Typed letter to Monsieur E. BOGAERT dated 12 May 1970 [1970]

VIENET, René. [Typed letter to Monsieur E. BOGAERT dated 12 May 1970]. 1 p.; 21 x 27 cm.; black ink on white and green Internationale Situationniste stock.

Debord first met Eugene Bogaert in late 1959, entrusting him with the printing of the third issue of Internationale Situationniste (Paris: Internationale Situationniste, December 1959). In a letter dated 14 December 1959, Debord tells Constant “Nous sommes maintenant chez un imprimeur excellent” (“We are now with an excellent printer”). The previous printer had botched the printing of the second issue of Internationale Situationniste: the aluminum foil used for the wrappers was of such poor quality that the majority of copies did not survive the printing process. A second printing was realized by Bogaert in the Spring of 1962 using a more durable material (see here for pictures: https://situationnisteblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/internationale-situationniste-2-first-and-second-printing-1958-1962/).

Despite a few issues (e.g., with the printing of Internationale Situationniste 6, see letters in Correspondance Volume 2 , pp. 104-115), Debord and Bogaert would get along well and Ch. Bernard would remain the printer of Internationale Situationniste through the very last issue in 1969. This is in part due to the fact that Bogaert showed tremendous patience and understanding regarding the SI’s chronically delayed payments (see, for instance, the letter from Debord dated 1 October 1962 in Correspondance Volume 2, pp. 168-170). Bogaert would also print many of the SI’s leaflets and brochures over the years.

In this letter dated 12 May 1970, Viénet discusses the printing of the thirteenth issue of the periodical Internationale Situationniste. He states (translation is mine): “I can already assure you that the financing of no. 13 will not impact the settling of our debts. Besides, I will ensure, as you suggest, that the required amount for the cover is made available to you by early August. We have chosen the color 401 for 10.000 covers”. As our readers are likely aware, Internationale Situationniste 13 would never be published. Preliminary notes and manuscripts related to that issue can be found at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, in the Gianfranco Sanguinetti papers (see https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/archival_objects/193237)

Letter from Vienet to Bogaert

Courtesy of Yale University’s Beinecke Library

Typed letter to Monsieur BOGAERT dated 9 August 1969 [1969]

VIENET, René. [Typed letter to Monsieur BOGAERT dated 9 August 1969]. 1 p.; 21 x 27 cm.; black ink on white and green Internationale Situationniste stock

Debord first met Eugene Bogaert in late 1959, entrusting him with the printing of the third issue of Internationale Situationniste (Paris: Internationale Situationniste, December 1959). In a letter dated 14 December 1959, Debord tells Constant “Nous sommes maintenant chez un imprimeur excellent” (“We are now with an excellent printer”). The previous printer had botched the printing of the second issue of Internationale Situationniste: the aluminum foil used for the wrappers was of such poor quality that the majority of copies did not survive the printing process. A second printing was realized by Bogaert in the Spring of 1962 using a more durable material (see here for pictures: https://situationnisteblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/internationale-situationniste-2-first-and-second-printing-1958-1962/).

Despite a few issues (e.g., with the printing of Internationale Situationniste 6, see letters in Correspondance Volume 2 , pp. 104-115), Debord and Bogaert would get along well and Ch. Bernard would remain the printer of Internationale Situationniste through the very last issue in 1969. This is in part due to the fact that Bogaert showed tremendous patience and understanding regarding the SI’s chronically delayed payments (see, for instance, the letter from Debord dated 1 October 1962 in Correspondance Volume 2, pp. 168-170). Bogaert would also print many of the SI’s leaflets and brochures over the years.

In a first letter dated 29-9-68, Bogaert had provided the tentative price for Internationale Situationniste 12 for different print runs, assuming a 72-page count. Internationale Situationniste 12 would would ultimately be nearly twice as long, standing at a 120 pages,

This letter from Rene Viénet to Bogaert, dated 9 August 1969, also concerns the twelfth (and last) issue of the Internationale Situationniste periodical. It confirms the wrapper design and color (Alsacienne 441) and print run (10.000 copies), as per a letter from Guy Debord dated 6 October 1968 (a xerox copy is included; also reproduced in Correspondance Volume 3, pp. 289-290). Viénet also recaps the latest accounting, asking Bogaert to confirm that the amount (3.847 Francs) is aligned with his own financial ledger.

Internationale Situationniste 12 would be ultimately published in September 1969.

• 

• 

Rapporto Veridico Sulle Ultime Opportunia di Salvare il Capitalismo en Italia [1975]; Prove Dell’Inesistenza di Censor [1976]

[SANGUINETTI, Gianfranco] CENSOR. Rapporto Veridico Sulle Ultime Opportunia di Salvare il Capitalismo en Italia. Milan: Scotti Camuzi, 1975. 150 p.; 23.5 x 14.8 cm.; tan cover with text in red and black. Copy no. 137 of 520. Complete of its errata card. We locate a single OCLC copy at Yale University’s Beinecke Library, part of the Gianfranco Sanguinetti papers.

