Situationism

The origins of situationalism

Situationism was formed at the junction of small artistic and political trends: the Lettrist International , the International Movement for Imaginist Bauhaus , as well as the London Psycho-Geographical Association . Also in Situationism can be traced the influence of Dadaism , surrealism , anti-state Marxism and fluxus . The uprising in Hungary in 1956 and the workers' councils that arose there also had a great influence on the ideology of the group. The influence of the “Form of new urbanism”, released under the pseudonym of Gilles Iven in 1953 by Ivan Shcheglov, was also recognized.

The movement, called the Situationist International, was founded in 1957 in the Italian city ​​of Cosa d'Arousa . Frenchman Guy Debord became the sole leader and theorist of the movement - he was often reproached with dictatorship towards other members of the movement. In addition, Scottish writer Alexander Trocchi , English writer Ralph Ramney (founder of the London Psycho-Geographical Association — was one of the first expelled from SI), Danish artist Vandalist Asger Jörn , veteran of the Hungarian uprising Attila Kotani , French writer and artist Michel Bernstein participated in SI. (Guy Deborah's wife), as well as Raul Vaneigem .

Situationalist International

Unlike many other artistic and political movements in Europe of that time, Situationism did not preach outrageous or aesthetic creation, but “direct political action”, which often led to squabbles within the movement. So, because of excessive “aestheticism”, Ralph Ramney and Michel Bernstein were expelled from the Guy Debord group. The situationists held a dialectical view of art and ideology and demanded to overcome them. However, expelled from SI often called this policy dogmatic.

In 1966, the situational students seized and headed the self-government of the University of Strasbourg , initiating student riots in Europe.

In 1967 Guy Debord’s book “The Society of the Performance ” was published, in which the main ideas of the movement were outlined.

May 1968

In 1968, Situationalist slogans, posters, and leaflets entered Paris through the Situator ’s Nanterre branch of the Sorbonne, captured on 14 May by situational students, and to a large extent determined the development of events during the May unrest . The March 22 movement was also influenced by situationalist ideas.

Despite the fact that the situationist slogans found a response not only among students but also workers, in Paris itself the situationists could not get posts in any of the created Soviets. Disputes and clashes with the Maoists and Stalinists began . "The joy of the revolution" did not prevail over wage increases and government actions. Subsequently, Guy Debord will write that the revolution against the performance itself has turned into a performance.

After SI

The failure of the May 1968 uprising discredited not so much the utopian ideas of situationalism as the ability of its leaders. Guy Debord in 1972 dissolved the Situationalist International, when it consisted of only two people. It is worth noting that even in the best of times, the number of SI did not exceed 40 people. However, despite this paucity, the ideas of situationalism seriously affected the development of culture and politics in Europe and the USA .

So, Situationists Malcolm McLaren and Jamie Reed were the creators of the British punk rock band Sex Pistols , which quickly gained popularity around the world. In the work of this group, slogans from 1968 leaflets were used .

You can also trace the Situationalist influence in radical movements of the 80s and 90s , such as Angry Brigade, Class War, Neoism. The ideological roots of such a sport as parkour are also in situationism, which demanded the release of a person from the urban and psychological framework. The idea of ​​the play as an indirect representation was subsequently seriously reworked by postmodernism .

Situational texts were written in a deliberately complicated, confusing language, which prevented the spread of the ideas of this movement outside France. Interest in SI reappeared in Europe after the publication of the “lite version” of the “Performance Society” in English in the early 80s .

In Russia, the ideas of Situationism had a significant impact on the work of various artists, creative associations and music groups, such as “ Civil Defense ”. Some SI slogans were in demand not only by radicals ( NBP , Pussy Riot ), but also by major political parties.

Political views

Situationalism was an amalgam of various artistic and political theories, which ensured the originality and unusualness of his views. Thus, in the field of political theory, situationism has always protected itself from the influence of other left-wing anarchist and Marxist movements: situationists differed from the supporters of Stalinism and Maoism by denying the leading role of the state and party under socialism , considering them to be the main culprits of the emergence of state capitalism ; however, they recognized the need for preparation for the revolution and the creation of workers' councils - in this they differed from the anarchists . Situationalism is closest to Trotskyism , but in it he denied ideology . It should be noted that, propagating in words the proletarian revolution and the workers' councils , the situationists themselves tried to distance themselves ^[1] from the "vulgar" working class , which affected their support in May 1968 .

