Lettrist International
Encyclopedia
The Letterist International (LI) was a Paris
-based collective of radical artists and theorists between 1952 and 1957. It was created by Guy Debord
as a schism from Isidore Isou
's Letterist
group. Letterist International had almost no ideas in common with Isou's Lettrism, of which used the name only ironically; instead, it was more a draft version of the Situationist International, of which anticipated many of the core ideas.
The spelling 'Lettrist' is also common in English, but 'Letterist' was the form the French group (Internationale Lettriste) themselves preferred, and used in their 1955 sticker: 'If you believe you have genius, or if you think you have only a brilliant intelligence, write the letterist internationale.' With regard to that second word, however, most scholars prefer 'International' to 'Internationale'. Such authors and translators as Donald Nicholson-Smith
, Simon Ford, Sadie Plant and Andrew Hussey all agree on the 'Letterist International' spelling.
The group was a motley assortment of novelists, sound poets
, painters, film-makers, revolutionaries, bohemians, alcoholics, petty criminals, lunatics, under-age girls and self-proclaimed failures. In the Summer of 1953, their average age was a mere twenty years old, rising to twenty nine and a half in 1957. In their blend of intellectualism, protest and hedonism—though differing in other ways, for instance in their total rejection of spirituality—they might be viewed as French counterparts of the American Beat Generation
, particularly in the form it took during exactly the same period, i.e. before anyone from either group achieved any real fame, and were still having the adventures that would inform their later works and ideas.
's Letterists
. (They would be followed in turn by the Ultra-Letterists). The schism developed when the 'left-wing' of the Letterist group disrupted a Charlie Chaplin
press conference for Limelight at the Hôtel Ritz Paris
in October 1952. They distributed a polemic
entitled "No More Flat Feet", which concluded: "The footlights have melted the make-up of the supposedly brilliant mime. All we can see now is a lugubrious and mercenary old man. Go home Mister Chaplin." Isou was keen to distance himself from his younger acolytes' tract. His own attitude was that Chaplin deserved respect as one of the great creators of the cinematic art. The breakaway group felt that he was no longer relevant, and they turned Isou's own words back against him: "We appreciated the importance of Chaplin's work in its own time, but we know that today novelty lies elsewhere, and 'truths which no longer entertain become lies' (Isou)." As they proceeded to explain, "the most urgent exercise of liberty is the destruction of idols".
Although the LI had in fact already been covertly formed by Guy Debord
and Gil J. Wolman
in June 1952, even before the Chaplin intervention and the public split from Isou, it was not formally established until 7 December 1952. The four signatories of the Chaplin tract (Debord and Wolman, together with Jean-Louis Brau and Serge Berna) agreed on a constitution for the group during a visit to Aubervilliers
(where Brau's father lived). Anyone collaborating with 'Isouian activities', they declared, would be automatically excluded, even if this was being done in defence of the LI. 'It is in the transcendence of arts that everything has yet to be done.' The official base of the group was at 32, Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviéve, Paris
, subsequently to become the official base of the Situationist International (but invariably referred to by both groups as "Rue de la Montagne-Geneviéve", signalling their disdain for religion). This was in fact the address of a bar, Tonneau d'Or, and indeed most of their time was spent either drinking in a number of bars in Saint-Germain-des-Prés
, principally at Chez Moineau on the Rue du Four, or else simply walking the streets.
There was a serious purpose behind their ambulation. They developed the dérive
, or drift, where they would wander like clouds through the urban environment for hours or sometimes even days on end. During their wanderings in the Summer of 1953, an "illiterate Kabyle
" suggested to them the term "Psychogeography
", to designate what they saw as a pattern of emotive force-fields that would permeate a city. The dérive would enable them to map out these forces, and these results could then be used as a basis upon which to build a system of unitary urbanism
. Among their most important texts on these matters were Debord's "Theory of the Dérive" (published in the Belgian
surrealist magazine Les Lèvres Nues, no. 9, November 1956), and Ivan Chtcheglov's
"Formulary for a New Urbanism" (written October 1953, but not published until June 1958 in the first issue of the journal Internationale Situationniste). In the latter, Chtcheglov advocated a new city where, as he wrote, "each person will live in his own personal 'cathedral'. There will be rooms that produce dreams better than drugs, and houses where it will be impossible to do anything but love." He declared, "The Hacienda
must be built", a remark which would later inspire the name of the famous Manchester
night-club. In "Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography" (Les Lèvres Nues, no. 6, September 1955), Debord described a colleague's drift through the Harz
region of Germany
, blindly following a map of London
. This is still a favourite methodology amongst psychogeographers. They produced a broad range of proposals: the abolition of museums and the placing of art in bars, keeping the Metro
open all night, opening the roofs of Paris like pavements with escalators to help gain access.
