irrealisme, a catalogue for a second ‘manifestation of the Situationist International’ held at Gallery Vestergade and featuring the work of J.V.Martin, Michele Bernstein, Rene Vienet and Guy Debord.

The English translation reads as follows – this is a Google translation, so I encourage my Danish readers to offer a better translation.

TWO OBJECTS PRESENTED BY RENE VIENET

Musee National d’Art Moderne 14 731. A. Giacometti – Criticism as a weapon can not be separated from criticism by means of weapons and criticism of the weapons themselves. (This – unsigned – draft was intended as a “Tribute to Nestor Makhno.” The final monument was to be 8 meters long)

Collection Vaneigem. Musee Carnavalet. Discharging War, used for the execution of engineer Watrin (in short, he was thrown out the window) Donated by a group of miners from Aveyron (1895)
*Nestor Makhno: famous anarchist who radicalized Ukraine in the 20s.
*Carnavalet Museum is a Parisian museum that specializes in social history
*The execution of engineer Watrin is a well-known episode from the social struggle in France: the striking miners in Aveyron, mad with fury, occupied the boardroom and threw an engineer who was there out the window(Aveyron is a department in the South of France)

Rapport sur la Construction des Situations [1957]

Debord, Guy. Rapport sur la Construction des Situations et sur Les Conditions de l’Organization et de l’Action dans la Tendance Situationniste Internationale. n.p. [Brussells]: Internationale Situationniste, n.d. [June 1957]. 20p.; 21.5 x 15 cm.; red wrappers with text in black

Printed in Belgium by Marcel Marien in Belgium in 1000 copies, this text was used the chief preparatory element of the founding conference of the ‘Internationale Situationniste’ in July 1957 in Cosio d’Arroscia. It delineates the views of the founders of the IS, more particularly Jorn, Debord, Pinot-Gallizio and Korun. The new movement’s revolutionary aims are clearly expressed: “First, we believe that the world must be changed. We desire the most liberatory possible change of the society and the life in which we find ourselves confined. We know that such change is possible by means of pertinent actions”

The Rapport is one the most critical texts of the Internationale Situationniste. While it was printed in 1000 copies, it was never meant to be sold, and many copies were never distributed. It is thus rather scarce. Copies in the trade fetch over $1,000, while OCLC only finds five copies (MOMA, Yale, Getty, IISG, Amsterdam)

For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Report_on_the_Construction_of_Situations

An English translation can be found at http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/report.htm

Guldhorn og Lykkehjul / Les Cornes d’Or et la Roue de la Fortune [1957]

Jorn, Asger. Guldhorn og Lykkehjul. Copenhagen: Eget Forlag, n.d. [1957]. 108 p.; ill.; 25 x 19 cm.; ill. covers with a Jorn litograph, text in brown

Richly illustrated publisher’s pictorial boards with a Jorn litograph. A fascinating read. With a French translation “La roue de la fortune. Méthodologie des cultes” by Matie van Damselaer and Michel Ragon

Uncommon, with two copies in the trade and a dozen on OCLC.

Die Gesellschaft des Spektakels / La Societe du Spectacle [AUSTRIAN EDITION]

Debord, Guy. Die Gesellschaft des Spektakels. Wien (Austria): Revolutionsbrauhof, 1999. 90 p.; 21 x 14.5 cm.; yellow wrappers with text in black

Debord’s seminal text. Pirate Austrian edition, under the auspices of a local Anarchist bookstore (Revolutionsbrauhof, Anarchistische Buchhandlung, 1090 Wien, Hahngasse 15). This is the text of the Projektgruppe Gegengesellschaft (1974, revised 1999). Revolutionsbrauhof published other Debord titles in translation.

While otherwise unremarkable, this edition is unaccounted for and very scarce. The only other copy we could find is at at the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam. In addition, and to our knowledge, this may be the only Austrian edition.