Key Situations

• The situation is a complex concept that has been used for some time in scientific, artistic and philosophical circles. It is believed that Asger Yorn invented it under the influence of the ideas of Niels Bohr and the connection of the concept of the situation with the term locality in quantum physics . The situationist constructs situations in order to overcome the alienation of his own life, which occurs due to the dominance of the play . An example of a situation is tripartite football - a new sport invented by Asger Jorn.
• Performance or Society performance . According to Situationists, the development of capitalist society leads to the fact that capital begins to accumulate, in addition to “physical” benefits, the images born by the media , images, information, and so on. This leads to the fact that any information, even the cultural code becomes a product. If before a person spent his leisure time , really living his life, now he is forced to give all his free time to shopping for brands and contemplate the "feast of life" on television screens. Thus, a person brings to the capitalist a surplus product not only during work, but also in his free time. Leisure turns into consumption of commodity fetishes. The Hegelian concept of alienation, which received economic meaning from Marx , gained the value of revolutionary motivation from the situationists.

“The reality, considered in parts, is to us already as our own integrity, in the form of a special, independent pseudo-world, accessible only to contemplation. All the images of the world gathered in an independent world of images, thoroughly saturated with puffy lies. The performance in general, as a concrete denial of life, is an independent movement of the inanimate ”- Guy Debord.

According to Situationists, the performance is by no means a conspiracy, there is no secret organization behind it, there are no puppeteers in it. The performance is a consequence of the development of productive forces in a capitalist society. According to Guy Debord, the play exists in sprayed and concentrated forms. Sputtered performance belongs to countries with a market economy, and concentrated - to countries with state capitalism and the rule of the bureaucracy , for example, the USSR or China . The difference between them is only in the form and size of the repressive apparatus. In any case, says Guy Debord, in a performance society, all aspects of cultural or everyday experience are mediated by capitalist relations.

• Recovery (Mastering) is the process by which a spectacle captures any revolutionary or rebellious idea and turns it into a commodity. This happened, for example, with the portrait of Che Guevara , which turned into an easily recognizable trademark, and with the 1968 revolution.

“ In order to dominate, the Performance must have the tools of social control. He is able to recover a potentially threatening situation due to his resourcefulness: for this, he either creates tempting alternatives to divert his eyes, or assimilates the threat, returning it to us already in the form of goods . ” - Larry Law.

An example of the recovery of situationism itself can serve as exhibitions held in Boston , Paris and London in 1989 and 2003 , which exhibited original leaflets, posters, magazines and photographs related to the Situationist International. In 2003 , the exhibition was sponsored by the Beck brewing company, as well as Tony Wilson, an English millionaire, the owner of the Manchester nightclub Hacienda, decorated in aesthetics of situationism. He also organized the sale of various paraphernalia related to SI.

• Detournement is a reverse process of recuperation, which, according to situationalists, should have shaken the system of “authorities” and “brands”. In contrast to the play, which turns a revolutionary idea into a commodity, Situationists proposed to take some kind of brand name or idea for advertising and, with the help of annoying repetition or distortion, bring the original idea to an absurdity . Such tactics were subsequently actively used and applied in the West (see Adbusters ) and in Russia, in particular, in RuNet , for example, in the form of photoshop contests at dirty.ru . Many situationists' slogans are also used in modern theatrical “Buy Nothing Day” processions in the USA and European countries: the participants in these processions urge humanity to abandon consumerism : live for at least one day without consuming and walking around supermarkets.

Detournement closely echoes the postmodern term of appropriation and the idea of plagiarism . Including because of this situationists oppose copyright .

• “Forbidden to forbid!” - Il est interdit d'interdire - anonymous graffiti . May 1968
• “Be Realistic - Demand the Impossible!” - Soyez réalistes, demandez l'impossible! - anonymous graffiti. May 1968
• "Under the pavement - the beach!" - Sous les pavés, la plage! - anonymous graffiti. May 1968. (A witty excuse for dismantling pavers into stones thrown at police during street protests.)
• “Never work!” - Ne travaillez jamais! - anonymous graffiti. May 1968
• “Relations must be built on terror, if not passion!” - The manifesto of the Lettrist International. February 1953 .
• “Mankind cannot see happiness until the last capitalist is strangled with the gut of the last bureaucrat” - the Occupation Committee of the Free State University of Sorbonne. May 1968

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