[Blake_Stimson,_Gregory_Sholette]_Collectivism_aft(z-lib
Internationaleries 21Rooskens, Eugene Brands, Lucebert (Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk), Lottivan der Gaag (Charlotte van der Gaag), Theo Wolvecamp, and Jan Nieuwenhuysfrom the Netherlands; Shinkichi Tajiro from the United States;Stephen Gilbert and William Gear from Scotland; Karl Otto Goetz fromGermany; and Max Walter Svanberg from Sweden.In a similar vein, the members of the Lettrist International wereactive between 1952 and 1957. LI was a rebellious fraction formed out ofdeparting members of the Lettrist group. 23 Formed around a small, yet veryconsistent number of members working in Paris they were, contrary toRosenberg’s complaint, truly international and included Guy Debord, GillJ. Wolman, Michele Bernstein, Andre-Frank Conord, Jacques Fillon, GillesIvain (Ivan Chtcheglov), Moustapha Khayatti, and Mohamed Dahou. Fromthe very start their practice appropriated a critical reading of “everyday life”(le quotidien) taken from Henri Lefebvre’s writings. They used this conceptto focus their activity on various “modes of conditioning,” while conceivingof their practice as a highly sophisticated tactical, rather than strategic,game 24 whose goal was achieving nothing less than a “permanent culturalrevolution.” 25The third group, Mouvement International pour un BauhausImaginiste, or the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (MIBI),was active from 1953 through 1957 and formed as a collaboration betweensome CoBrA artists including Dotremont, Constant, and Jorn, but at varioustimes also incorporated members from the Nuclear Movement (Il MovimentoNucleare) such as Enrico Baj, 26 as well as LI members such as Debord, Wolman,and Dahou. They were joined by musicians, philosophers, architects,and sometimes simply amateurs from Italy, such as Giuseppe-Pinot Gallizio,Ettore Sottsas Jr., Pierro Simondi, and Elena Verrone, but also by PrvoslavRadu from Romania, Jan Kotik from Czechoslovakia, and Echauren Mattafrom Cuba. MIBI was responsible for the creation of the First Laboratory ofthe Imaginist Experimental Art in Albisola, and for staging the First Congressof Free Artists in 1956 that led to the UniWcation Congress and theformation of the Situationist International in 1957.The SI was active from 1957 through 1972. Of all the internationaleriesthe SI has had the most long-lasting inXuence, which is beingrevisited today among younger artists, activists, and cultural critics. Extremelyactive in getting its ideas into print between 1957 and 1969, the SI publisheda journal under the same name, Internationale Situationniste, while variousother SI factions published Spur, Situationist Times, Deutsche Denke, andSituationiske Revolution, to mention but a few of the highly developed if shortlivedjournals that advanced ideas about artistic practice as a purely tacticalgame. Accordingly, their grotesque critique of various forms of “spectacular”
22 Jelena Stojanovićconditioning, such as that carried out by the media or the movies in particular,took up a central position within their internationally conceivedconferences. Totaling eight altogether, these gatherings were inaugurated in1957 with the UniWcation Congress in Cosio d’Arroscia and concluded in1969 with the Eighth Conference in Venice. The international ambitions ofthese collective events is made apparent by their emphasis on the membershipin Africa, Latin America, and Asia as well as the fact that almost fortyorganizations from all over the world attended over the life span of the organization.As noted, however, only two groups stayed on permanently as partof the SI. 27COLLECTIVE EXPERIMENTATION/S:TOWARD FORMING A GROTESQUE CRITIQUE“Mr. Georges Lapassade is a cunt,” 28 exclaimed the Situationists, whose verylanguage manifests itself as a form of excessively hyperbolic and caustichumor. Yet if the Situationist’s grotesque begins in rude expressions andpersonal insults, it ultimately remained an ambiguous act. Its goal was tocritically address a total reality and to do so in the form of an “inside out”reversal 29 or as a “third force” 30 that is ultimately “not beautiful but true.” 31As is well known the experimental method or simply the “experimental”was a powerful modernist trope denoting an objective, positivistic,and scientiWc inquiry: a dispassionate recording and reordering of reality intoa set of easily measurable, quantiWable units. More importantly, the experimentalwas not the “why” but the “how” things happen. As Émile Zola justi-Wed its use in what he termed the “scientiWc age novel,” it was made to Wt a“new, physiological man.” 32 The internationaleries, however, “détourned” theterm experimental, doing so with the hope that as a collective device itwould become a practice, or rather a myriad of practices, for turning insideoutits own positivistic utilitarianism while resisting classiWcation and homogenization.For example, with CoBrA IAE, the experimental was primarilyunderstood as a “third force” that mocked the dominant cold war rhetoricof ideological and formal antithesis. In artistic terms this took the form ofpainterly abstraction vs. realism, or speciWcally, abstract vs. social realism.In artistic terms this meant an ideological struggle between painterly abstractionand realism, or speciWcally, American abstract expressionism versusSoviet socialist realism. As Christian Dotremont explained in 1950, 33 experimentalpractices were also a way to critically rework two important avantgardelegacies, surrealism and Marxism, that were becoming increasinglyidealized and useless in the given historical situation. Although often in apolemical exchange with Henri Lefebvre, 34 who was himself an old surrealist,
