Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia

Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist Movement in Scandinavia and Elsewhere
Edited by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen & Jakob Jakobsen

This is the first ever English-language anthology collecting texts and documents from the still little-known Scandinavian part of the Situationist movement. The book covers over three decades of writing, from Asger Jorn’s Luck and Chance published in 1953, to the statements of the Situationist Antinational set up by Jens Jørgen Thorsen and J.V. Martin in 1974. The writings collected gravitate around the year 1962 when the Situationist movement went through it’s most dynamic and critical moments, and the disagreements about the relationship between art and politics came to a culmination, resulting in exclusions and the split of the Situationist International.

The Situationists did not win, and the almost forgotten Scandinavian fractions even less so. The book broadens the understanding of the Situationist movement by bringing into view the wild and unruly activities of the Scandinavian fractions of the organisation and the more artistic, experimental, and actionist attitude that characterised them. They did, nevertheless, constitute a decisive break with the ruling socio-economic order through their project of bringing into being new forms of life. Only an analysis of the multifaceted and often contradictory Situationist revolution will allow us to break away from the dull contemplation of yet another document of Debord’s archive or yet another drawing by Jorn. There is a lot to be learned from the history of revolutionary failure. It is along these lines that this book points forward beyond the crisis-ridden capitalist order that survives today.

Texts by: Asger Jorn, Jørgen Nash, Jens Jørgen Thorsen, Bauhaus Situationniste, Jacqueline de Jong, Gordon Fazakerley, Gruppe SPUR, Dieter Kunzelman, J.V. Martin, and Guy Debord.

Translated by: Peter Shield, James Manley, Anja Buchele, Matthew Hyland, Fabian Tompsett, and Jakob Jakobsen.

Contents

• INTRODUCTION Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen & Jakob Jakobsen
• LUCK AND CHANGE DAGGER AND GUITAR Asger Jorn
• SPUR MANIFESTO Gruppe SPUR
• SITUATIONIST MANIFESTO TRACT Gruppe SPUR
• OUR REPLY Gruppe SPUR
• CANON OF THE REVOLUTION Dieter Kunzelmann
• HOMAGE TO C.G. JUNG Dieter Kunzelmann
• DRAKABYGGET Dieter Kunzelmann
• MUTANT Guy Debord & Asger Jorn
• NICHT HINAUSLEHNEN!
• NICHT HINAUSLEHNEN!
• PROCLAMATION FROM THE FIRST SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL
• CRITIQUE OF THE POLITICAL PRACTICE OF DÉTOURNEMENT Jacqueline de Jong
• PRESS RELEASE FROM THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL, SCANDINAVIAN SECTION
• THE STRUGGLE OF THE SITUCRATIC SOCIETY: A SITUATIONIST MANIFESTO
• ANTIPOLITICAL ACTIVITY J.V. Martin
• ON THE SPUR TRIAL Jacqueline de Jong
• THE FREEDOM OF ART Jørgen Nash
• SEVEN REBELS Jørgen Nash, Jens Jørgen Thorsen, Gordon Fazakerley, Jacqueline de Jong, Ansgar Elde, Hardy Strid & Hans Peter Zimmer
• FUCK OFF! Gordon Fazakerley
• BLAB BLAB BLAB Gordon Fazakerley
• DRAWINGS, POEMS Gordon Fazakerley
• ATOMIC BOMBS FOR THE CULTURE INDUSTRY Gruppe SPUR
• CO-RITUS MANIFESTO Jens Jørgen Thorsen, Jørgen Nash & Hardy Strid
• SLOGANS Jørgen Nash, Jens Jørgen Thorsen & Dieter Kunzelmann
• LUXURY AND MARTYRDOM Jacqueline de Jong
• THE NATURAL ORDER Asger Jorn
• CRITIQUE OF ECONOMIC POLICY Asger Jorn
• CO-RITUS INTERVIEW: ART IS POP – CO-RITUS IS ART – DIVIDED WE STAND Jørgen Nash & Jens Jørgen Thorsen
• LABYRINTH PROJECT Gordon Fazakerley
• THE SITUATIONISTS AND THE NEW ACTION FORMS IN POLITICS AND ART Guy Debord
• HOMO LUDENS Else Steen Hansen
• RE: “DESTRUCTION OF RSG-6”
• WHO ARE THE SITUATIONISTS? Jørgen Nash
• THE NATURAL SMILE Jørgen Nash
• POP J.V. Martin
• ON THE TRIOLECTICAL METHOD IN ITS APPLICATIONS IN GENERAL SITULOGY Asger Jorn
• THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IS NOT FOR SALE
• PAMPHLET NO. 9 FROM THE SECOND SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL Jørgen Nash & Hardy Strid
• THE COMMUNICATIVE PHASE IN ART: AN ESSAY ON THE DEATH OF ANTI-ART Jens Jørgen Thorsen
• NEO-IRREALISM: The decline and fall of the Fourth Reich J.V. Martin, Raoul Vaneigem, Michèle Bernstein, Guy Debord, Mustapha Khayati, Donald Nicholson-Smith & René Vienet
• DECLARATION FOR OUR ITALIAN ARTISTS AND COMRADES: FOLLOW COURBET Jens Jørgen Thorsen, Cæsar & Jørgen Nash
• GENERAL REMARKS Bengt Ericson & J.V. Martin
• ON KIRUNA
• EUROPE’S FIRST AVANT-GARDE Patrick O’Brien & Ambrosius Fjord
• DRAFT MANIFESTO OF ANTINATIONAL SITUATIONIST Jens Jørgen Thorsen
• IS THIS METAVILLE? A PROJECT FOR CREATIVE PLAY Jens Jørgen Thorsen in collaboration with Hoff & Ussing
• ALL CULTURE IS COLLECTIVE: NOTES ON COLLECTIVE CREATIVITY J.V. Martin