PSA: Strategie – La Librairie de Guy Debord (Nov. 2018)

DEBORD, Guy (Ed. Guy, Emmanuel and Le Bras, Laurence). La Librairie de Guy Debord – Strategie. Paris: L’Echappee, Nov. 2018.  528 p.; ill.; 13 x 19 cm. Green cover with text in yellow.

I wanted to share the news that, on 21 Nov. 2018, L’Echappee will be publishing Debord’s reading notes cards on the topic of Strategy. To date, one had to travel to Paris and the French National Library to access these notes, which are categorized by subject. I very much look forward to this publication- more below

https://www.lechappee.org/collections/la-librairie-de-guy-debord

La réflexion sur la stratégie est au cœur de la pensée de Guy Debord. Héritiers du dadaïsme, du surréalisme puis du lettrisme, lui et ses compagnons de route ont cherché un nouveau passage vers une contestation aussi large que possible des conditions de vie dans nos sociétés modernes. Ils n’ont eu de cesse de porter concrètement la lutte hors du champ de l’art, dans le domaine de la vie quotidienne : la révolution doit être d’abord la modification des perspectives au sein de cette vie. Les propositions théoriques de Guy Debord s’accompagnent ainsi tout au long de l’aventure d’un violent désir d’action pour faire changer la face d’un monde dont il rejette les faux-semblants, avec en ligne de mire la mise en œuvre effective de son projet révolutionnaire. Le Jeu de la guerre imaginé par Debord dès le milieu des années 1950 témoigne de la place qu’a occupée dans sa réflexion la nécessité de penser stratégiquement tout projet d’action, quel qu’il soit.

 

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From one Situationist to another – Jorn Galerie Rive gauche [1960]

JORN, Asger. R.A. Augustinci presente: trente et une peintures de Asger Jorn. Paris: Galerie Rive Gauche, April 1960. n.p. [64 p.]; ill.; 21 x 18 cm.; ill. Cover reproducing a Jorn painting. Exceptional presentation copy, from Jorgen Nash and his wife Katja [Lindell] to Hardy Strid.

Catalog of Jorn’s exhibition at the Galerie Rive Gauche in Paris, held between 6 and 31 May 1960. 31 works were shown, all of which are reproduced in black & white. The catalog also includes a few important texts:

• “Asger Jorn” by  Yvon Taillandier (1926-2018) , an art critic and Secretary of the ‘Salon de Mai’ for nearly 50 years
• “Peintures de Jorn” by Jacques Prévert (1900-1977), the famed poet and screenwriter, originally published in 1957.
• “La Colere de Jorn” by poet and editor René Bertelé (1908-1973), originally published in 1958.

See Correspondance (Vol.1, p.291).

Provenance: Hardy Strid’s estate, through the trade.

 

 

NYA BABYLON [1968]

CONSTANT (Nieuwenhuys). Nya Babylon. Lund: Lunds Konsthall, 1968. n.p. [16 p.]; ill.; 22 x 20 cm.; ill.B&W wrapers with text in purple and black.

Catalog from the exhibition “Nya Babylon”, held at Lunds Konsthall between March 30 and April 21, 1968. List of 65 items (mostly metal and plexiglas models). Includes several texts from Constant translated into Swedish, such as “Homo Ludens”. A list of Constant’s past exhibitions and writings, as well as a short biography, are included as well.

We locate copies on OCLC, but none in the trade

 

Internationale Situationniste 3 [1959]

INTERNATIONALE SITUATIONNISTE. Internationale Situationniste 3. Paris: Internationale Situationniste, December 1959. 40 p.; 24.5 x 16 cm; grey metallic wrappers with text printed in black.

Exceptionnally signed by Jorgen Nash to Ejner Johansson and dated January 14, 1960. Ejner Johansson (1922-2001) was a Danish art historian
and made a Danish documentary film about Asger Jorn in 1983:. Thanks to both Henry and Thomas Hvid Kromann for their help in identifying the recipient

In this issue:

Notes éditoriales :

Renseignements situationnistes

La Troisième Conférence de l’I.S. à Munich

Discussion sur un appel aux intellectuels et artistes révolutionnaires

ANDRÉ FRANKIN, Plate-forme pour une révolution culturelle

CONSTANT, Rapport inaugural de la Conférence de Munich

Corrections pour l’adoption des onze points d’Amsterdam

A. ALBERTS, ARMANDO, CONSTANT, HAR OUDEJANS, Première proclamation de la section hollandaise de l’I.S.

PINOT GALLIZIO, Discours sur la peinture industrielle et sur un art unitaire applicable

