[DEBORD, Guy]. Déclaration des « Éditions Champ Libre » (in Le Monde no. 9669, 24 Feb 1976, p.7). Paris, 24 Feb. 1976.  36 p.; 34 x 50 cm.; black ink on newspaper stock

The “Declaration des ‘Editions Champ Libre’ “, which first appeared as a half-page ad in issue 9669 (24 February 1976) of Le Monde, was written in the aftermath of Gianfranco Sanguinetti’s arrest and expulsion at the French border on 11 February 1976. In a letter to Jaime Semprun, Debord states that he is the author of this text: “Tu as très justement reconnu mon style dans le communiqué sur la dernière aventure frontalière de Sanguinetti, et parfois ailleurs” (Letter to Jaime Semprun, 26 Dec. 1976 — reproduced in DEBORD, Guy. Correspondance Vol 5, p. 396).

The Declaration appears on the back cover of Correspondance des Editions Champ Libre. Volume 1 (October 1978). It is also reproduced in Guy Debord’s Oeuvres (p. 1316). Online version available here: http://debordiana.chez.com/francais/preuves.htm and in translation at https://libcom.org/library/declaration-editions-champ-libre

We locate a copy at Yale’s Beinecke Library as part of the Gianfranco Sanguinetti papers (binder 15bis, box 23)

The full text, in translation, is reproduced below

[DIANGANI, Lungela]. La Révolution dans les pays de l’Afrique noire. n.p.: n.p., n.d. [1966]. 4 p.; 21 x 29.5 cm.; black ink on white stock.

This little-known text constitutes Lungela Diangani’s contribution to the 7th congress of the Situationist International, held from 5-13 July 1966. Lungela was a member of the SI from July 1966 to late 1967. While his production was limited, he was respected by Debord (see, for instance, Correspondance vol. 3 p. 127)

The author begins by stating that he only learned about the SI 6 months before. He then argues that, while the underlying principles of revolutionary theory are the same across geographies, the applications of such principles may vary by region.  He then goes on to explain Africa’s unique characteristics (e.g., lack of individual property, colonialism and anti-colonialism, etc.), but reaffirms that “struggles in underdeveloped countries are about class, not race” and lambasts the pan-Africanist movement. He concludes that “Nationalism, Panafricanism, Negritude, and African Socialism are concepts that revolutionaries must bury. They must also reject racial homogeneity of Sub-saharan Africa” (translations are mine)

The full text has been reproduced here.  It was also reproduced and translated into English in The Other Country / L’Autre Pays (Ed. Vincent Meesen) in 2018 (pp. 52-55). This catalogue is structured around installations by Vincent Meessen which examine the influence of the Situationist International in Sub-Saharan Africa, notably through figures such as Lungela Diangani and Omar Blondin Diop. Of particular interest is Pedro Monaville’s text “Sur le passage de quelques congolais a travers l’Internationale Situationniste/ On the Passage of a Few Congolose Through the Situationist International” (pp. 57-65), where the author, a historian of modern Africa, describes how Debord got interested in the Congo and how Lungela became a member of the SI.

We locate one copy as part of the Debord archive at the BNF (see here)

M. Khayati and A. Becker at the 7th SI congress in 1966.

[DEBORD, Guy]. Internationale Situationniste. Les Luttes de Classes en Algerie. Paris: Internationale Situationniste, December 1965. Two-sided broadside. 56 x 45 cm.; black ink on white stock.

Text by Guy Debord, published as an addendum to issue 10 of Internationale Situationniste (March 1966). It discusses Boumedienne’s putsch in Algeria, which marks the end of the self-management experience in Algeria. The text has been transcribed and reproduced here: https://sinedjib.com/index.php/2016/09/03/luttes-classes/

BnF 88-90, Gonzalvez 123, Lacroix 196, Raspaud & Voyer 118 . Not in Scheppe & Ohrt. We locate copies at Michigan, Yale and the BNF.