Another important notion developed by the LI, was that of détournement
, a technique of reutilising plagiarised material (literary, artistic, cinematic, etc.) for a new and usually radical purpose. The defining LI text here was "A User's Guide To Détournement", by Debord and Wolman (Les Lèvres Nues, no. 8, May 1956). They argued: "In truth, it is necessary to do away with the whole notion of personal property in this area. The emergence of new demands renders earlier 'great works' obsolete. They become obstacles, bad habits. It is not a question of whether we like them or not. We must pass them by." These techniques were subsequently used extensively by the Situationists. In addition, such characteristically situationist concepts as the construction of situations and the supersession of art were first developed by the LI.
In addition to the central Parisian group, an Algerian section of the LI was established in April 1953 by Hadj Mohamed Dahou, Cheik Ben Dhine and Ait Diafer. Based at Orléansville
('the most letterist city in the world' according to Potlatch no. 12), they were hit hard by an earthquake there on 9 September 1954, although initial reports that most of them had been killed did turn out to be unfounded (Potlatch no. 13). A Swiss section was also established in late 1954, but were almost immediately excluded (Potlatch no. 15).
In September 1956, Wolman represented the LI at the World Congress of Artists in Alba, Italy
. This conference had been organised by Asger Jorn
and Pinot-Gallizio of the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus
(IMIB), and important links between the two groups were consolidated. Wolman himself was excluded from the LI shortly afterwards, but the remaining members, Debord and Michèle Bernstein
, subsequently visited Cosio d'Arroscia where, on 28 July 1957, the LI officially fused with the IMIB and the London Psychogeographical Association
to form the Situationist International.
Although pre-dating the formation of the LI (but directly involving Serge Berna, and inspiring the others), one might also mention:
An extract from a letter of Gil Wolman to Jean-Louis Brau, of 20 July 1953, gives a clear impression of what the group and their associates tended to get up to from day to day:
Decades later, Debord would nostalgically (though also somewhat ambiguously) sum up the spirit of the times in his Panegyric
(1989): "Between the rue du Four and the rue de Buci, where our youth so completely went astray as a few glasses were drunk, one could feel certain that we would never do any better."
Several others also passed through the LI during its five years of existence, including André-Frank Conord, Jacques Fillon, Abdelhafid Khatib, Henry de Béarn and Gaëtan M. Langlais. In addition, the central members (almost all of them men), would sometimes include their girlfriends' names (usually first names only) among the signatories to their texts. Worthy of special mention among these girlfriends is Eliane Papaï (1935–?). An alumna of the same Auteuil orphanage the letterists had attempted to liberate, she was first the girlfriend of Debord, then the wife of Mension, and finally the wife of Brau. Debord recalled her fondly in many of his later films and writings, and she herself (as Eliane Brau) produced a book on the Situationists in 1968, Le situationnisme ou la nouvelle internationale.
Jean-Louis Brau, Gil Wolman and François Dufrêne founded a Second Letterist International (D.I.L., Deuxième Internationale Lettriste) in 1964. The New Lettrist International was founded more recently and is independent of (though inspired by) the earlier group.
from 1954 to 1957. A further two issues of Potlatch appeared in November 1957 and July 1959, now with the revised subtitle "Information bulletin of the Situationist International". Each issue comprised between one and four mimeographed sheets. Les Lèvres Nues, though not an LI publication, published some of their most important articles. All of these texts, together with a few other miscellaneous tracts, are reprinted in Documents Relatifs A La Fondation De L'Internationale Situationniste (Editions Allia, 1985).
