Perché il Movimento Internazionale per una Bauhaus Immaginista è necessario [1956]

Movimento Internazionale per una ‘Bauhaus Imaginista. Perché il Movimento Internazionale per una Bauhaus Immaginista è necessario. n.p. [Alba, Italy]: M.I.B.I, n.d. [1956]. 1 p. (two sided); 22 x 30 cm; black ink on green stock.

Leaflet that presents the 27 key theses of the Imaginist Bauhaus. Aalso features “Perchè la Bauhaus e’ cosi importante?” reprinted from Bauhaus 1919-1928.

For more on the MIBI, see our earliest posts this week as well the Notes on the Formation of an Imaginist Bauhaus

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

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New Babylon Bulletin [1967]

CONSTANT (Nieuwenhuys). New Babylon Bulletin – nummer 1. Amsterdam, January 1967. 13 p.; ill.; 21 x 30 cm.; black ink on white stock. Stapled, with pages printed on one side only.

First (and only) issue of this scarce publication, comprised of the single article “Traffic in towns”. The issue ends with a reference to the autosaurus, and a copy of Jacobs’s technical drawing is included.

In his Situationist City, Simon Sadler explains: “And so, in his New Babylon Bulletin, Debord’s one-time situationist colle

PSA – We Make Revolution in Our Spare Time: The history and legacy of the Situationist International [2019]

LOI, Tanya. We Make Revolution in Our Spare Time: The history and legacy of the Situationist International. n.p. [United Kingdom]: Public Reading Rooms, 2019. 80 p.; ill.; 19 x 25 cm.; ill. Cover with Return of the Durutti Column comic.

This newest opus on the SI and its aftermath is most notable for contributions by Ron & Anna Hunt, as well as an interview by former King Mob member Dick Pountain. Also included are interviews with two Situationist collectors: Andrew Burgin and yours truly, Mehdi E.H. (the latter included here: Interview 2019 (in book)) Of particular interest to those who want to learn more about the SI in Britain and its influence on British arts, culture and politics more broadly.

Copies are available for £15 + shipping (£2-6 depending on destination). Please reach out to me or directly to Tanya (tanyaloi AT hotmail DOT com) for oders.

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From back cover:

We make revolution in our spare time explores the ideas, impact and ephemera of the Situationists. This beautifully illustrated work provides an overdue reassessment of this influential yet little-known counter-cultural movement – fifty years since the publication of two seminal Situationist texts, Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle and Raoul Vaneigem’s The Revolution of Everyday Life.

This fascinating compilation opens a window onto the movement through documenting one of the largest private collections of material relating to the Situationist International, its UK offshoot King Mob, and their successors. Gathered over a ten year period by collector Andrew Burgin, this archive spans six decades of rare material; it provides a remarkable insight into the avant-garde SI and its influence on subsequent counter-cultural movements, including the student revolutions of May’68 in Paris and London, and the Punk movement of the late ’70s.

Artist and author Tanya Loi, who catalogued the collection, delineates the long shadow cast by the Situationist International over so many of the cultural and artistic developments of the late 20th century and right up to the present day.

The compilation is enhanced by Loi’s inclusion of interviews with Dick Pountain on King Mob, Situationist collector Mehdi E.H., texts by writer Ron Hunt, artwork by embroidery artist Anna Hunt and Punk contributions by Nick Cash, Mark Helfond and Paul Tinman

I.S. – Laboratorio Sperimentale [1957]

Laboratorio Sperimentale dell’Internazionale Situazionista. I.S. – Laboratorio Sperimentale – Alba [WRITING PAPER]. Alba: Laboratorio Sperimentale, n.d. [1957]. 21 x 30 cm.; black ink on white stock

Laboratorio Sperimentale dell’Internazionale Situazionista. I.S. – Laboratorio Sperimentale – Alba [ENVELOPE]. Alba: Laboratorio Sperimentale, n.d. [1957]. 14 x 17 cm.; black ink on white stock

Original writing paper and envelope for the “Laboratorio Sperimentale dell’Internazionale Situazionista” in Alba, which was active from 1957-60.

