Internationale Situationniste – Reedition d’Articles [FOR SALE OR TRADE]

Internationale Situationniste. Reedition d’articles [Supplement a 4 Millions de Jeunes Travailleurs] Paris: Les Amis de 4 millions de jeunes travailleurs, n.d. [1970] 44 p.;  21 x 15 cm; yellow wrappers with text in black.

Sommaire: Le déclin et la chute de l’économie spectaculaire marchande (I.S. n° 10 mars 1966) – Définition minimum des organisations révolutionnaires (I.S. n° 11 Octobre 1967) – Contribution au programme des conseils ouvriers en Espagne (I.S. n° 10) – Le point d’explosion de l’idéologie en Chine (I.S. n° 11) – Deux guerres locales (I.S. n° 11) – Pour le pouvoir des conseils ouvriers (mai 68) – Adresse à tous les travailleurs (mai 68)

One of many bootleg reprints of articles from Internationale Situationniste. Not common. with no copies found on OCLC

This item is for sale or trade. Please contact me for details

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INTERLUDE: Show-and-tell session with Thomas Y. Levin at Princeton University

On Friday, April 17, I had the privilege to partake in a “show-and-tell” session on the Internationale Situationniste. For about 2 hours, Princeton faculty member Thomas Y. Levin (more below) and I showcased some of the most prized items from our respective Situationist collections. The session was held in a beautiful seminar room on the second floor of East Pyne Hall, and was attended by a small group of graduate students and faculty from the Departments of German, French, and English.

Thomas Y. Levin is a Humanist in the best sense of the term. A Professor of German at Princeton, he also serves as the Acting Co-Director of the University’s Program in Media and Modernity. He cultivate a broad range of interests, from Early German and Weimar Cinema to the Rhetorics of Surveillance. His current research focuses on the archaeology of voicemail. But for this Blog’s readers, Thomas Levin is likely best known for his pioneering efforts in researching Guy Debord and the Situationist International, with a focus on the movement’s films. He was involved with the 1989 SI exhibits (held in Paris, Boston, London and Barcelona) and, along with Keith Sanborn, played a pivotal role in making Debord’s film once again available to a (small) public in the United States. Levin was also a friend of Debord, and kept a sustained correspondence with him

Highlights of the show-and-tell included: Three copies of Debord’s “Memoires”, one of which with an original cover comprised of 110 razorblades (the work of Michel Guet); a copy of “Oeuvres Cinematographiques Completes” heavily annotated by Guy Debord; several letters and postcards sent by Guy Debord to Thomas Levin (these can also be found in the last volume of Debord’s “Correspondance”); a framed “Plan Psychogeographique de Paris”; two copies of the journal “Ion” from 1952 (the first time Debord was published); two erotic novels written by Raoul Vaneigem under a pseudonym; original photographs of Debord, and more.

My sincere thanks again to Tom Levin for giving me the chance to share my passion of the SI with young, inquisitive brains, as well as to discover his own amazing collection.

DAMTP journal [2010-present]

Cambridge Lettrist and Situationist Society (CLASS) and Alytus Biennial Reversion into Abolition of Culture and Distribution of its Aberrant Bacillus Right Abroad – Committee (ABRACADABRA-C). DAMTP Congress Newspaper. Alytus, Lithuania: CLASS, 2010-. 10 issues to date (8-12 pp. each), 42 x 29.5 cm.; black ink on white stock.

DAMTP (DAta Miners Travailleurs Psychique) is a group out of Alytus, Lithuania. The name is an ironic reference to the famed Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University. According to the group, “this is an act of Qunatum Lettrism – and allows us to create quantum superimposition whereby we can interfere with their experiments via instant transfer of data between us and them.”

DAMPTP does not consider itself pro-situ. To quote the group, “We see ourselves perhaps as situationists in the sense we are surrealist or dadaists. we are revolutionary psychic workers. we utilise and develop situatiuonist ideas…[However] we are also critical of situationist praxis (eg expulsions, fetishisation of art”

DAMTP’s publications are “situgraphic – no top nor bottom settled, neither left nor right sides fixed. Every page could be considered to be the first. The 8 page newspaper combines texts and images in hypergraphic and situgraphic form by the DAta Miners Travailleurs Psychique”

The group’s members include the London Psychogeographic Associate (LPA), Lipovy Tsvet, Polaris, Dada Post, Transient art strike biennial supreme council of one, etc. Stewart Home, Luther Blissett and Fabian Tompsett’s mark is clear from the look of the journals.

All of DAMTP publications (the newspaper and more) are available on their website at http://alytusbiennial.com/publications.html . You can also learn more about DAMPT’s origins and influences at http://alytusbiennial.com/about-apie.html

Not in the trade or on OCLC. This is a confidential journal with a targeted audience.

The Bad Days Will End [2000-2001]

The Bad Days Will End (for Libertarian and Council Communism) Sommerville MA: Merrymount publications, 2000-2001. 5 issues in 4 volumes (12-22 p. each), 21 x 29.5 cm.; plain white (or blue) wrappers with text in black.

This short-lived journal describes itself as “a quarterly bulletin advocating communism — the overthrow of capitalism by the international working class and the creation of a stateless and truly egalitarian society from below” To our knowledge, 5 issues were published in 2000 and 2001.