Debord's 1959 collaboration with Asger Jorn, Mémoires, was directly concerned with the early days of the LI. The new Gallimard edition of his Oeuvres gathers many LI texts, including some never before published. Michèle Bernstein's novels, Tous les chevaux du roi (1960) and La Nuit (1961), present fictionalised accounts of her life with Debord during this period. Patrick Straram's Les bouteilles se couchent was a semi-fictionalised contemporary account of the scene, written in 1953 but lost until recently: it was published by Editions Allia in 2006. Also recently published by the same house are a biography of Ivan Chtcheglov and a separate collection of his writings. In October 2010, an unpublished text from the LI has just been released that recalls the adventures of the letterists between 1945 to February 1953 : Visages de l'avant-garde (Paris: Jean-Paul Rocher, éditeur, 2010).
Sources in English
Other Sources
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
-based collective of radical artists and theorists between 1952 and 1957. It was created by Guy Debord
Guy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
as a schism from Isidore Isou
Isidore Isou
Isidore Isou , born Ioan-Isidor Goldstein, was a Romanian-born French poet, film critic and visual artist...
's Letterist
Lettrism
Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture, most notably in poetry, film, painting and...
group. Letterist International had almost no ideas in common with Isou's Lettrism, of which used the name only ironically; instead, it was more a draft version of the Situationist International, of which anticipated many of the core ideas.
The spelling 'Lettrist' is also common in English, but 'Letterist' was the form the French group (Internationale Lettriste) themselves preferred, and used in their 1955 sticker: 'If you believe you have genius, or if you think you have only a brilliant intelligence, write the letterist internationale.' With regard to that second word, however, most scholars prefer 'International' to 'Internationale'. Such authors and translators as Donald Nicholson-Smith
Donald Nicholson-Smith
Donald Nicholson-Smith is a translator and freelance editor, interested in literature, art, psychoanalysis, social criticism, theory, history, crime fiction, and cinema.. Born in Manchester, England, he was an early translator of Situationist material into English. He joined the English section of...
, Simon Ford, Sadie Plant and Andrew Hussey all agree on the 'Letterist International' spelling.
The group was a motley assortment of novelists, sound poets
Sound poetry
Sound poetry is an artistic form bridging between literary and musical composition, in which the phonetic aspects of human speech are foregrounded instead of more conventional semantic and syntactic values; "verse without words"...
, painters, film-makers, revolutionaries, bohemians, alcoholics, petty criminals, lunatics, under-age girls and self-proclaimed failures. In the Summer of 1953, their average age was a mere twenty years old, rising to twenty nine and a half in 1957. In their blend of intellectualism, protest and hedonism—though differing in other ways, for instance in their total rejection of spirituality—they might be viewed as French counterparts of the American Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
, particularly in the form it took during exactly the same period, i.e. before anyone from either group achieved any real fame, and were still having the adventures that would inform their later works and ideas.
History and theory
The LI was the first breakaway faction from Isidore IsouIsidore Isou
Isidore Isou , born Ioan-Isidor Goldstein, was a Romanian-born French poet, film critic and visual artist...
's Letterists
Lettrism
Lettrism is a French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou. In a body of work totaling hundreds of volumes, Isou and the Lettrists have applied their theories to all areas of art and culture, most notably in poetry, film, painting and...
. (They would be followed in turn by the Ultra-Letterists). The schism developed when the 'left-wing' of the Letterist group disrupted a Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
press conference for Limelight at the Hôtel Ritz Paris
Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Hôtel Ritz is a grand palatial hotel in the heart of Paris, the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15...
in October 1952. They distributed a polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
entitled "No More Flat Feet", which concluded: "The footlights have melted the make-up of the supposedly brilliant mime. All we can see now is a lugubrious and mercenary old man. Go home Mister Chaplin." Isou was keen to distance himself from his younger acolytes' tract. His own attitude was that Chaplin deserved respect as one of the great creators of the cinematic art. The breakaway group felt that he was no longer relevant, and they turned Isou's own words back against him: "We appreciated the importance of Chaplin's work in its own time, but we know that today novelty lies elsewhere, and 'truths which no longer entertain become lies' (Isou)." As they proceeded to explain, "the most urgent exercise of liberty is the destruction of idols".
