Situationist documents - intro and film

" Run quickly, comrade, the old world is right behind you"
Graffiti from the May uprising, Paris, 1968

On Thursday November 6th at 7pm we will introduce our show of Situationist documents. We will also be showing extracts from interviews with Jacqueline de Jong, Gordon Fazakerley and Peter Laugesen. The evening will conclude with the screening of the film So ein ding muss Ich auch Haben (1961) by Albert Mertz, Jørgen Nash, Gruppe Spur et.al.

During the last 10 years the situationist movement has become an object of much attention in Europe and the US. Here in Scandinavia the interest hasn't been the same, even though many Scandinavian artists played important roles in the development of the movement both in terms of activities and ideas.

The situationist movement was an avantgarde movement. They viewed themselves as the forerunners of a coming and liberated world. The movement was, though, in the 1960s still caught up in the old world - and this was the source of many of the conflicts that came to characterize its history: how do you realize the revolution of everyday life?

The French/Belgian part of the movement (that became increasingly dominated by theoreticians) viewed its task as being to amplify the disintegration of the old world by means of analysis and critique. The Scandinavian/German part was more oriented towards action. They felt that it was absolutely possible to establish the revolution 'here and now' as they went into the streets and made wall paintings, arranged mass disobience actions, and provoked scandals in the media, etc. As
they stated in the Manifesto of the 2nd Situationist International: "We intend to produce our theories after the event."

In our asymmetrical research we have within recent years been preoccupied with those Scandinavian activities that have not been the object of the same kind of attention as the deeds of the French/Belgian sections. There are, of course, several reasons for this. Partly there is the language problem, but also the fact that the French/Belgian avangardists had a keen eye on their place in history, while the
Scandinavian/German vanguard as mentioned focused on the 'here and now'
without having a particularly consistent production of theory, let alone control of the mediation of their activities.

There are many inspiring examples to be found in the activities of the Scandinavian/German part of the movement, especially those regarding the direct passionate artistic intervention in the urban environment and the creation of revolutionary moments as indicators of the new world to come - activities very much in line with what Guy Debord described as 'the construction of situations', one of the building block of situationist theory. We must accept that situationist theory
without practice is as impotent as situationist action without theory is mindless.

Come and hear what they say and let's discuss what it means today.

Henriette Heise and Jakob Jakobsen / November 1st 2003