After a long hiatus — my books have finally come out of their boxes, as we finalized our move — I am happy to be posting again on this blog.

I would like to take the opportunity to share the birth of the Situationist International Research Network (SIRN) https://www.situationistresearch.net/. For the first time, a centralized resource is now available for scholars to connect around their shared interest in the SI and related movements.

SIRN defines itself as “a network of academics and independent researchers working on the Situationist International and related topics. It seeks to provide news, information, contacts and other resources for people interested in undertaking or engaging with peer-reviewed research on the Situationists. Our goal is to facilitate international, interdisciplinary and multilingual collaboration between researchers and to promote peer-reviewed academic research on the Situationists to a wider audience”

SIRN is led by Dr. Alastair Hemmens, with Prof. Gabriel Zacarias as Deputy Director. The two scholars most recently co-authored he Situationist International: A Critical Handbook (London: Pluto Press, 2020). Members hail from a range of academic fields, including Philosophy & Aesthetics, Literature, Art History, History, Sociology.. They include Tom Bunyard, Francois Coadou, Bertrand Cochard, Patrick Marcolini, Sophie Dolto, Fabrice Flahutez, Amy Grandvoinet, Eric-John Russell, Vanessa Theodoropoulou, Anna Trespeuch-Berthelot…

A list of bilingual resources is made available to scholars (https://www.situationistresearch.net/resources), and a quarterly newsletter is found here: https://www.situationistresearch.net/blog. If there is any news that you would like to be included in the next newsletter, please reach out to SIRN through their contact page here: https://www.situationistresearch.net/contact

SEGURA, Alain. Une saison avec Marianne: la dernière surréaliste. Bassac: Plein chant (coll. « La font secrète »), 2022

SEGURA, Alain. A Season with Marianne: The Last Surrealist. Trans. Bill Brown. Brooklyn: Common Notions, Dec. 2024

We are excited to announce the translation of Une saison avec Marianne, to be released in December 2024 by Common Notions (who also published our book a few years ago). Best remembered as the author of the iconic May’68 leaflet Nous ne sommes rien soyons tout (trans: We are nothing, we shall be everything), little else was previously known about the “Yugoslav comrade”.

A member of Breton’s surrealist, a friend of Debord (who dubbed her “the last surrealist”), Marianne Ivsic was at the heart of the artistic and political turmoil of late 1960s Paris. In this fascinating memoir, Alain Segura remembers his encounters with Ivsic, shedding light on a life full of love, passion, creativity, and militancy. An important and most welcome contribution to the history of May 1968, Surrealism, and the Situationist International

The book can be pre-ordered here: https://www.commonnotions.org/buy/a-season-with-marianne

Jacqueline de Jong passed away on June 29, 2024 in Amsterdam. There is little to say now as we digest the sad news. I still remember our encounters in New York and Amsterdam; her energy and passion were infectious. Thinking of the life she lived, these were indeed Situationist Times.

Like many others, I will miss her.

BERNA, Serge. Écrits et documents. n.p. [Paris]: Éditions du Sandre, 2024. 200 p.; ill.; 31 x 21 cm.

Jean-Louis Rançon edited a delightful volume on the life and works of a little know, almost mythical figure of the Lettrist movement: Serge Berna. A delightful read. Below is an English language translation of the editor’s summary:

Little is known about the life of Serge Berna, both poet and thug. Born in Venice in 1924, he gained notoriety in Saint-Germain-des-Prés and beyond when, at the age of twenty-five, he penned the proclamation of the Death of God, which was pronounced in the middle of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. This volume collects Berna’s writings published in periodicals (“Ur”, “Ion”, “Le Soleil noir”, “En Marge”) between 1950 and 1955. This is also the period in which Berna founded the Club des Ratés (Losers’ Club) and then actively participated in the Lettrist movement, first as a member of the full group led by Isidore Isou, then within the Internationale Lettriste with Jean-Louis Brau, Guy Debord and Gil J Wolman. These “Writing and Documents” also feature his preface to “Vie et mort de Satan le Feu” (“The Death of Satan”) by Antonin Artaud, whose manuscripts Berna had discovered, as well as some unpublished plays. Berna’s “influential novel-film” -a 78-page manuscript-collage – appears in print here for the first time, as does his correspondence with Wolman, Debord, Koenig, Mariën, Magritte, Bazin, Étiemble, Breton. His legal disputes and prison stays are also covered, until we lose all trace of his whereabouts in the 1970s.

For more details, see Francois Coadou’s excellent article (in French) dated 21 May 2024 here: https://www.en-attendant-nadeau.fr/2024/05/21/un-besoin-fou-de-vivre-serge-berna/

VANEIGEM, Raoul. [La Résistance au christianisme. Les Hérésies, des origines au XVIIIe siècle] Resistance to Christianity: A Chronological Encyclopedia of Heresy from the Beginning to the Eighteenth Century. Trans. Bill Brown. London: Eris, 2023. 744 p.; 15 x 23 cm.

English translation of Vaneigem’s monumental work, which explores the hidden corners of Christianity. The authors sheds light on marginalized doctrines and repressed movements, from the radical Gnostics to the Millenarists and the Jansenists. In doing so, he invites readers to consider ways in which Christian orthodoxy established itself.

Translator Bill Brown initially published an online translation from 1993. 30 years later, this translation has been extensively revised and brought to print. Resistance to Christianity can be ordered directly through its publisher, Eris (see here), Columbia University Press (see here), or your favorite bookseller

As part of the NY Art Book Fair, there will be a conversation between Ben Morea (Black Mask, Up Against the Wall Motherfucker) and Donald Nicholson Smith (King Mob, Situationist International). Details below.

MATTHEWS, Airea D. Bread and Circus. New York: Scribner, May 2023. 96 p.; ill.; 23 x 15 cm.; ill blue dust jacket with text in white and black.

In this short of but mighty book, Airea D. Matthews gifts us with a book that seamlessly transcends genres. Part memoire, part volume of poetry, and part activist manifesto, Bread and Circus defies traditional categorization. This is no surprise coming from Philadelphia’s current poet laureate : after all, she trained in Creative Writing, but also in Public Policy as well as in Economics. Several poems are a detournement of Guy Debord, while others turns Adam Smith on its head. Matthews accomplishes this feat by taking an inspiration from visual and typographical techniques inspired by Dada, Futurists, and concrete poetry, among others. An astonishing book in the Situationist vein, that leaves the reader wishing for more. A must read!

DEBORD, Guy. Untitled. 10 x 15 cm; mixed technique on postcard. Signed “guy” and postmarked 11/04/1981

Spectacular metagraphie by Guy Debord, in the pure Situationist tradition. It was mailed to Michele Mochot-Bréhat, nicknamed “La Tortue” by Debord.

Debord met Mochot-Bréhat in Cannes in 1953. She is featured in the film Sur le passage de quelques personnes à travers une assez courte unité de temps (On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time) in 1959, then appears as the character of “Carole” in Michele Bernstein’s novel Tous les chevaux du Roi (All the King’s Horses) the following year. Mochot-Bréhat would remain close with the Debord couple through the 1980s – her letters leave no doubt as to their nature of their relationship…