Although the LI had in fact already been covertly formed by Guy Debord
Guy Debord
Guy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
and Gil J. Wolman
Gil J. Wolman
Gil Joseph Wolman was a French artist, born in Paris in 1929 and dying there in 1995. His work encompassed painting, poetry and film-making. He was a member of Isidore Isou's avant garde Letterist movement in the early 1950s, then becoming a central figure in the Letterist International, the group...
in June 1952, even before the Chaplin intervention and the public split from Isou, it was not formally established until 7 December 1952. The four signatories of the Chaplin tract (Debord and Wolman, together with Jean-Louis Brau and Serge Berna) agreed on a constitution for the group during a visit to Aubervilliers
Aubervilliers
Aubervilliers is a commune in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris.-Name:In medieval times the name Aubervilliers was recorded as Alberti Villare, meaning "estate of Adalbert"...
(where Brau's father lived). Anyone collaborating with 'Isouian activities', they declared, would be automatically excluded, even if this was being done in defence of the LI. 'It is in the transcendence of arts that everything has yet to be done.' The official base of the group was at 32, Rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Geneviéve, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, subsequently to become the official base of the Situationist International (but invariably referred to by both groups as "Rue de la Montagne-Geneviéve", signalling their disdain for religion). This was in fact the address of a bar, Tonneau d'Or, and indeed most of their time was spent either drinking in a number of bars in Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an area of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés....
, principally at Chez Moineau on the Rue du Four, or else simply walking the streets.
There was a serious purpose behind their ambulation. They developed the dérive
Dérive
In psychogeography, a dérive is an unplanned journey through a landscape, usually urban, where an individual travels where the subtle aesthetic contours of the surrounding architecture and geography subconsciously direct them with the ultimate goal of encountering an entirely new and authentic...
, or drift, where they would wander like clouds through the urban environment for hours or sometimes even days on end. During their wanderings in the Summer of 1953, an "illiterate Kabyle
Kabyle people
The Kabyle people are the largest homogeneous Algerian ethno-cultural and linguistical community and the largest nation in North Africa to be considered exclusively Berber. Their traditional homeland is Kabylie in the north of Algeria, one hundred miles east of Algiers...
" suggested to them the term "Psychogeography
Psychogeography
Psychogeography was defined in 1955 by Guy Debord as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals." Another definition is "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for...
", to designate what they saw as a pattern of emotive force-fields that would permeate a city. The dérive would enable them to map out these forces, and these results could then be used as a basis upon which to build a system of unitary urbanism
Unitary Urbanism
Unitary urbanism was the critique of status quo urbanism employed by the Lettrist International and then further developed by the Situationist International between approximately 1953 and 1960....
. Among their most important texts on these matters were Debord's "Theory of the Dérive" (published in the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
surrealist magazine Les Lèvres Nues, no. 9, November 1956), and Ivan Chtcheglov's
Ivan Chtcheglov
Ivan Vladimirovitch Chtcheglov, was a French political theorist, activist and poet, born in Paris to Ukrainian father and French mother.-Family background:...
"Formulary for a New Urbanism" (written October 1953, but not published until June 1958 in the first issue of the journal Internationale Situationniste). In the latter, Chtcheglov advocated a new city where, as he wrote, "each person will live in his own personal 'cathedral'. There will be rooms that produce dreams better than drugs, and houses where it will be impossible to do anything but love." He declared, "The Hacienda
The Haçienda
Fac 51 Haçienda was a nightclub and music venue in Manchester, England. It became most famous during the "Madchester" years of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the 1990s it was labelled the most famous club in the world by Newsweek magazine...
must be built", a remark which would later inspire the name of the famous Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
night-club. In "Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography" (Les Lèvres Nues, no. 6, September 1955), Debord described a colleague's drift through the Harz
Harz
The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...
region of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, blindly following a map of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. This is still a favourite methodology amongst psychogeographers. They produced a broad range of proposals: the abolition of museums and the placing of art in bars, keeping the Metro
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
open all night, opening the roofs of Paris like pavements with escalators to help gain access.