[KHAYATI, Mustapha] KHAYATI, Mustapha; LAKHDAR, Latif; et al. Adresse aux prolétaires et aux jeunes révolutionnaires arabes et israéliens contre la guerre et pour la révolution prolétarienne. Paris, May 1976. 12 p.; 21 x 30 cm.; staple white sheets with text in black

Text published as an addendum to the third issue of Francois Maspero’s periodical Khamsin: Revue des socialistes révolutionnaires du Proche-Orient. Signatories include Hakima Berada, Maroine Dib, Dany Diner, Avishai Ehrlich, Abdul-Kader El-Janaby, Emir Harbi, Lea Horowitz, Mustapha Khayati, Kamal Lahbadi, Latif Lakhdar, Eli Lobel, Moshe Machover, Mikhal Marouane, Moshe Speier, Khalil Toma et Abadhallah Zannan. The manifesto would later be partially reprinted in Jeune Taupe no. 10 (June 1976). 

Adresse aux prolétaires et aux jeunes révolutionnaires arabes et israéliens contre la guerre et pour la révolution prolétarienne is a call for Arab and Israeli proletariat to join forces in the sole struggle that is worth their while:”the destruction of the capitalistic order and, from its ashes, the rise of a revolutionary society where the total liberation of each individual allows for the total liberation of all people” (translation is mine). The manifesto – which came out of a gathering on May 1-2, 1976 in Paris of left-leaning Arab and Isareli intellectuals – is believed to be the first joint revolutionary address by Arabs and Israelis. The tone and style suggest that Khayati played a significant role in drafting the text.

To our knowledge, this manifesto has never been reproduced in full online. Some excerpts are available here.

We locate a single copy on OCLC, part of Mustapha Khayati’s personal archive preserved at Yale’s Beinecke Library

Die Welt Als Labyrinth.  Geneva: MAMCO, 2019. 63 p.; ill.; 48 x 32 cm.; black ink on newspaper stock. Catalog from the exhibition held at the MAMCO Museum in Geneva between February and May 2018.

The publication “Die Welt als Labyrinth” (The world as Labyrinth) relates back to the exhibition dedicated to the Situationist International which took place at MAMCO in the Spring of 2018 and is shaped as a journey through some episodes of this story. This exhibition was the occasion to reflect on the paradox that is raised by any presentation of these last twentieth-century avant-gardes: how to exhibit in a museum people who were systematically opposed to cultural institutions? (Printed Matter)

The illustration on the front cover is an untitled darboard collage from the Situationist exhibition Destruktion af RSG-6 at the gallery Exi, Odense, Denmark in 1963.

The title of the exhibition “refers to an unfulfilled project for a Situationist exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1960, and shows up one of the questions that are raised by any presentation of these avant-garde movements: how to exhibit in a museum people who were systematically opposed to cultural institutions? Going further than a sabotaging of art through an unconventional register of forms and techniques, it was art as distinct social territory, governed by institutions, and determined by the market economy, that was in these movements’ crosshairs.” (MAMCO)

For more information and pictures of the exhibition, see https://www.galleriesnow.net/shows/die-welt-als-labyrinth/. For a video, see https://vimeo.com/288680033

KHAYATI, Mustapha. [De la Misere en Milieu Etudiant] Della Miseria Nell’ambiente Studentesco. Catania: Gruppo Anarchico M. Bakunin di Cosenza, November 1969. 32 p.; ill.; 17 x 23 cm.; ill.. White wrappers with text in black.

Second Italian edition by Luigi Lo Celso, following the Feltrinelli edition in 1967. “During 1969 he came into contact with some members of the Italian Section of the Situationist International. He appropriates the critical thinking of the situationists and begins its dissemination in Cosenza, distributing the first issue of the Italian edition of the magazine. In November of the same year, admist the student struggles that shake Cosenza, he translates and prints Della Miseria under the “Bakunin” Group imprint. This version is accompanied by explanatory notes and two of Celso’s own writing (more details at http://www.bfscollezionidigitali.org/entita/13839-%E2%80%8Blo-celso-luigi/)

This edition is not accounted on either OCLC or in the trade.