True first edition of what is perhaps Gianfranco Sanguinetti’s most critical work.

Gianfranco Sanguinetti joined the Situationist International after May 68, and soon turned into a key contributor to the organization (and of its last two members). He was one of the founding members of the Italian section of the S.I. in January 1969, alongside Claudio Pavan and Paolo Salvadori. Sanguinetti became very close to Debord (the two of them exchanged over 600 letters, many of which remain unpublished to this day), with whom he co-authored La veritable scission dans l’Internationale Situationniste in 1972. He also helped Debord with his film, La Société du Spectacle, also in 1972.

In July 1975, writing under the pseudonym of Censor, Sanguinetti authors the Rapporto Veridico Sulle Ultime Opportunia di Salvare il Capitalismo en Italia (in English: Truthful Report on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy). Posing as an anonymous, high-ranking member of the Italian intelligentsia, Sanguinetti makes the argument that the Christian democrats should welcome Communists in a coalition government in order to maintain the capitalist order. Written in the style of a political treatise, the book openly draws from the likes of Machiavelli and Clausewitz.

The book was printed in 520 numbered copies, then mailed to a small set of influential politicians, company executives, union leaders, and journalists. The book was then printed by Mursia in October 1975, garnering many positive reviews in the press and selling thousands of copies. The Rapporto would eventually be translated into French (Paris: Champ Libre, 1976) and English (Pougkeepsie, N.Y. : Anti-torpor league, 1979 — partial translation; Flatland: Fort Bragg, 1997; and online here)

For more details on the context behind the book, see here.

SANGUINETTI, Gianfranco. Prove Dell’Inesistenza di Censor. Milan: n.p., 1976. 32 p.; 23.5 x 15.3 cm.; tan cover with text in black. Copy no. 400 of 520. Compete with its red wrapper band. We locate two OCLC copies, at Bologna and Roma.

It was not until December 1975 that Sanguinetti revealed that the book was a fake, a hoax. In Prove Dell’Inesistenza di Censor: Censor did not exist; Rapporto was Sanguinetti’s attempt to point out the cynicism of the Italian bourgeoisie. This caused a large scandal, contrasting with the many positive reviews of the Rapporto in the Italian press.

[GUY DEBORD] Typed letter [to Renaud Burel] (signed “Guy”) dated 20/01/1991

DEBORD, Guy. Typed letter [to Renaud Burel] (signed “Guy”) dated 20/01/1991. n.p. [Paris], 20 January 1991. 1 p.; 21 x 30 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Typed letter [to Renaud Burel] dated 20 January 1991. This letter, however, was mailed to Francois Escaig.

This letter is a “correction” of an exercise proposed by Guy Debord to Renaud Burel in his letter dated 2 January 1991. He had then written the following: “In the periodical that you gave me the other evening [Mordicus], I identified a paragraph in which several contradictions can be discovered. Since I have said that your logic (with respect to a completely unworthy inheritor) appears a little weak to me, I now propose to you an exercise, which you can do together with your friend: what are the manifestly false points in these six short lines and to which intentions could they correspond?”

• 

• 

• 

While we could not locate Burel’s (and perhaps Escaig’s?) response, we have identified the six lines that Debord was referring to. They are part of an article on the Red Brigades published in the first issue of Mordicus (“Affreux, sales et puissants”, pp. 4-5) in December 1990. It translates as follows: “Many have wondered about the possibility that groups like the R[ed] B[rigades] could have been manipulated. However, inifinitely more powerful than all conspiracies and conspirators, the “manipulation” by society, the economy, and the media trumps the will of the individual. Only an attack against these real powers can threaten those rule the world and render their actions meaningless” (p.5)

The letter by Debord is a line-by-line rebuttal of these six lines. An English translation of that letter can be found here: http://www.notbored.org/debord-20January1991.html. It is reproduced below for the reader’s benefit:

Several inconsistencies

No one was ever interrogated about the manipulations of the R[ed] B[rigades]. Three or four individuals established the fact with certainty and the others swallowed it all. In those six lines,one must especially see that “individual will” designates both the provocateur and individual critique.

What does “the attack against the real powers” mean? Did not the RB want [to make] such an attack? Perhaps they did “disquiet the masters of the world,” but to arrive at “rendering their maneuvers derisory” it would be necessary to also vanquish them (the intentions, even the true ones, cannot be taken as identical with the results). Is not critique a real attack, too? It is at least a real protection from attack. Does one want to pretend that “individual” critique is necessarily unreal and in sum harmful to real struggles, which must go to the fore with confidence? Police manipulation is only a particular possible case of general manipulation, quite certainly. And the manipulation of the workers by their union leaders was only another particular case in its time.