This bulletin is of interest because its third issue is devoted to the Situationist International.  Contents:”Back to the Situationist International”by Gilles Dauve (originally published in English by American pro-Situationist Journal “Red Eye” in 1979); “The Necessity and Impossibility of Anti-Activism” by J. Kellstadt (original piece); “The Work of Ideology” (initially written and published by American pro-Situationist group Point-Blank! in the first and only issue of their journal). A Review “Saved from Drowning” by Michael Seidman is also included

Rare in the trade, with no other copy found. OCLC lists holdings at Michigan (full set) and Wisconsin (one issue only).

Die Situationisten – Alternativ Documenta [1972] – [SOLD]

Bauhaus Situationiste (sic). Die Situationisten – Alternativ Documenta 30 / 6 bis 6 / 9 1972. Kassel: Bauhaus Situationiste, 1972. Illustrated large cardboard sleeve (approx 50 x 75 cm unfolded) with 7 documents as issued (+3 additional documents in our copy, not usually found)

Large cardboard sleeve containing a variety of documents (as seen below), issued by the Bauhaus Situationiste (Jorgen Nash et al.) to protest the Documenta 5, held in Kassel in October 1972.

Our copy includes 3 additional documents relative to the actual Documenta 5: a map of the exhibition, a short information guide, and a tourist leaflet (“Welcome to Kassel”)

Rare, with only a single copy at the MACBA. OCLC lists no other copies.

Available for sale (P.O.R) or trade. More information upon request. [SOLD]

De la Misere en Milieu Lyceen et Autres Scolarises [1969]

Lacout, Dominique et al.. De la Misere en Milieu Lyceen (et Autres Scolarises). Paris: Passer Outre / Maspero, 1969. 16 p.;  21 x 13 cm; olive green wrappers with text in black.

Pamphlet inspired by Mustapha Khayati’s “De La Misere en Milieu en Etudiant”, (released amidst scandal 3 years earlier in Strasbourg), and published as a Supplément to issue 4 of the magazine “Passer Outre” (a Maspero imprint)

Some illustrations in the text. Dominique Lacout, now a Professor of Philosophy at the Ecole Normale Superieure but then only a 20-year old student, is known as one of the authors.

Full text available at http://www.archyves.net/html/Documents/69-misere-milieulyceentotal.pdf

Rare, with only 4 copies on OCLC (Yale, Nanterre, IISG, CIRA)

Pour en Finir avec le Travail – LP [1974]

Le Glou, Jacques. Pour en Finir avec le Travail: Chansons du Proletariat Revolutionnaire, Vol. 1. Paris: Editions Musicales du Grand Soir, 1974. 30 x 30 cm.; white “gatefold” case with text in white. Total run time: 29 min. 15 s.

First (and only) volume of the “Chansons du Proletariat Revolutionnaire”, produced by Jacques le Glou and performed by Jacques Marchais and Vanessa Achloum [pseudonym for Jacqueline Danno]. Songs’ lyrics printed inside the cover, and a brief text by Jacques Le Glou (« Le Détournement dans la chanson et la révolution ») on back cover

Lyrics for some of the song are attributed to Jacques Le Glou and Alice Debord, while others are attributed to Guy Debord (“La Java des Bons-Enfants” and “Chant des journees de Mai”). Debord is also responsible for the detourned historical notices in in the inside covers (Correspondance Vol. 5, p. 117)

Track list: L’Bon Dieu dans la merde (3 min 26 s), La Java des Bons-Enfants (2 min 07s), La Makhnovstchina (4 min 14 s), Les journées de Mai (3 min 53 s), La vie s’écoule, la vie s’enfuit (2 min 55 s), Il est cinq heures (2 min 57 s), Chanson du CMDO (3 min 20 s), La mitraillette (2 min 47 s), Les bureaucrates se ramassent à la pelle (3 min 58 s).

Song renditions, as well as extensive information on this production , are available at Namaste (http://namaste-baba.blogspot.com/2012/01/pour-en-finir-avec-le-travail-great.html)

Art-Ist, Vol 1, No.1: Situationist International [2004]

Art-ist Contemporary Art Magazine. Art-ist Vol.1, No.1: Situationist International. Istanbul, Turkey: Berlin Revolver Corp, June 2004. 290 p.; 26 x 21 cm.; black covers with text in green (inside text is green and black on white stock). Bilingual text in English and Turkish

Lengthy (~300 p.) first issue of Turkish art magazine ART-IST, entirely devoted to the Situationist International. When asked to contribute articles to the issue, Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz stated: “we think that to contribute an article about the S.I. for an art magazine is shameful. We think that is unethical and enforces the all-out confusion and general ignorance”. As such, they recommend that the issue be transformed into “a revolutionary theoretical weapon”and took full control over it.

Includes numerous, often original contributions by Situ experts, post-Situ and situ-philes: Anselm Jappe (“Were the Situationists the last avant-garde?”) , T.J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith (“Why Art can’t kill the Situationist International?’), Luther Blisset, Tom McDonough (“Delirious Paris: Mapping as a paranoid-critical activity”), Roberto Ohrt (“Guy Debord, Avant-garde, and Socialisme ou Barbarie”), Mikkel Bolt Ramsussen (“Situationist Map of Denmark”), Charles Radcliff (“Pre-situationist days in Nothing Hill”) and many others, including a good share of Turkish scholars.

Heavily illustrated with photos of IS members, detournements, maps, etc.

Surprisingly rare, with only 7 OCLC copies and none to be found in the trade.