| Scandinavian Situationism | ||
| The research behind this project springs from a week long continuous drift through various archives in Copenhagen. Beginning as casual interest in the Scandinavian branch of Situationism it soon developed into a more fundamental discussion and wider research regarding revolutionary strategies among avant-garde movements. Joint research by Howard Slater & Jakob Jakobsen. This website was lauched at the Clinic, London, on 7th December 2001 with a party and a reading room. The website will be continously updated when and if new material appears. | 2001 Divided We Stand | |
| With the opening of the borders after the end of WW2 many international avant-garde movements took shape across Europe. The experimental artist group COBRA was one of them (1948-1951). Asger Jorn and Constant were members. The group, mainly engaged in painting, published the journal COBRA | 1949 Forms Conceived as Language | |
| The Lettrist International was a group of avant-garde artists experimenting with architecture and urbanism, who were active, mainly in Paris, between 1952 to 1957. Guy Debord and Michele Bernstein were members. The L.I. published the journal POTLATCH | 1954 Architecture for Life | |
| The Congress of Free Artists held in Alba, Italy was arranged by the Movement for a Imaginist Bauhaus, a project initiated by Jorn in 1953. Debord was the Lettrist International delegate. | 1956 Notes on the Formation of the Imaginist Bauhaus Opening Speech to the First World Congress of Free Artists in Alba The Alba Platform | |
| The Situationist International was founded in Cosio d'Arroscia as a unification of the Movement for a Imaginist Bauhaus, the Lettrist International and the London Psychogeographical Committee. Jorn and Debord make the book 'Fin de Copenhagen' during a stay in Denmark. | 1957 | |
| First issue of SI's journal INTERNATIONALE SITUATIONNISTE is published in Paris. Gruppe SPUR (D. Kunzelmann. H. Prem, H. Sturm, H.P. Zimmer) is founded in Munich and influenced by Jorn. At first purely an artistic grouping, it quickly developed into a politico-aesthetical force.
| 1958 Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation The Situationists and Automation Theses on Cultural Revolution Spur Manifesto | |
| Gruppe SPUR becomes the German Section of the SI at the 3rd Situationist conference in Munich. Jorn and Debord publish 'Mémoires' | 1959 Détourned Painting | |
| First issue of SPUR magazine published. Jørgen Nash meets the gruppe SPUR for the first time at the 4th Situationist conference in Limehouse, London Asger Jorn's brother and fellow member of the SI, Jørgen Nash, buys Drakabygget, a farm in Southern Sweden. It opens as Bauhaus Situationniste in 1961. Asger Jorn, Jens Jørgen Thorsen, Heimrad Prem, J.V.Martin, H.P. Zimmer, J. de Jong, Ruddi Dutschke, Dieter Kunzelman, H. Strid, Patrick O'Brien [Guy Atkins], Peter Lindell and Novi Maruni support the project. | 1960 Critique Of Economic Policy Originality and Magnitude The End of the Economy and the Realization of Art Open Creation and its Enemies Contribution to the London Conference | |
|
Asger Jorn withdraws from the SI Gruppe SPUR are prosecuted in Munich for obscenity. 'SPUR im exil' - journal no. 6 is published from Drakabygget Asger Jorn founds Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism. He does much writing and research between 1962-64 and the Institute begins to publishes his books on politico-aesthetical theory. The 5th Conference of the Situationist International was held in Göteborg, Sweden, 28-30 August 1961, eleven months after the London Conference. The situationists of nine countries were represented by Ansgar-Elde, Debord, J. de Jong, Kotanyi, D. Kunzelmann, S. Larsson, J.V. Martin, Nash, Prem, G. Stadler, Hardy Strid, H. Sturm, R. Vaneigem, Zimmer. | 1961 The Avant-Garde is Undesirable! On Social Repression in Culture Pataphysics - A Religion In The Making | |
| Gruppe SPUR is excluded from the SI due to 'fractional activity'. Jørgen Nash, Jacqueline de Jong and Ansgar Elde excluded after they protest against the exclusion of the Spurists. Gruppe SPUR convicted in Munich - five months suspended jail sentence. Documents from the court case are published in Situationist Times No. 1, a new magazine mainly edited by Jacqueline de Jong. Six issues are published between 1962-65 DRAKABYGGET No. 1 published by Bauhaus Situationniste. Edited by Asger Jorn, Jørgen Nash, etc Asger Jorn, Jacqueline de Jong, Guy Atkins visit Drakabygget. Together with Jens Jørgen Thorsen and Jørgen Nash they write 'The struggle of a situcratic society'. A manifesto for the 2nd Situationist International. Published in DRAKABYGGET No.2/3 same year. In August at a conference in Stockholm the 2nd Situationist International is officially founded. A 3rd SI is expected to emerge in East and Central Europe Jørgen Nash, Jens Jørgen Thorsen and Hardy Strid launch Co-Ritus with an exhibition and an occupaton and a street painting action in Møntergade. J.V. Martin, the sole remaining Danish/Scandinavian representative of the 1st SI, edits the first issue of the journal SITUATIONISTISK REVOLUTION | 1962 The Fifth SI Conference in Göteborg Proclamation from l'Internationale Situationniste! Critic on the Political Practice of Detournement On the Spur Process The Struggle of the Situcratic Society: A Situationist Manifesto Luxury or Martyrdom MUTANT - European critique of the inadequate program Hamletomania Extracts from Poems, Drawings Seven Rebels CO-RITUS Manifesto The CO-RITUS Action Manifesto Slogans painted at Montergade | |