GUY-ERNEST DEBORD, Positions situationnistes sur la circulation

CONSTANT, Une autre ville pour une autre vie

Full text available at https://www.larevuedesressources.org/IMG/pdf/internationale_situationniste_3.pdf

Alechinsky, Appel, Baj, Jorn, Rein, d’Haese, Roel, Ting, Wyckaert et Dotremont avec Cobra [1956]

Alechinsky, Appel, Baj, Jorn, Rein, d’Haese, Roel, Ting, Wyckaert et Dotremont avec Cobra. Bruxelles: Galerie Taptoe, 1956. 4 p.; ill.; 21 x 18.5 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Leaflet announcing the famed collective exhibition of COBRA artists held at Galerie Taptoe between July 31 and September 26, 1956. The design is by polish typographer and artist Corneille Hannoset.

For more about Galerie Taptoe, see Yale’s Beinecke Library page: https://www.postwarcultureatbeinecke.org/taptoegallery

“The short-lived but influential Taptoe Gallery was active in Brussels in the 1950s. A “center for the arts,” Taptoe opened its doors in 1955 under the direction of Gentil and Clara Haesaert. In addition to an exhibit space, Taptoe had meeting rooms, a bar/cafe, and beds, a setting ripe for the sort of heady pow-wows one could expect from wandering avant-garde artists. They featured poetry readings, jazz concerts (Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins), and conferences (one titled “Architecture is a Crime that Pays”), and anthropology lectures. As it was, Taptoe was one-of-a-kind in sleepy Brussels (a so-called cultural “desert”) despite its proximity to such progressive centers of artistic activity as Paris and Amsterdam. As Corneille Hanozet remembers, “It is hard to believe that in Brussels in the 50s it was extremely rare to find a simple place to get to know one another and express ourselves.”

Taptoe took its name from Piet de Groof’s (a.k.a. Walter Korun) short-lived and irreverent poetry revue/comic book from just a few years prior. He had decided on the name because of its bilingual resonance in French and Dutch, although curiously, “taptoe” is not a French word (Further confirmation that one must take de Groof’s retellings in Le général situationniste with a grain of salt.) In Dutch it means “tattoo,” as in a military curfew: the drumbeat or bugle sounding for soldiers to repair to their garrison for bed. More generally, it can mean the last call, the final gong, that’s enough. De Groof was a celebrated Belgian aviator before turning to poetry, which explains his familiarity with the term. In 1955 as his Taptoe periodical began to lose steam he signed over the moniker to Gentil and Clara Wyckaert, then editors of De Kunst-Meridiaan, for their new gallery. Thereafter he joined the ranks as contributing member.

As a site for both national and international artistic dialogue Taptoe began to combat the sentiment that the Belgians were merely derivative of the Paris scene. The gallery’s first two group exhibitions were runaway hits, surpassing all expectations. With paintings by Pierre Alechinsky, Hugo Claus, Serge Vandercam, Corneille, and sculpture by Reinhoud d’Haese, one critic, Corneille Hanozet, avowed, “We must applaud Taptoe’s efforts of the last few months to pull from the shadows some of the most audacious works of art of today. These exhibits prove that art continues on its adventure despite initial hesitations.” Taptoe went on to feature Asger Jorn, Walasse Ting, and Paul Snoek in solo exhibitions. In February 1957, a now historic exhibit on Psychogeography played a role in catalyzing contact between Jorn and other future founding members of the Situationist International.”

Værdi og økonomi kritik af den økonomiske politik og udbytningen af det enestående [1962]

JORN, Asger. Værdi og økonomi kritik af den økonomiske politik og udbytningen af det enestående. n.p. [Copenhagen]: Borgen, 1962. 144 p; 19 x 13 cm.; ill. Cover with photography of Jorn, text in red.

Published by Borgen, this is the second book released under the auspices of Skandinavisk Institut for Sammenlignende Vandalisme (Institut Scandinave de Vandalisme Compare). The title could translate as “Value And Economy: a critique of the economic policy and the exploitation of the unique”.

The back cover is a “Portrait of Christian Christensen” painted by Asger Jorn in 1933.
http://www.museumjorn.dk/en/collections/about-asger-jorn/works-by-jorn/work-presentation-of-jorn/?AjrDcmntId=984 Christian Christensen (1882-1960) was a revolutionary trade unionist, the main leader of the Danish far left between 1910 and 1921, when he joined the Danish Communist Party, before joining the anti-Stalinist opposition during the Moscow trials (1936). Asger Jorn had dedicated to his mentor Christian Christensen his “Critique de la politique économique suivie de La Lutte finale” (Paris: Internationale Situationniste, 1960). See also a photography with Christian Christensen in “Internationale situationniste” #3, p. 35 (December 1959). [Thanks to Henry for the information!]