[Internationale Situationniste]. L’estremismo coerente dei situazionisti / O extremismo coerente dos situacionistas. Milan: Ed. 912, November 1968. 190 p.; ill.; 16.7 x 11.7 cm.; ill. Purple cover with text in black.

Early collection of Situationist works in translation, published before the Italian section of the S.I. could distribute its own texts.The front cover is illustrated with a portrait of Karl Marx stating (in Italian): “On 28 September 1964, it will be exactly one hundred years since we founded the Situationist International. It’s starting to take shape”. A leaflet was released by the S.I. on that day to commemorate the 100 year founding of the International Workingmen’s Association.

Contents include: A short chronology of the SI movement, translations into Italians of “De La Misere en Milieu Etudiant” (1966), “Adresse aux Revolutionnaires d’Algerie et de tous les Pays” (1965), “Le Declin et la Chute de l’Economie Spectaculaire-Marchande” (1965), “Contributions servant à rectifier l’opinion du public sur la révolution dans les pays sous-développés” (1967), “Le Point d’Explosion de l’Ideologie en Chine” (1967); “Definition Minimum des Organisations Revolutionnaires” (1968), a postface, a short bibliography, and a list of addresses for the S.I. and related groups (Heatwave, Zengakuren, Noir & Rouge…). A few of the above texts are also translated into Portuguese.

Raspaud & Voyer 143; Scheppe & Ohrt 356

PRESTSAETER, Ellef (Ed.). These are Situationist Times! An Inventory of Reproductions, Deformations, Modifications, Derivations, and Transformations. Oslo: Torpedo Press, 2019. 352 p.; ill.; 22 x 28 cm.; heavily illustrated throughout.

Book released as part of These are Situationist Times!, a project of Torpedo Press in close collaboration with Jacqueline de Jong. The project consists of:

• A digitization of all issues of Situationist Times by Monoskop
• A digital interface by The Scandinavian Institute for Computational Vandalism, retracing the magazine’s history through a series of video interviews with Jacqueline de Jong
• A series of exhibitions – Jacqueline De Jong & The Situationist Times: Same Player Shoots Again! – curated by Ellef Prestsæter in collaboration with Torpedo and Jacqueline de Jong. These include
  • Torpedo Books, Oslo, 11 May-2 Sep 2018
  • Konsthall Malmö, 15 Sep 2018-13 Jan 2019
  • Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark, 31 Aug-1 Dec 2019.
• and finally a book, hereby presented, edited by Ellef Prestsæter. The table of contents can be found here.

The beautifully illustrated volume includes numerous reproductions from the original Situationist Times magazine (#1-6), but the highlight is the last section on the recently rediscovered, unfinished seventh issue: The “Pinball issue” (ca. 1973). Included are a “selection of materials assembled for the Pinball Issue of the Situationist Times, including original photographs by Hans Brinkman, previous unpublished essays by Brinkman and the psychologist Joost Mathijsen, an inventory of pinball machines in Amsterdam, books and flyers, clippings from magazines and newspapers, as well as correspondence with prospective collaborators” (p.259)

The book includes commissioned contributions by Éric Alliez, Ruth Baumeister, Christophe Bourseiller, Larry D. Busbea, Eric C. H. de Bruyn, Matthew Fuller, Rodolphe Gasché, Dennis Göttel, Institute for Computational Vandalism, Jakob Jakobsen, Karen Kurczynski, João Pedro Leão, İz Öztat, Juliette Pollet, Ellef Prestsæter, Margriet Schavemaker, Sean Snyder, McKenzie Wark. Also included are historical texts by
Roland Barthes, Hans Brinkman, Max Bucaille, Friedrich Wolfram Heubach, Jacqueline de Jong, Asger Jorn, Friedrich Kittler, Joost Mathijsen, Piero Simondo, Gianni-Emilio Simonetti, Alexander Trocchi, Paolo Virno, Bernd Jürgen Warneken

Pictures from the Torpedo website, where copies can be ordered here