| The Scot, Alexander Trocchi, had been a long-term member of the l'IS. He leaves in 1964 to pursue Project Sigma - a cultural revolutionary venture, not dissimilar from the Bauhaus Situationniste of Jørgen Nash et al. J.V. Martin arranges 'The Destruction Of The RSG#6' exhibition held in Odense, Denmark. The participants in this "collective manifestation of the Situationist Internationale" were Michele Bernstein, Guy Debord, J.V.Martin and Jan Strijbosch The Spiral Labyrinth, the result of a collective CO-RITUS action constructed at Malmö Townhall, Sweden. The first CO-RITUS concert is held on the opening night. | 1963 A Revolutionary Proposal: Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics and Art Co-ritus Interview with Jørgen Nash and Jens Jørgen Thorsen Luck And Change The Counter-Situationist Campaign in Various Countries The The Situationists from Drakabygget, The Spiral Labyrinth and The Situationist International | |
| In a 'prank' notable for its manipulation of the media, the Bauhaus Situationniste perpetrate the Little Mermaid scandal by decapitating the statue in Copenhagen Harbour. Asger Jorn refuses the Guggenheim Prize | 1964 Who are the Situationists? Guy Debord and the Problem of the Accursed Mind and Sense Art and Orders Response to a Questionnaire from the Centre for Socio-Experimental Art | |
| Nash and Thorsen participate in the mass occupation of the pedestrian street, Stroget, in Copenhagen - 'Demonstration for the Freedom of Expression for 100 folk singers and jazz musicians, 15 CO-RITUS painters, 3.500 protesters and the police'. J.V. Martin foments a national scandal through his detourned comic strips (one mocks a Danish princess by associating her with Christine Keeler). His involvement in anti-Nato troop manoeuvre protests ends with a bomb going off in his flat. | 1965 The freedom of expression is not for sale | |
| The 1'IS is involved in the Strasbourg Scandal and publishes 'De la misère en milieu étudiant' (On The Poverty Of Student Life). Nash, Thorsen, Strid and Prem etc arrange a show in Sweden entitled 'The Situationists In Art'. It is held at the Varberg Museum. A book of the same title is published by Bauhaus Situationniste. | 1966 The Communicative Phase in Art | |
| Publication of Debord's 'La Société du Spectacle' (Society of the Spectacle) and Raul Vaneigem's 'Traité de savoir-vivre á l'usage des jeunes générations' (Revolution of Everyday Life). | 1967 | |
| As uprisings occur in Prague, Belgrade and Mexico City, members of the 1'IS are involved in the Paris 'May Events'. First setting up 'Le Comitè Enragés - Internationale Situationniste' with radical students from Nanterre and then as part of C.M.D.O. (the Committee for the Maintenance of the Occupations). René Viénet publishes a book on the events and the Situationist involvement in them. In collaboration with the 'World Anarchist Council', Nash, Thorsen and Caesar establish a 'Pavilion of Revolt' at the Venice Biennial by occupying and detourning the vacant Swedish Pavilion and joining in with the occupation of the Academia de Belli Arte. J.V. Martin oversees publication of the second edition of SITUATIONISTISK REVOLUTION which contains Danish translations of much 1st SI material about the 'May Events'. He arranges another 'collective manifestation of the 'Situationistisk Internationale'' called 'Operation Playtime' which involves works of 'neo-irrealism' by himself, Michele Bernstein, Guy Debord and Rene Vienet. | 1968 Declaration for our Italian Artists and Comerades: Follow Courbet Declaration on the new international solidarity among artists Venice, June 1968 The Organisation Question For The SI | |
| The Italian section (Claudio Pavan, Paolo Salvadori & Giofranco Sanguinetti) publish INTERNAZIONALE SITUATIONISTU No.1 and the American section (Robert Chasse, Bruce Elwell, Jon Horelick & Tony Verlaan) publish SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL No.1. The Italian section are involved in the 'Hot Autumn' issuing tracts such as 'Is the Reichstag Burning?' | 1969 CO-RITUS | |
| J.V.Martin oversees publication of the third and last edition of SITUATIONISTISK REVOLUTION. | 1970 Drakabygget - Bauhaus Situationiste First Underground - First Rebels From Delegates Conference At Wolfsed And Trier | |
| Nash & Thorsen begin to historicise of the Situationist Movement in anthologies like 'Situationister 1957-70'. Jørgen Nash, Thorsen, Liz Zwick et al make 'Situationistic Theatre' by interrupting a performance of Madame Butterfly at The Danish Royal Theatre, Copenhagen. | 1971 Europe's First Avant-Garde Situationists 1957-71 Drakabygget | |
| To mark the dissolution of the 1st SI Debord and Sangunetti publish 'Veritable Split'. In Denmark J.V.Martin, the sole remaining member of the 1st SI, publish an anthology SI texts in Danish translation. The Bauhaus Situationniste makes an 'Anti-Documenta-Art-Work' at Documenta 5, Kassel. It is a collectively made barricade of junk placed in front of Museum Fridericianum. | 1972 On Wild Architecture | |
| J.V. Martin, Jørgen Nash, Tom Krøjer, Jens Jørgen Thorsen et al attempt to found a SITUATIONIST ANTINATIONAL. One issue of a magazine of the same name is published which sees a contribution by the American Situationist Jon Horelick, a draft manifesto and more. | 1974 Draft Manifesto of Antinational Situationist Is this Metaville? Beyond The Crisis Of Abstraction And The Abstract Break With That Crisis: The SI All culture is collective - notes on collective creativity | |