Another important notion developed by the LI, was that of détournement
Detournement
A détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consist in "turning expressions of the capitalist system against itself." Détournement was prominently used to set up subversive political pranks, an influential tactic called situationist prank that was...
, a technique of reutilising plagiarised material (literary, artistic, cinematic, etc.) for a new and usually radical purpose. The defining LI text here was "A User's Guide To Détournement", by Debord and Wolman (Les Lèvres Nues, no. 8, May 1956). They argued: "In truth, it is necessary to do away with the whole notion of personal property in this area. The emergence of new demands renders earlier 'great works' obsolete. They become obstacles, bad habits. It is not a question of whether we like them or not. We must pass them by." These techniques were subsequently used extensively by the Situationists. In addition, such characteristically situationist concepts as the construction of situations and the supersession of art were first developed by the LI.
In addition to the central Parisian group, an Algerian section of the LI was established in April 1953 by Hadj Mohamed Dahou, Cheik Ben Dhine and Ait Diafer. Based at Orléansville
Chlef
Chlef is the capital of Chlef Province, Algeria. It is home to the soccer club ASO Chlef, the Hassiba Ben Bouali university, and the basilica of Saint Reparatus, which is home to the oldest Christian labyrinth in the world....
('the most letterist city in the world' according to Potlatch no. 12), they were hit hard by an earthquake there on 9 September 1954, although initial reports that most of them had been killed did turn out to be unfounded (Potlatch no. 13). A Swiss section was also established in late 1954, but were almost immediately excluded (Potlatch no. 15).
In September 1956, Wolman represented the LI at the World Congress of Artists in Alba, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. This conference had been organised by Asger Jorn
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International...
and Pinot-Gallizio of the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus
International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus
The International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus was a small European avant-garde artistic tendency that arose out of the breakup of COBRA, and was initiated by contact between former COBRA member Asger Jorn and Enrico Baj and Sergio Dangelo of the Nuclear Art Movement.-Timeline:*December 1953:...
(IMIB), and important links between the two groups were consolidated. Wolman himself was excluded from the LI shortly afterwards, but the remaining members, Debord and Michèle Bernstein
Michèle Bernstein
Michèle Bernstein is a French novelist and critic, most usually remembered as a member of the Situationist International from its foundation in 1957 until 1967, and as the wife of its most prominent member, Guy Debord.-Early years:...
, subsequently visited Cosio d'Arroscia where, on 28 July 1957, the LI officially fused with the IMIB and the London Psychogeographical Association
London Psychogeographical Association
The London Psychogeographical Association is an organisation devoted to psychogeography. The LPA is perhaps best understood in the context of psychogeographical praxis.-London Psychogeographical Institute:...
to form the Situationist International.
Adventures
Besides the Charlie Chaplin protest, some of the more noteworthy/startling activities of the LI include:- Ivan Chtcheglov's plan to blow up the Eiffel TowerEiffel TowerThe Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
, on no other grounds than that its lights were shining through his bedroom window and keeping him awake at night. He was subsequently confined to a mental institution. - Debord's legendary 1953 graffito, "Ne travaillez jamais!" ("Never work!"), inscribed on a wall at the corner of the Rue de Mazarine and Rue de Seine. The slogan would later reappear in May 1968, and summed up the ethos of both the LI and the Situationist International after them.
Although pre-dating the formation of the LI (but directly involving Serge Berna, and inspiring the others), one might also mention:
- A 1950 letterist attempt at the liberation of a Catholic orphanage at AuteuilAuteuilAuteuil may refer to:* Auteuil-Neuilly-Passy, an area of Paris* Auteuil, Quebec, a borough of Laval, Quebec, CanadaAuteuil is the name of several communes in France:* Auteuil, Oise* Auteuil, YvelinesAuteuil is also a surname:...
, causing a small-scale riot in protest at how "youth suffers in slavery, or is super-exploited by the seniority system." - The Notre-Dame AffairNotre-Dame AffairThe Notre-Dame Affair was an action performed by Michel Mourre, Serge Berna, Ghislain Desnoyers de Marbaix, and Jean Rullier, members of the radical wing of the Lettrist movement, on Easter Sunday, 9 April 1950, at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, while the mass was aired live on national TV...
of Easter Sunday, 1950, where Michel Mourre, dressed in a Dominican's habit, took to the pulpit and began to address the congregation, informing them, before anyone realised that anything was amiss, that God was dead, and that the Catholic Church was "appropriating our life force in the name of an empty heaven", and "infecting the world with its morality of death".
