Correspondence Debord-Vaneigem [1961]

DEBORD, Guy. [Envelope postmarked 31/01/1961, addressed to Raoul Vaneigem]. Paris, 31 January 1961.

Envelope of a letter that Guy Debord sent to Raoul Vaneigem on 31 January 1961. While the original letter has been seemingly misplaced, the postmarked date has allowed us to identify it in the Correspondance. It was one of the earliest – most likely the first  – letter that Debord sent to Vaneigem. As such, it is critical in initiating what would be a long, fruitful intellectual partnership.

Correspondence Khayati-Vaneigem [1990s]

KHAYATI, Mustapha. Signed autograph postcard.  1 p. (two-sided); 10 x 15 cm.; ill. color photograph of Firenze’s Palazzo Vecchio.

Handwritten postcard by Mustapha [Khayati] to Brigitte Tack – Raoul Vaneigem’s significant other at the time, and a publishing professional – to congratulate her on the birth of her daughter. Khayati says that he will follow up in the following weeks to get back in touch with Raoul [Vaneigem]. Indeed, after a long hiatus, the two men would resume their friendship in the late 1990s.

Incidentally, Vaneigem finished his 1996 book Nous qui désirons sans fin on the same day that his daughter was born, which is why the book is dedicated to her and her mother.

Correspondence Guy Debord – Noel Arnaud [1959]

DEBORD, GUY. Signed autograph postcard dated 02/02/[1959] to “Cher ami” [Noel Arnaud]. n.p. [Paris, France], Feb. [1959?]. 1 p. (one-sided); 14.5 x 12 cm.; ill. B&W photograph. Not in “Correspondance”

DEBORD, Guy. Signed, undated autograph note-card to [Noel] Arnaud. n.p. [Paris, France], n.d. [1958]. 11 x 15.5 cm.; black ink on cream stock. Not in “Correspondance”

DEBORD, Guy. Signed autograph postcard to Noel Arnaud, post-stamped 24/1/1959. n.p. [Paris, France]: n.d. [Jan. 1959]. 1 p. (two-sided); ill.; 25 x 9.5 cm.; B&W photograph of the Eglise de la Madeleine. Not in “Correspondance”.

All three postcards relate to the conference/debate “Is Surrealism alive or Dead”, which took place at the Cercle Ouvert on Tuesday, November 18, 1958. Debord wrote about it in an unsigned article published in Internationale Situationniste (see http://www.notbored.org/surrealism.html)

The first postcard, dated 2 February [1959] and written on the back of a photograph taken in the Palais du facteur Cheval on 14 April 1955, discusses the second issue of Bief, fonction surrealiste from 15 December 1958, in which Gerard Legrand writes about the conference/debate in an an article entitled Les Faux-parleurs

This last postcard is important because it shows that Debord did try to follow up with Arnaud, as he had promised in late December 1958 (see below). Whether that encounter actually happened is uncertain, since the postcard was delivered to Arnaud’s address in Aix en Provence, not in Paris.

Thank you to a kind reader for providing additional relevant details.

Noel Arnaud and Guy Debord first came into contact in 1956 through the Lettristes’ collaboration in the periodical “Les Levres nues”. In a letter to Frankin dated 28 December 1958, Debord expresses his disappointment at Noel Arnaud’s affiliation with Pataphysics (“N.Arnaud est donc pataphysicien. Regrettable” – Corr. Vol 1., p172). The next day, Debord sends Arnaud a letter acknowledging his new years’ wishes but declining an encounter (“Merci de vos veux…Malheureusement, je quitte Paris demain, pour a peu pres un mois. Je vous ferai signe des mon retour. Bien a vous, G-E. Debord.- Corr. Vol. 1, p. 172). This letter is important because it is the only one between the two men that is referenced in the Correspondence. In a letter to Constant dated 23 May 1959, Debord describes a cold interaction with Arnaud (“A l’instant meme ou je fermais la lettre pour toi, le telephone sonne: Noel Arnaud, qui me qu’il a trouve ta carte longtemps apres (n’etant pas a Paris) et qu’il aimerait avoir ton adresse, car il doit passer en Hollande d’ici une quinzaine de jours. Je lui ai donne ton adresse tres froidement.” – Corr. Vol 2, p.232.). We do not know of further interaction between the two men.

Le Jardin d’Albisola [1974]

JORN, Asger [Debord, Guy]. Le Jardin d’Albisola. Torino, Edizioni d’Arte Fratelli Pozzo, n.d. [1974]. n.p. [44 p.]; 28 x 30 cm.; illustrated wrappers, housed inside a slipcase.

“This book is a chiefly photographic guide to Jorn’s garden sculpture and decoration at Albisola” (Ford 115). “This book is a chiefly photographic guide to Jorn’s garden sculpture and decoration at Albisola” (Ford 115). Preface in French by Italian art publisher Ezio Gribaudo, dated April 4, 1973. Text in Italian by Italian art critic Alberico Sala. Postface (“De l’architecture sauvage”) by Guy Debord, dated September 1972.

In his short (3-page) but powerful text, Debord praises Jorn for his contributions to the Situationist International, both intellectual (“nobody contributed as much as Jorn did to the origin of this adventure: he found people throughout Europe, he came up with so many ideas…”) and material (“even in the most cheerful poverty he often found the means to pay off the most urgent debts that we had accumulated at the printers”) . Jorn is also recognized for his ability to translate Situationist concepts into art and architecture (“And in this Italian dwelling complex, Jorn once again lends a hand and responds to even the concrete question of our appropriation of space, demonstrating that everyone could undertake to reconstruct around themselves the earth, which badly needs it”)

The English translation of Debord’s text can be found here (https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/postsi/wild.html) while the French original can be found here (https://debord-encore.blogspot.com/2010/09/de-larchitecture-sauvage.html)

Hanegal. Gallisk poesialbum 1941-61 [1961]

NASH, Jorgen; MARTIN, J.V. Hanegal. Gallisk poesiealbum 1941-61. Paris: Internationale Situationniste, June 1961. n.p. [72 p.]; 21 x 27 cm.; publisher’s yellow printed boards with front drawing in black by Katarina Nash. Grey protecting cards. Hand-painted black slipcase with title stenciled in white (“Hanegal”) wrapped in distinctive chicken wire – a reference to the Gallic rooster pictured on the front wrapper. Signed by both authors on front endpaper. One of 750 copies; our #554. Loosely inserted is a single page, 21 x 29.7 cm review slip

Spectacular artist book that features Gallic-inspired poetry by Jorgen Nash (in Danish) and twenty full-page lithograph illustrations by J.V. Martin. Nash and Martin were both members of the Internationale Situationniste until the “Nashist” scission of 1962.