Dedication copy from Jorn to Marita Lindgren-Fridell, dated 29 July 1963 in Silkeborg. Lindgren-Fridell (1910-1997) was a Swedish screenwriter and art historian who was a contemporary of Jorn. She is remembered for her work on art education in Swedish schools

 

 

[PSA] London Psychogeographical Association Newsletter PDFs now online

London Psychogeographical Association. London Psychogeographical Association Newsletter. London, UK: East London Section of the London Psychogeographical Society, 1995-2000. 21 x 29.5 cm.; B&W ill.; plain white paper with text printed in black.

The full text of the LPA is now available at  http://www.mediafire.com/file/g1sghc2xgbmybw1/LPA_Newsletter.pdf/file

“This PDF file contains scans of the near complete series of the 4-paged East London Section’s London Psychogeographical Association Newsletter (ELPAN) – originally self-published in the United Kingdom between Imbolc 1993 and Tahbrain 399 – plus its occasional extra inserts. No.20 and “the last mailing” mentioned on p.4 of No.21 are missing. If anyone can supply scans of one or all of these (preferably as a
300dpi PDF file) it would be greatly appreciated, and added to this PDF file to
complete the set. Please send to Mark Reeve at: mark-reeve@hotmail.com” (p.1)

The London Psychogeographical Association (LPA) was originally founded by Ralph Rumney in 1957, but never disbanded. In the 1990s, Fabian Tompsett (under the pseudonym of Richard Essex), resurrected the long-dormant group as the LPA East London Section. Like Transgressions and the Manchester Psychogeographical Association – which were also active around the same time – the LPA rejected the orthodox Situationist vision of psychogeography, engaging instead in “Magico-marxism” and similar approaches. Beyond its publications, the LPA sponsored psychogeographical trips, which were advertised in its newsletter.

LPA newsletters are rare, with only 3 OCLC full sets (National Library of Scotland, British Library, Oxford) and one partial set (NYU – issues 1,2,7). We have in our possession all issues except #20.

Pompe le Mousse [1982]

[Laurendeau, Pierre] Hurl Barbe (pseud.). Pompe le Mousse. Paris: Editions de la Brigandine, April 1982. 188 p.; 18 x 10 cm. Ill. cover with photography of a half-naked woman.

Published under the pseudonym of Hurl Barbe, this pornographic novel is the work of Pierre Laurendeau. A minor writer, Laurendeau also wrote under the pen names ‘Jules Veine” and “Pierre Charmoz.

The novels tells the story of two young women – Alice and her sister Juliette – who get booted out of Catholic school and meander the world. They first hitchhike to Paris, which they reach on May 10, 1968, and go straight to the barricades in the Latin Quarter. There, they meet “Guy Retord” (i.e., Debord), “Gianfranco Spaghetti” (i.e., Sanguinetti) and “Raoul van Houten” (i.e., Vaneigem) – the theoricians of a mysterious “Internationale de Sisyphe”. The castof characters grows to include a perverted Italian magnate, his deviant brother who drank from the fountain of youth, a depraved Jesuit priest, a deserter from the 19th century and more…Together, this ragtag crew moves from place to place, including submarines and deserted islands, in search of a mysterious treasure…

We locate a single copy on OCLC, at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

Long out of print, a second edition was released under the auspices of Jean-Jacques Gevaudan (“Sous la Cape”) in December 2013. It is available on the publishers’ website: http://www.souslacape.fr/livres/fiche_livre/242. Further, a full PDF version of the text can downloaded free of charge here: http://www.deleatur.fr/download.php?fichier=web_pompe.pdf

A third edition was released by erotica publisher “La Musardine” in 2016. “Pompe le Mousse” it is reprinted alongside two other novels from editions La Brigandine.  It can be ordered here: http://www.lamusardine.com/P30905-trois-autres-romans-de-la-brigandine-lotka-francis-guez-eric-barbe-hurl.html

Asger Jorn’s “Modifications” [1959]

[JORN, Asger]. Modifications: R.A. Augustinci présente vingt peintures modifiées par ASGER JORN. n.p. [Paris]: n.p. [Galerie Rive Gauche], n.d. [May 1959]. n.p. [16 p. + 4 p.]; ill.; 21 x 18.5 cm.; ill. cover reproducing one of Jorn’s detourned paintings.

Catalog of Asger Jorn’s famed “Modifications” show, which was held under the auspices of R.A. Augustinci at the galerie Rive Gauche in Paris between 6 and 28 May 1959. Twenty paintings were exhibited, nine of which are reproduced here (one in color, serving as the catalog’s cover, and eight in B&W).