Pinot Gallizio et il Laboratorio Sperimentale d’Alba del Movimento Internazionale per una Bauhaus Imaginista (1955-57) e dell’Internazionale Situazionista (1957-60) – the excellent catalog of the exhibition held at Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna in Torino from 28 May to 15 July 1974 – provides plenty of detail on Pinot Gallizio’s years with the laboratory. An excellent article by Mirella Bandini (in Italian) goes into more detail here

Primo Congresso Mondiale Degli Artisti Liberi [1956]

Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste / Movimento Internazionale per una ‘Bauhaus Immaginista’ (MIBI). Primo Congresso Mondiale Degli Artisti Liberi / Settembre ’56 / Alba (Italia). Alba: MIBI, September 1956. 1 p.; 22.5 x 14.5 cm.; black and cream ink on white stock.

Writing paper of the Movimento Internazionale per una ‘Bauhaus Immaginista’ (Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste) on the occasion of the First World Congress of Free Artists, which was held in Alba on September 2-9, 1956. Asger Jorn, Piero Simondo and Enrico Baj are listed as the founders of the movement, which had been launched a year earlire in September 1955, with Giuseppe (Pinot) Gallizio as the technical director. Gallizio’s address in Alba is provided, and the young mouvement’s journal Eristica Bolletino d’informaziona dei Movimento is mentioned as well, with Elena Verrone (Gallizio’s wife) listed as its editor.

The First World Congress is critical in that it cements relationships between key artists and emerging artistic movements. In many ways, it lays the ground for the Founding Conference of the Situationist International (SI), which takes places in Cosio d’Arroscia, Italy, the following July. Many of the participants were the same as in Alba, and the “complete unification of the groups represented and…the constitution of a Situationist International” (Potlatch #29) is then something that was long in the making.

Manifest (Gruppe SPUR) [1958]

Gruppe SPUR. Manifest. n.p. [Munich]: Gruppe SPUR, n.d. [November 1958]. 1 p.; 21 x 30 cm.; black ink on off-white stock

First manifest of Gruppe SPUR, signed by all of its members (L. Fischer, H. Sturm, H. Prem, H.P. Zimmer, E. Eisch, A. Jorn, D. Rempf, G. Britt and G. Stadler) and likely published in November 1958. In 21 theses, the group sets itself on the margins of the art world by declaring that “whoever wants to create culture must destroy culture” (Thesis 5 — all translations are mine). It members take a stance against technicism (“Artistic research is free and has nothing to do with science and technology”, thesis 7), abstract art (“Abstract painting has become empty aestheticism”, thesis 14), among others. Gruppe SPUR concludes by stating: “WE ARE THE THIRD TACHIST WAVE .WE ARE THE THIRD DADAISTIC WAVE. WE ARE THE THIRD FUTURIST WAVE. WE ARE THE THIRD SURREALISTI WAVE. WE ARE THE THIRD WAVE . We are a sea of ​​waves ( SITUATIONISM ). The world can only be shattered by us. WE ARE THE PAINTERS OF THE FUTURE !”, theses 19-21). The full text in the original German is available here: http://protest-muenchen.sub-bavaria.de/artikel/1565

Gruppe SPUR would benefit from Asger Jorn’s support and begin exhibiting at Galerie Van de Loo in 1959. Between 1960 and 1961, the group would release seven issue of its eponymous journal (“SPUR”). Fischer, Prem, Zimmer, Sturm and Kunzelmann were also members of the Internationale Situationniste from 1959 until their formal exclusion on February 10, 1962. During those years, SPUR basically functioned as the German section of the SI. While the split was the result of a complex series of events, it was driven by a fundamental disagreement on the role art should play in a revolutionary avant-garde organization like the SI.

We locate 2 OCLC copies, as well as a copy at the MACBA.