An “attack against the real powers” (meaning Mordicus?) is necessarily made from an assemblage of individual wills. But must they only think about the great (powerful) forces of society, forces that “escape” them? But would there not also be particular forces whose action could escape them even better?

One cannot know if the intention of this specialist of “the attack against the real forces” is here to justify the gullibility of the past or to cover adventurous errors to come.

Guy

Manifesto of Rationalism [1968]

[KING MOB / Clark, T.J. et al.]. Manifesto of Rationalism: Special Souvenir Revolutionary Festival Brochure. n.p. [London]: n.p., n.d. [1968]. n.p. [8 p.]; ill.; 21 x 27.5 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Several “articles” refer to student protests in 1968 at the Essex University, Liverpool University, and the London School of Economics. A mixture of text, cut-ups, and détourned comic strips (OCLC)

“According to an interview with T.J. Clark (Power to the People, 2013) “In 1968 Essex University hosted a dreadful “revolutionary festival” with Godard and co. in attendance. A group of naysayers produced something called the Manifesto of Rationalism in hopes of spoiling the party, and I remember that my contribution was a strip cartoon beginning with a quote from Lewis Namier: ‘Liberty is the fruit of slow growth in a stable society.'” Clark goes on to express sincere hope that the item won’t be recovered for future scholars to examine.” (Arthur Fournier Rare Books)

We locate a single copy on OCLC at Yale University’s Beinecke Library.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Pinot-Gallizio: Industrielle Malerei [1959]

[PINOT-GALLIZIO, Giuseppe] Pinot-Gallizio: Industrielle Malerei. Munich: Van de Loo, 1959. n.p. [4 p.]; ill.; 15 x 21 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Catalog published on the occasion of Pinot-Gallizio’s exhibition, held at the Galerie Van de Loo in Munich between 14 April and 8 May 1959. This was Gallizio’s third exhibition of industrial painting, and the first one outside Italy (the Drouin exhibition in Paris would follow shortly thereafter). Contents include: a photograph of Pinot-Gallizio in his workshop in Alba (different from the one in the catalog of the exhibition held in Torino in 1958), a translation into German of excerpts of Michele Bernstein’s Elogio di Pinot Gallizio, and a translation into German of Pinot-Gallizio’s biography as found in the Torino catalog.
For more details, see Debord’s letter to Pinot-Gallizio dated February 1958 (Correspondance Vol.1, pp. 193-194)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Elogio di Pinot-Gallizio [1958]

BERNSTEIN, Michele. Elogio di Pinot-Gallizio. Prima Mostra di Pittura Industriale. Torino: Notizie – Associazione Arti Figurative, [May] 1958. 4 p.; ill.; 21.5 x 15.5 cm.; cream wrappers with text in black.

Elogio di Pinot-Gallizio (In Praise of Pinot-Gallizio) is Michele Bernstein’s homage to the Italian painter on the occasion of his first exhibition of industrial painting, which opened on May 31, 1958 in Torino. This exhibition predates the ones held at Galerie Montenapoleone in July 1958, at the Galerie Van de Loo in Munich, in April-May 1959, and at the Galerie Drouin in May 1959. Bernstein’s text is followed by a short biography of Pinot-Gallizio, where we learn that the current exhibition showcases: “12 meters of oil painting on canvas, 14 meters of thermostatic resins on canvas, 70 meters on canvas produced in the lExperimental Laboratory of Alba, with the collaboration of Giorgio Melanotte” (translation is mine). A photograph of Pinot-Gallizio in his workshop is also included. The rear wrapper features an advert for the aperitif “Carpano”.

Debord writes to Asger Jorn about Pinot-Gallizio’s first exhibition in a letter dated 27 April 1958 (Correspondance Vol.1, p.89-90). A few months later, in another letter dated 16 June 1958, Debord sends Gallizio his “heartfelt congratulations for a well-deserved and expected success” (Correspondance Vol. 1, pp.99)

Excerpts from Bernstein’s text appeared in Internationale Situationniste 2 (Paris: Internationale Situationniste, December 1958: pp.27-28) while the full text was reproduced in Pinot-Gallizio (Paris: Institut scandinave de Vandalisme Comparé, 1960). An English language translation can be found here: https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/inpraise.html

Raspaud & Voyer 106.

We locate a single copy on OCLC.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

l’Internationale Situationniste prend l’offensive [1963]

[INTERNATIONALE SITUATIONNISTE] [GUTT, Tom et al.]. l’Internationale Situationniste prend l’offensive. n.p. [Brussels]: n.p., 31 March 1963. Leaflet: 1 p. (two-sided); 21.5 x 25 cm.; black ink on white stock. Envelope: 15.5 x 12.5 cm.; blue ink and black stamps on light blue stock.