An extract from a letter of Gil Wolman to Jean-Louis Brau, of 20 July 1953, gives a clear impression of what the group and their associates tended to get up to from day to day:
I am back!... Where were things when you left? Joël [Berlé] has been out for a long time, on probation. Jean-Michel [Mension] and Fred [Auguste Hommel] are now free, too (for stealing from parked cars -- and under the influence, naturally). Little Eliane [Papaï] got out of police custody last week after a dramatic arrest in a maid's room somewhere in Vincennes with Joël and Jean-Michel; they were drunk, needless to say, and refused to open up to the police, who left and came back with reinforcements. In the confusion they lost the seal of the Letterist International. Linda [Fried] not sentenced yet. Sarah [Abouaf] still in the reformatory -- but her sister, sixteen and a half, has taken her place. There have been other arrests, for narcotics, for who knows what else. It's getting very tiresome. There is G[uy]-E[rnest Debord], who has just spent ten days in a nursing home where his parents sent him following a failed attempt to gas himself. He's back in the neighborhood now. Serge [Berna?] is due out on 12 May. The day before yesterday I threw up royally outside Moineau's. The latest diversion in the neighbourhood is spending the night in the CatacombsCatacombs of ParisThe Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are an underground ossuary in Paris, France. Located south of the former city gate , the ossuary holds the remains of about 6 million people and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris' stone mines...
-- another of Joël's bright ideas. I have a good many projects which are liable to remain just that -- projects....
Decades later, Debord would nostalgically (though also somewhat ambiguously) sum up the spirit of the times in his Panegyric
Panegyric
A panegyric is a formal public speech, or written verse, delivered in high praise of a person or thing, a generally highly studied and discriminating eulogy, not expected to be critical. It is derived from the Greek πανηγυρικός meaning "a speech fit for a general assembly"...
(1989): "Between the rue du Four and the rue de Buci, where our youth so completely went astray as a few glasses were drunk, one could feel certain that we would never do any better."
Membership
- Guy DebordGuy DebordGuy Ernest Debord was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situationist International . He was also briefly a member of Socialisme ou Barbarie.-Early Life:Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931...
(1931–1994) (generally using the name ‘Guy-Ernest’ during this period). - Gil J. WolmanGil J. WolmanGil Joseph Wolman was a French artist, born in Paris in 1929 and dying there in 1995. His work encompassed painting, poetry and film-making. He was a member of Isidore Isou's avant garde Letterist movement in the early 1950s, then becoming a central figure in the Letterist International, the group...
(1929–1995). Excluded 1957. - Michèle BernsteinMichèle BernsteinMichèle Bernstein is a French novelist and critic, most usually remembered as a member of the Situationist International from its foundation in 1957 until 1967, and as the wife of its most prominent member, Guy Debord.-Early years:...
(1932–). Joined 1954. - Alexander TrocchiAlexander TrocchiAlexander Whitelaw Robertson Trocchi was a Scottish novelist.-Early career:Trocchi was born in Glasgow to a Scottish mother and Italian father. After working as a seaman on the Murmansk convoys, he attended University of Glasgow. On graduation he obtained a traveling grant that enabled him to...
(1925–1984). Joined 1955. - Hadj Mohamed Dahou. Joined 1953.
- Ivan ChtcheglovIvan ChtcheglovIvan Vladimirovitch Chtcheglov, was a French political theorist, activist and poet, born in Paris to Ukrainian father and French mother.-Family background:...
(1933–98) (known as "Gilles Ivain"). Excluded 1954. - Serge Berna (1925?–?). Excluded 1953.
- Patrick Straram (1934–84). Joined 1953, quit 1954.
- Jean-Michel MensionJean-Michel MensionJean-Michel Mension was a French radical active in the Lettrist International, from which he was expelled as "merely decorative", and the Ligue Communiste....