Misère de la sexologie / Sexologie de la misère [1967]

VIENET, René. Misère de la sexologie. n.p. (France), n.d. [March-April 1967]. 3 p.; ill.; 20 x 30 cm.; black ink on thick white stock

Detourned comics representing a couple in erotic postures, with “detourned” talking bubble written by members of the SI. A man describes the statistical relationship between premature ejaculation and sexual arousal. On the next page, the woman states that 96.77% of sociologists are incapable of reaching an orgasm, while the man says that, as a social scientist, he is incapable of getting an erection.

VIENET, René. Sexologie de la misère. n.p. (France), n.d. [March-April 1967]. 3 p.; ill.; 20 x 30 cm.; black ink on thick white stock.

Detourned comics representing a couple in erotic postures, with “detourned” talking bubble written by members of the SI. In this comic, the man (a University student) appears unable to get an erection, much to the woman’s (a high school student) chagrin. She then blames him for his traditional sexual behaviors and his failure to incorporate the learnings of Reich into his sex life.

Both leaflet were illegally distributed in student dormitories on University campuses in Nantes, Paris, Strasbourg et Toulouse. They would be reproduced in issue 3 of Actuel (December 1970)

We locate no copies on OCLC

Remarques sur le concept d’art experimental [1957]

DEBORD, Guy. Remarques sur le concept d’art experimental. n.p. [Paris], 15 October 1957. 6 p.; 18 x 29 cm.; stapled sheets with text in black. Published in only 17 numbered copies, one for each members of the S.I. This is a contemporary reproduction of copy no.8.

Remarques sur le concept d’art experimental (Trans: Remarks on the Concept of Experimental Art) is a short text by Guy Debord, written in response to Walter Olmo’s
Pour un concept d’expérimentation musicale (Trans: Toward a Concept of
Musical Experimentation). Debord, who had translated Olmo’s text, is nonetheless critical of it. See Correspondance vol. 1 for more details below. Incidentally, Walter Olmo passed away earlier in 2019.

Gonzalvez 107. Scheppe & Ohrt 174.

We locate a single copy on OCLC, at the Getty Museum (copy no.4), though we also do know of a copy at the BNF in Paris.

The Situationist Times presents no. sex (six) [1966]

[JONG, Jacqueline De]. The Situationist Times presents no. sex (six). Copenhagen: Rhodos, n.d. [1966]. 1 p.; 42 x 14 cm. (folded to 21 x 14 cm.); purple and blue inks on thick white stock.

Prospectus released to announce the publication of the sixth issue of The Situationist Times. The text reads: “A luxurious analphabetic issue with original litho’s [sic] made by 32 artists, in four colours, printed at ‘Bramsen, Georges and Clot’, Paris during the automn [sic] of 1966 in 2000 expl.”, followed by a list of the contributing artists. We learn that the price was 60 Danish Kroner — equivalent to about 500 Danish Kroner (or $75) today.

We only know of a single OCLC copy at Yale’s Beinecke library (part of the Jacqueline de Jong archives)

Situationistisk Revolution (SUBSCRIPTION BULLETIN) [1962]

[Situationistisk Internationale]. Situationistisk Revolution. Randers (Denmark): S.I., July 1962. 4 p.; ill.; 21 x 15 cm.; black ink on orange stock.

Subscription leaflet announcing the release of the first issue of “Situationistisk Revolution”, which would be published in October 1962. J.V. Martin is listed as the editor, and the address of the SI in Randers (Denmark) is provided.

Page 3 features a detourned comic that would appear in the third issue of the periodical in October 1970 (p.66). It reads as follows: “We are a nightmare that culture’s sleep does not overcome. We are only an avant-garde; others will come” ( I welcome a better translation, since I do not speak Danish).

The full text of the leaflet is available (in Danish) here: https://web.archive.org/web/20160325013335/http://www.copenhagenfreeuniversity.dk/sr.html