Al riguardo segnalerei di Mirella Bandini,L'ESTETICO IL POLITICO da Cobra all'internazionale situazionista 1948-1957,Officina Edizioni 1977.
saluti n. Il lun, 2003-07-21 alle 13:16, claudio tullii ha scritto: > Cr*, > qualche nota storica... > > > Guy Debord and the Situationists > The other great important libertarian group which came to prominence during > the May-June events in France in 1968 were the Situationists. > They originated in a small band of avante-garde artists and intellectuals > influenced by Dada, Surrealism and Lettrism. The post-war Lettrist > International, which sought to fuse poetry and music and transform the urban > landscape, was a direct forerunner of the group who founded the magazine > Situationiste Internationale in 1957. At first, they were principally > concerned with the "suppression of art", that is to say, they wished like > the Dadaists and the Surrealists before them to supersede the categorization > of art and culture as separate activities and to transform them into part of > everyday life. Like the Lettrists, they were against work and for complete > _divertissement_. Under capitalism, the creativity of most people had become > diverted and stifled, and society had been divided into actors and > spectators, producers and consumers. The Situationists therefore wanted a > different kind of revolution: they wanted the imagination, not a group of > men, to seize power, and poetry and art to be made by all. Enough! they > declared. To hell with work, to hell with boredom! Create and construct an > eternal festival. > At first, the movement was mainly made up of artists, of whom Asger Jorn was > the most prominent. From 1962, the Situationists increasingly applied their > critique not only in culture but to all aspects of capitalist society. Guy > Debord emerged as the most important figure: he had been involved in the > Lettrist International, and had made several films, including _Hurlements en > faveur de Sade_ (1952). Inspired by the libertarian journal _Socialisme on > Barbarie_, the Situationists rediscovered the history of the anarchist > movement, particularly during the period of the First International, and > drew inspiration from Spain, Kronstadt, and the Makhnovists. They described > the USSR as a capitalist bureaucracy, and advocated workers' councils. But > they were not entirely anarchist in orientation and retained elements of > Marxism, especially through Henri Lefebvre's critique of the alienation of > everyday life. They believed that the revolutionary movement in advanced > capitalist countries should be led by an "enlarged proletariat" which would > include the majority of waged laborers. In addition, although they claimed > to want neither disciples nor a leadership, they remained an elitist > vanguard group who dealt with differences by expelling the dissenting > minority. They looked to a world-wide proletarian revolution to bring about > the maximum pleasure. > At the end of 1967, Guy Debord in _The Society of the Spectacle_ and Raoul > Vaneigem in _The Revolution of Everyday Life_ presented the most elaborate > expositions of Situationist theory which had a widespread influence in > France during the 1968 student rebellion. [NOTE: Anarchy magazine has been > including a chapter per issue of Vaneigem's book -- currently up to chapter > 16, "The Fascination of Time". -- Ken] Many of the most famous slogans which > were scribbled on the walls of Paris were taken from their theses, such as > FREE THE PASSIONS, NEVER WORK, LIVE WITHOUT DEAD TIME. Members of the > Situationist International (SI) co-operated with the _enrages_ from Nanterre > University in the Occupations COmmittee of the Sorbonne, an assembly held in > permanent session. On 17 May, the Committee sent the following telegram to > the Communist Party of the USSR: > SHAKE IN YOUR SHOES BUREAUCRATS STOP THE INTERNATIONAL POWER OF THE WORKERS' > COUNCILS WILL SOON WIPE YOU OUT STOP HUMANITY WILL NOT BE HAPPY UNTIL THE > LAST BUREAU- CRAT IS HUNG WITH THE GUTS OF THE LAST CAPITALIST STOP LONG > LIVE THE STRUGGLE OF THE KRONSTADT SAILORS AND OF THE MAKHNOVSCHINA AGAINST > TROTSKY AND LENIN STOP LONG LIVE THE 1956 COUNCILIST INSURRECTION OF > BUDAPEST STOP DOWN WITH THE STATE STOP > Groups of _enrages_ in Strasbourg, Nantes and Boudreaux were also inspired > by the Situationists and attempted to "organize chaos" on the campuses. The > active thinkers however never numbered much more than a dozen. > In their analysis, the Situationists argued that capitalism had turned all > relationships transactional, and that life had been reduced to a > "spectacle". The spectacle is the key concept of their theory. In many ways, > they merely reworked Marx's view of alienation, as developed in his early > writings. The worker is alienated from his product and from his fellow > workers and finds himself living in an alien world: The worker does not > produce himself; he produces an independent power. The success of this > production, its abundance, returns to the producer as an abundance of > dispossession. All the time and space of his world becomes foreign to him > with the accumulation of his alienated products.... > > The increasing division of labor and specialization have transformed work > into meaningless drudgery. "It is useless," Vaneigem observes, "to expect > even a caricature of creativity from a conveyor belt." What they added to > Marx was the recognition that in order to ensure continued economic growth, > capitalism has created "pseudo-needs" to increase consumption. Instead of > saying that consciousness was determined at the point of production, they > said it occurred at the point of consumption. Modern capitalist society is a > consumer society, a society of "spectacular" commodity consumption. Having > long been treated with the utmost contempt as a producer, the worker is now > lavishly courted and seduced as a consumer. > At