. (1934–2006). Excluded 1954. - Jean-Louis Brau (1930–?) (known as "Bull Dog Brau"). Excluded 1953.
Several others also passed through the LI during its five years of existence, including André-Frank Conord, Jacques Fillon, Abdelhafid Khatib, Henry de Béarn and Gaëtan M. Langlais. In addition, the central members (almost all of them men), would sometimes include their girlfriends' names (usually first names only) among the signatories to their texts. Worthy of special mention among these girlfriends is Eliane Papaï (1935–?). An alumna of the same Auteuil orphanage the letterists had attempted to liberate, she was first the girlfriend of Debord, then the wife of Mension, and finally the wife of Brau. Debord recalled her fondly in many of his later films and writings, and she herself (as Eliane Brau) produced a book on the Situationists in 1968, Le situationnisme ou la nouvelle internationale.
Jean-Louis Brau, Gil Wolman and François Dufrêne founded a Second Letterist International (D.I.L., Deuxième Internationale Lettriste) in 1964. The New Lettrist International was founded more recently and is independent of (though inspired by) the earlier group.
Publications
The LI published four issues of the Internationale Lettriste bulletin between 1952 and 1954, followed by twenty eight issues of PotlatchPotlatch
A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and United States. This includes Heiltsuk Nation, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures...
from 1954 to 1957. A further two issues of Potlatch appeared in November 1957 and July 1959, now with the revised subtitle "Information bulletin of the Situationist International". Each issue comprised between one and four mimeographed sheets. Les Lèvres Nues, though not an LI publication, published some of their most important articles. All of these texts, together with a few other miscellaneous tracts, are reprinted in Documents Relatifs A La Fondation De L'Internationale Situationniste (Editions Allia, 1985).
Debord's 1959 collaboration with Asger Jorn, Mémoires, was directly concerned with the early days of the LI. The new Gallimard edition of his Oeuvres gathers many LI texts, including some never before published. Michèle Bernstein's novels, Tous les chevaux du roi (1960) and La Nuit (1961), present fictionalised accounts of her life with Debord during this period. Patrick Straram's Les bouteilles se couchent was a semi-fictionalised contemporary account of the scene, written in 1953 but lost until recently: it was published by Editions Allia in 2006. Also recently published by the same house are a biography of Ivan Chtcheglov and a separate collection of his writings. In October 2010, an unpublished text from the LI has just been released that recalls the adventures of the letterists between 1945 to February 1953 : Visages de l'avant-garde (Paris: Jean-Paul Rocher, éditeur, 2010).
Sources in English
- Mension, Jean-Michel. The Tribe (London: Verso, 2002). The most compendious source of information on the LI.
- Marcus, GreilGreil MarcusGreil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...
. Lipstick TracesLipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th CenturyLipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century is a non-fiction book by American rock-music critic Greil Marcus that examines popular music and art as a social critique of Western culture....
(London: Penguin, 1989). - Home, StewartStewart HomeStewart Home is an English artist, filmmaker, writer, pamphleteer, art historian, and activist. He is best known for his novels such as the non-narrative 69 Things To Do With A Dead Princess , his re-imagining of the 1960s in Tainted Love , and earlier parodistic pulp fictions Pure Mania, Red...
. The Assault on Culture (Stirling: Ak Press, 1991). - Hussey, Andrew. The Game of War (London: Jonathan Cape, 2001).
- van der Elsken, EdEd van der ElskenEduard "Ed" van der Elsken was a Dutch photographer and filmmaker.His imagery provides quotidian, intimate and autobiographic perspectives on the European zeitgeist spanning the period of the Second World War into the nineteen-seventies in the realms of love, sex, art, music , and alternative...
. Love On The Left Bank (Stockport: Dewi Lewis Publishing, 1999). Ed van der Elsken was a Dutch photographer, who captured the scene around Moineau's during the period. Included among the people depicted in this book (first published 1956) are a few members and associates of the LI (particularly Mension and Papaï).
Other Sources
- Vachon, Marc L’arpenteur de la ville: L’utopie situationniste et Patrick Straram. (Les Éditions Triptyque, Montreal, 2003) ISBN 978-2-89031-476-4.