Written by Belgian Surrealist Tom Gutt (1941-2002), this leaflet was issued as a fake supplement to Internationale Situationniste 8 and is signed by Guy Debord and Raoul Vaneigem on the behalf of the Situationist International’s Central Committee. 500 copies were printed. L’Internationale Situationniste prend l’offensive is Gutt’s response to the Situationist leaflet Pas de dialogue avec les suspects! Pas de dialogue avec les cons! , a violent attack against the Belgian Surrealists that was published on 27 February 1963. The conflict would also be discussed in Internationale Situationniste 9 in August 1964 (“Under the pretext of a completely imaginary anti-fascism, a few fragments of surrealism’s Stalinist tendency attempted to join the situationists in Anvers. Their inevitable ejection was reported by a tract issued in Dutch and French on 27 February 1963: No Dialogue with Suspects! No Dialogue with Morons!“)

Gutt’s leaflet parodies Situationist rhetoric and announces the (fake) exclusion of Attila Kotanyi. Concidentally, Kotanyi would be excluded from the S.I. later that year — in December 1963 specifically

To make the story believable, Gutt mailed the leaflet from Paris (instead of Brussels) – specifically from the rue Cujas post office, not far from the Sorbonne and from the Situationist International’s PO BOX location. He also managed to duplicate the Internationale Situationniste stamp, which appears on the front of the mailing envelope. This particular copy was mailed to Belgian writer Louis Scutenaire.

Debord soon learnt about the ploy, and wrote to Alexander Trocchi about it on 20 April and 22 April 1963 (see Correspondance Vol. 2, p. 209-213).

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We locate OCLC copies at Yale and the Getty Museum.

Bollettino d’informazione del Movimento Internazionale per una Bauhaus Immaginista [1954-56]

BAJ, Enrico (Ed.). Bollettino d’informazioni [sic] del Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste, n. 1 : Immagine e Forma. n.p. [Milan]: Editoriale Periodici Italiani (EPI), 30 October 1954. 12 p.; 33 x 23 cm.; beige wrappers with text in black.

GALLIZIO, Giuseppe; SIMONDO, P[iero]; VERRONE, E[lena]; JORN, A[sger]. Bollettino d’informazioni [sic] del Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste, n. 2 : Eristica. Alba: Laboratorio sperimentale per una Bauhaus Immaginista, July 1956. 18 p.; ill.; 33 x 23.5 cm.; ill. wrappers with original original lithograph by Asger Jorn.

Complete series of this scarce, short-lived and important periodical, as it spurred the long friendship between Asger Jorn and Guy Debord. In fact, Debord would reproduce excerpts from “Immagine e Forma” in issue #15 of Potlatch (22 December 1954)

The first issue – which is also the first publication of the Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste – consists of a single text by Asger Jorn (“Immagine e Forma”). The translation into Italian is the work of Sergio Dangelo, and was done based on Jorn’s original manuscript. A French version would be published in 1958 in Pour la Forme. The text is a sharp criticism of Max Bill and the College of Design in Ulm.

The second (and last) issue consists of several articles. “Forma e struttura” (Form and structure) by Asger Jorn (which would be reprinted in French in Pour la Forme); “Per una teoria generale delle arti figurative” (For a general theory of figurative art) by Piero Simondo; and “Funzioni architettoniche, di destinazioni democratiche” (” Architectural functions, of democratic destinations”) by Elena Verrone. It also includes photographs from Incontro internazionale d’arte in Albisola in 1954. The inside front and rear wrappers reproduce the text “Percha la Bauhaus e cosi importante?”, which was originally issued as a leaflet and presents the 27 key theses of the Imaginist Bauhaus.

Scheppe & Ohrt 91, 93. We locate 6 copies on OCLC.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Avant la guerre: 66 métagraphies influentielles [1954]

[INTERNATIONALE LETTRISTE] Avant la guerre: 66 métagraphies influentielles. Paris: Galerie du Passage, 11 June 1954. 1 p.; 21 x 27 cm.; black ink on cream stock.

Announcement leaflet (no catalogue was issued) for the first lettrist exhibition, held at the Galerie du Passage in Paris on June 1954. Gil Wolman was the organizer, and this would be the first time his collages would be shown. Other stated contributors include Andre-Frank Conord, Mohamed Dahou, Guy-Ernest Debord, Jacques Fillon, Gilles Ivain (i.e., Ivan Chtcheglov, who contributed a map of Paris with islands, archipelagoes, and peninsulas), and Patrick Straram.

Gonzalvez 100. Oeuvres 126-130. Scheppe & Ohrt 136

Not on OCLC.

• 

• 

• 

•