the same time, while modern technology has ended natural alienation (the > struggle for survival against nature), social alienation in the form of a > hierarchy of masters and slaves has continued. People are treated like > passive objects, not active subjects. After degrading being into having, the > society of the spectacle has further transformed having into merely > appearing. The result is an appalling contrast between cultural poverty and > economic wealth, between what is and what could be. "Who wants a world in > which the guarantee that we shall not die of starvation," Vaneigem asks, > "entails the risk of dying of boredom?" > The way out of the Situationists was not to wait for a distant revolution > but to reinvent everyday life here and now. To transform the perception of > the world and to change the structure of society is the same thing. By > liberating oneself, one changed power relations and therefore transformed > society. They therefore tried to construct situations which disrupt the > ordinary and normal in order to jolt people out of their customary ways of > thinking and acting. [Hardly an original idea, spanning from Leary-style LSD > use to zen, etc. -- Ken.] In place of petrified life, they sought the > _derive_ (with its flow of acts and encounters) and _detournement_ > (rerouting events and images). They supported vandalism, wildcat strikes and > sabotage as a way of destroying the manufactured spectacle and commodity > economy. Such gestures of refusal were considered signs of creativity. The > role of the SI was to make clear to the masses what they were already > implicitly doing. In this way, they wished to act as catalysts within the > revolutionary process. Once the revolution was underway, the SI would > disappear as a group. > In place of the society of the spectacle, the Situationists proposed a > communistic society bereft of money, commodity production, wage labor, > classes, private property and the State. Pseudo-needs would be replaced by > real desires, and the economy of profit become one of pleasure. The division > of labor and the antagonism between work and play would be overcome. It > would be a society founded on the love of free play, characterized by the > refusal to be led, to make sacrifices, and to perform roles. Above all, they > insisted that every individual should actively and consciously participate > in the reconstruction of every moment of life. They called themselves > Situationists precisely because they believed that all individuals should > construct the situations of their lives and release their own potential and > obtain their own pleasure. > As for the basic unit of the future society, they recommended workers' > councils by which they meant "sovereign rank-and-file assemblies, in the > enterprises and the neighborhoods". As with the communes of the > anarcho-communists, the councils would practice a form of direct democracy > and make and execute all the key decisions affecting everyday life. > Delegates would be mandated and recallable. The councils would then federate > locally, nationally and internationally. > In their call for the "concrete transcendence of the State and of every kind > of alienating collectivity" and in their vision of communist society the > Situationists come closest to the anarchists. They not only referred to > Bakunin for their attack on authoritarian structures and bureaucracy, but > Debord argued that "anarchism had led in 1936 [in Spain] to a social > revolution and to a rough sketch, the most advanced ever, of proletarian > power." The Situationists differ however from traditional anarchism in their > elitism as an exclusive group and in their overriding concern with coherence > of theory and practice. In their narrow insistence on the proletariat as the > sole revolutionary class, they overlooked the revolutionary potential of > other social groups, especially the students. They also denied that they > were "spontaneists" like the 22 March Movement and rejected the "ideology" > of anarchism in so far as it was allegedly another restrictive ideology > imposed on the workers. > Despite the acuteness of their critique of modern capitalism, the > Situationists mistakenly took a temporary economic boom in post-war France > for a permanent trend in capitalist societies. Their belief in economic > abundance now seems wildly optimistic; not only underproduction but also > underconsumption continue in advanced industrial societies. In many parts of > the globe, especially in the southern hemisphere, so-called "natural > alienation", let alone social alienation, has yet to be overcome. > Nevertheless, for all their weaknesses, the Situationists have undoubtedly > enriched anarchist theory by their critique of modern culture, their > celebration of creativity, and their stress on the immediate transformation > of everyday life. Although the SI group disbanded in 1972 after bitter > wrangling over tactics, their ideas have continued to have widespread > influence in anarchist and feminist circles and inspired, at times almost > subconsciously it seemed, much of the style and content of punk rock. > [p.551-53] > From: > DEMANDING THE IMPOSSIBLE > A history of Anarchism > Peter Marshall, 1992 > Fontana Press > 77-85 Fulham Palace Road > Hammersmith, London W6 8JB > ISBN 0 00 686245 4 > > > > Walk the earth naked > with me > embrace a life, > filter a truth > silent > solitude > my eyes, your > cries > > > c/ > ********************************** > se arrivi ad un bivio...prendilo!! > ********************************** > http://materialiresistenti.clarence.com > > ___________________________________________ > rekombinant .network > http://rekombinant.org > http://rekombinant.org/media-activism > http://urbantv.it > ___________________________________________ rekombinant .network http://rekombinant.org http://rekombinant.org/media-activism http://urbantv.it
