[Blake_Stimson,_Gregory_Sholette]_Collectivism_aft(z-lib
Internationaleries 37printing a series of uncomplicated but graphically powerful posters and leaflets“Addressed to all workers.” They reprinted their text “Minimum DeWnitionof a Revolutionary Organization” in a new edition of between 150,000and 200,000 copies while seeing to its translation into English, German,Spanish, Italian, Danish, and Arabic. They also published several revolutionarysongs and some forty comic strips and used grafWti as a means of urbandétournement arguing that the spray can, far more than the street poster,offers the writer the one way he can be certain of being read by everyone. 76It was de Certeau who succinctly summarized May Day 1968 asa “symbolic revolution,” 77 one whose most signiWcant achievement was notmerely a reversal of values but the creating of a new space and giving “everyonea right to speak.” 78 “More importantly at the outer limit,” he wrote, “itwas a revolution of humor. . . . Instead of expressing what an entire nationsurely knew, the symbolic action was aimed at opening perspectives that,until then, had been forbidden.” The exemplary action “opens a breach, notbecause of its own efWcacy, but because it displaces a law that was all themore powerful in that it had not been brought to mind. It unveils what waslatent and makes it contestable. It is decisive, contagious and dangerousbecause it touches this obscure zone that every system takes for granted andit cannot justify.” 79Still, insofar as May 1968 was an instance in which collectivism,direct political action, and the grotesque critique of formalist internationalismall converged, it was also a remarkable moment of reconstitution thatwitnessed the rebirth of fraternalism between students and workers, Frenchpeopleand foreigners not seen since the days of the “Internationale.” 80DIVIDED WE STAND:THE USE, ABUSE, AND REUSE OF THE GROTESQUEBakhtin insists on the importance of the grotesque for his idea of carnival. Inboth its temporal and spatial aspects, grotesque imagery and grotesque realismare part of carnival’s “festive laughter,” whose utopian character acts asa guarantee of freedom for the people. “Carnival,” he assures, “is not a spectacleseen by the people: they live in it, and everyone participates becauseits very idea embraces all people.” 81 The long tradition of grotesque realismcontinued to inform art and literature well into the nineteenth century. However,with the arrival of the modern as an accepted category it was seen asa “gross violation of natural form and proportions.” 82 Rejected on aestheticterms, in reality this prohibition meant much more. It signaled an importantreorientation of European culture away from its utopian, collectivecharacter and toward individualistic endeavor and functionalist rationality.
38 Jelena StojanovićThe internationaleries took upon themselves the immense andutopian task of reimagining collective subjectivity. That is, of redeWning thevery notion of utopia for the cold war era, a time when the “colonizationof everydayness” Wrst took on an unconditional presence. They sought toachieve this gargantuan task by employing what they believed was the onlyavailable tactic: a critical art practice, informed by the cold war in whichnegation, debasement, and blasphemy were discharged against all highlypromoted cultural values including “art,” but also the “avant-garde.” Hencetheir use and interpretation of the grotesque remained close to Bakhtin’sdeWnition of an “ambivalent and contradictory” 83 act, even if in practicetheir application of grotesque varied a great deal. From one internationalerieto another, each redeWned its own use on its own terms. 84 CoBrA IAE Wrstoutlined the task at hand—the Wght for a free, experimental cultural practiceset against an increasingly ideologized and functionalist everydayness.By sporting grotesque imagery and an impressive control over its owncollective production, MIBI, the LI, and the SI slowly moved into a morepoliticized realm, dramatically altering artistic practice in the process. TheWrst collective experiments in the early Wfties by the MIBI lab in southernItaly carried the group into the streets in turn creating an unprecedentednetwork of people with the same urge to Wght functionalism and fundamentallytransform everyday experience. The most radical artists, architects,designers, art critics, and theoreticians who were active at that timeeither received a copy of their publications or visited their exhibitions andorganized events.The spectacular organizational skills these artists displayed recalledboth futurism and surrealism while generating a secret “public” fame.This grotesque collectivism was brought to perfection with the SI. Paradoxically,they did manage to turn the famous surrealist quip “Never work” literallyinto a political project. Ultimately however, they achieved not somuch a fully realized critique of political economy as much as they redeWnedthe idea of art within the speciWc historical circumstances of the cold war.Their famous, or rather infamous, conferences and tireless magazine publishingwere impressive acts of production that successfully moved art awayfrom an object-bound practice and into a more performative, “deskilled”tactical mode. Unitary urbanism especially demonstrates this shift and representstheir most intriguing as well as perhaps most contradictory andtherefore most grotesque product. It also demonstrates the increasingly ideologicalturn the internationaleries took on in response to escalating globaltensions. Perhaps it is necessary to ask whether or not the grotesque collectivismof the SI and other internationaleries was at once a calculated responseand an inevitable cohort to the cultural politics of the cold war.
- Page 6 and 7: TO LOUISE AND ARIANA
- 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
- Page 14 and 15: FIGURE P.1. Promotional poster for
- Page 16 and 17: Prefacexvdirectly opposite individu
- Page 18 and 19: Prefacexviiadmit a desire to see al
- 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 40 and 41: Internationaleries 21Rooskens, Euge
- 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 54 and 55: Internationaleries 35be demystiWed
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38 Jelena Stojanović
The internationaleries took upon themselves the immense and
utopian task of reimagining collective subjectivity. That is, of redeWning the
very notion of utopia for the cold war era, a time when the “colonization
of everydayness” Wrst took on an unconditional presence. They sought to
achieve this gargantuan task by employing what they believed was the only
available tactic: a critical art practice, informed by the cold war in which
negation, debasement, and blasphemy were discharged against all highly
promoted cultural values including “art,” but also the “avant-garde.” Hence
their use and interpretation of the grotesque remained close to Bakhtin’s
deWnition of an “ambivalent and contradictory” 83 act, even if in practice
their application of grotesque varied a great deal. From one internationalerie
to another, each redeWned its own use on its own terms. 84 CoBrA IAE Wrst
outlined the task at hand—the Wght for a free, experimental cultural practice
set against an increasingly ideologized and functionalist everydayness.
By sporting grotesque imagery and an impressive control over its own
collective production, MIBI, the LI, and the SI slowly moved into a more
politicized realm, dramatically altering artistic practice in the process. The
Wrst collective experiments in the early Wfties by the MIBI lab in southern
Italy carried the group into the streets in turn creating an unprecedented
network of people with the same urge to Wght functionalism and fundamentally
transform everyday experience. The most radical artists, architects,
designers, art critics, and theoreticians who were active at that time
either received a copy of their publications or visited their exhibitions and
organized events.
The spectacular organizational skills these artists displayed recalled
both futurism and surrealism while generating a secret “public” fame.
This grotesque collectivism was brought to perfection with the SI. Paradoxically,
they did manage to turn the famous surrealist quip “Never work” literally
into a political project. Ultimately however, they achieved not so
much a fully realized critique of political economy as much as they redeWned
the idea of art within the speciWc historical circumstances of the cold war.
Their famous, or rather infamous, conferences and tireless magazine publishing
were impressive acts of production that successfully moved art away
from an object-bound practice and into a more performative, “deskilled”
tactical mode. Unitary urbanism especially demonstrates this shift and represents
their most intriguing as well as perhaps most contradictory and
therefore most grotesque product. It also demonstrates the increasingly ideological
turn the internationaleries took on in response to escalating global
tensions. Perhaps it is necessary to ask whether or not the grotesque collectivism
of the SI and other internationaleries was at once a calculated response
and an inevitable cohort to the cultural politics of the cold war.