- Page 2 and 3: ▲COLLECTIVISMAFTERMODERNISM
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- Page 8 and 9: CONTENTS6. The Mexican Pentagon 165
- Page 10 and 11: AcknowledgmentsThis book would not
- Page 12 and 13: PrefaceThe collectivization of arti
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- Page 16 and 17: Prefacexvdirectly opposite individu
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- Page 20 and 21: Introduction: Periodizing Collectiv
- Page 22 and 23: Introduction 3to increase their pro
- Page 24 and 25: Introduction 5Modernist artists und
- Page 26 and 27: Introduction 7Those good intentions
- Page 28 and 29: Introduction 9and that helped give
- Page 30 and 31: Introduction 11collectivism brings
- Page 32 and 33: Introduction 13artists on Chicago
- Page 34 and 35: Introduction 15Phase of the Cultura
- Page 36 and 37: 1. Internationaleries: Collectivism
- Page 38 and 39: Internationaleries 19played a “us
- Page 42 and 43: FIGURE 1.2. Le “Realisme-Socialis
- Page 44 and 45: Internationaleries 25and an active
- Page 46 and 47: Internationaleries 27create a democ
- Page 48 and 49: Internationaleries 29of the fourth
- Page 50 and 51: Internationaleries 31Debord’s 196
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- Page 58 and 59: Internationaleries 39NOTES1. Harold
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Internationaleries 21
Rooskens, Eugene Brands, Lucebert (Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk), Lotti
van der Gaag (Charlotte van der Gaag), Theo Wolvecamp, and Jan Nieuwenhuys
from the Netherlands; Shinkichi Tajiro from the United States;
Stephen Gilbert and William Gear from Scotland; Karl Otto Goetz from
Germany; and Max Walter Svanberg from Sweden.
In a similar vein, the members of the Lettrist International were
active between 1952 and 1957. LI was a rebellious fraction formed out of
departing members of the Lettrist group. 23 Formed around a small, yet very
consistent number of members working in Paris they were, contrary to
Rosenberg’s complaint, truly international and included Guy Debord, Gill
J. Wolman, Michele Bernstein, Andre-Frank Conord, Jacques Fillon, Gilles
Ivain (Ivan Chtcheglov), Moustapha Khayatti, and Mohamed Dahou. From
the very start their practice appropriated a critical reading of “everyday life”
(le quotidien) taken from Henri Lefebvre’s writings. They used this concept
to focus their activity on various “modes of conditioning,” while conceiving
of their practice as a highly sophisticated tactical, rather than strategic,
game 24 whose goal was achieving nothing less than a “permanent cultural
revolution.” 25
The third group, Mouvement International pour un Bauhaus
Imaginiste, or the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (MIBI),
was active from 1953 through 1957 and formed as a collaboration between
some CoBrA artists including Dotremont, Constant, and Jorn, but at various
times also incorporated members from the Nuclear Movement (Il Movimento
Nucleare) such as Enrico Baj, 26 as well as LI members such as Debord, Wolman,
and Dahou. They were joined by musicians, philosophers, architects,
and sometimes simply amateurs from Italy, such as Giuseppe-Pinot Gallizio,
Ettore Sottsas Jr., Pierro Simondi, and Elena Verrone, but also by Prvoslav
Radu from Romania, Jan Kotik from Czechoslovakia, and Echauren Matta
from Cuba. MIBI was responsible for the creation of the First Laboratory of
the Imaginist Experimental Art in Albisola, and for staging the First Congress
of Free Artists in 1956 that led to the UniWcation Congress and the
formation of the Situationist International in 1957.
The SI was active from 1957 through 1972. Of all the internationaleries
the SI has had the most long-lasting inXuence, which is being
revisited today among younger artists, activists, and cultural critics. Extremely
active in getting its ideas into print between 1957 and 1969, the SI published
a journal under the same name, Internationale Situationniste, while various
other SI factions published Spur, Situationist Times, Deutsche Denke, and
Situationiske Revolution, to mention but a few of the highly developed if shortlived
journals that advanced ideas about artistic practice as a purely tactical
game. Accordingly, their grotesque critique of various forms of “spectacular”