Stapled inside is a four-page, French-language text printed on thick yellow stock: “Peinture détournée” (detourned painting). In this short essay, Jorn celebrates the death of painting and advocates for detournement in the visual arts. The text is reproduced in full, both in French and in an English translation, here: http://viemoderne2.blogspot.com/2006/08/peinture-dtourne-jorn-mai-1959.html

The catalog has been scanned and reproduced in full by Allia – see http://www.editions-allia.com/files/pdf_72_file.pdf. The document is preceded by a one-page introduction that sheds further light on this exhibition and its importance in the history of the Internationale Situationniste. Indeed, the galerie Rive Gauche show is mentioned in Debord’s correspondence (in a letter dated 7 June 1959, he congratulates Jorn on the ‘serious shock’ the exhibition caused) and discussed in Potlatch #30 (July 1959).

Our copy is unique in that someone (perhaps the gallery owner?) wrote down in black pen the names of the collectors who acquired Jorn’s paintings. Augustinci appeared to have bought a single painting, while Italian modern art collector Paolo Marinotti snagged five. Paride Accetti, a lawyer who also collected Baj, got another three.

Scarce in the trade, with about a dozen copies on OCLC

[Interlude] PSA: The Most Dangerous Game – exhibition at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin (27 Sept – 10 Dec. 2018)

If you are in Berlin, I highly encourage you check out The Most Dangerous Game: Der Weg der Situationistischen Internationale in den Mai 68, to be held at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt between 27 September and 10 December 2018. The exhibition is a project of Wolfgang Scheppe,in collaboration with Roberto Ohrt and Eleonora Sovrani.

Press Release

Between 1957 and 1972, the Situationist International (S.I.) first projected a “revolutionary front in culture” and then shifted its propaganda to the political field. Employing ludic methods, the movement offered a fundamental critique of the spectacle of a consumerist society. In an age in which the principles of the market economy are increasingly permeating all areas of life, The Most Dangerous Game instigates a new envisioning of the years in which the S.I. articulated its critique.

The exhibition’s title refers to a lost collage created by one of S.I.’s co-founders, Guy Debord. The title recalls, on the one hand, the revolutionary earnestness with which the S.I. radicalized the debates of the postwar years, while, on the other hand, emphasizing the playful element that characterized all their diverse activities. Their ‘playing field’ was the city and everyday life. It was here that they sought confrontation with the bourgeois system – aesthetically through the “construction of situations”, and theoretically through precise analyses of modern consumerist society.

The exhibition’s starting-point is the Bibliothèque situationniste de Silkeborg, a venture that Debord drafted in outline with the painter Asger Jorn in 1959 for the latter’s museum in Denmark. At HKW, this project, which remained unrealized in its day, is for the first time constructed in its entirety. An Archive of Last Images presents for the first time works by all artists active during the initial S.I. period.

The exhibition thematizes the break away from art created around 1962 – when the S.I. distanced itself from those members who wished to adhere to a primarily artistic creative praxis – and follows the activities of the S.I. up to and including the May 1968 uprising in France, in which the S.I. played an essential part. The revolt was stifled after only a few weeks. Bourgeois society, however, appropriated the themes of the insurgent younger generation and subsequently subjected all areas of life – including sexuality – to capitalist ends and exploitation.

The Most Dangerous Game at Haus der Kulturen der Welt ties into the discussion of Surrealism in the exhibition Neolithic Childhood. Art in a False Present, c. 1930, the remapping of post-war modernism in Parapolitics. Cultural Freedom and Cold War, and revolutionary Russia’s progressively aspirational melding of art and science in Art Without Death: Russian Cosmism. The exhibition The Most Dangerous Game draws lines that the project bauhaus imaginista takes up in 2019, exploring the influence of and roles played by the Bauhaus in an international context.

With works by Pierre Alechinsky, Karel Appel, Armando, Enrico Baj, CoBrA, Constant, Corneille, Guy Debord, Erwin Eisch, Ansgar Elde, Farfa, Lothar Fischer, Internationale Lettriste, Internationale Situationniste, Isidore Isou, Jacqueline de Jong, Asger Jorn, Laboratorio Sperimentale, Uwe Lausen, Jeppesen Victor Martin, Giors Melanotte, Eva Renée Nele, Erik Nyholm, Panamarenko, Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio, Hans Platschek, Heimrad Prem, Ralph Rumney, Piero Simondo, Gruppe SPUR, Gretel Stadler, Hardy Strid, Helmut Sturm, Maurice Wyckaert and Hans-Peter Zimmer.

For more information see https://www.hkw.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/pressemitteilung_142772.php