DEBORD, Guy. Aux Producteurs de lʼArt Moderne.

DEBORD, Guy. Aux Producteurs de lʼArt Moderne.Debord Makes a Spectacle in Society DEBORD, Guy. Aux Producteurs de lArt Moderne. Brussels: International Association of Art Critics. 1958. Single strip of paper (20 x 900 mm); printed in black: Aux producteurs de lart modern. Si vous etes fatigues dimiter les demolitions; sil vous apparait que les redites fragmentaires que lon attend de vous sont depasses avant detre, prenez contact avec nous pour organiser a un niveau superieur de nouveaux pouvoirs

Debord Makes a Spectacle in Society

DEBORD, Guy. Aux Producteurs de lʼArt Moderne. Brussels: International Association of Art Critics. 1958.

Single strip of paper (20 x 900 mm); printed in black: ‘Aux producteurs de l’art modern. Si vous etes fatigues d’imiter les demolitions; sil vous apparait que les redites fragmentaires que l’on attend de vous sont depasses avant d’etre, prenez contact avec nous pour organiser a un niveau superieur de nouveaux pouvoirs de transformation du milieu ambient. Internationale Situationniste, 32 Montagne-Genevieve, Paris 5e’; some very light spotting, and slight creasing to edges; very good.

One of the first flyers produced by the Situationist International, the European avant-garde alliance of writers, artists, and poets established in 1957, this one by Guy Debord, later the author of The Society of the Spectacle and the ‘most important figure’ of the Situationist movement (Situationist International Archive).

This response to artists is one of the first works produced by the Situationist International, which succeeded the Lettrist International (1952–1957), and brilliantly encapsulates Debord’s theory of dépassement de lʼart (surpassing of art): ‘The current revival of both modern art and revolutionary politics can only be their surpassing, which is to say precisely the realization of what was their most fundamental demand’ (Debord, trans. Levin, p. 159). This flyer, almost a metre in length, was created as a response by Debord, Pinot-Gallizio, Jorn, and others to the International Association of Art Critics in Brussels, who had assembled in Brussels in April 1958.

Some two thousand of these flyers were thrown from the roof of the city’s Grand Bazaar on 12 April, two days before the critics’ international assembly. ‘To you, this gathering is just one more boring event. The Situationist International, however, considers that while this assemblage of so many art critics as an attraction of the Brussels Fair is laughable, it is also significant … [Critics] solicit official recognition from the completely outmoded but still materially dominant society, for which of most of them have been loyal watchdogs’ (Situationist International, Action in Belgium Against the International Assembly of Art Critics (1958), trans.).

The boldness and simplicity of the present flyer demonstrate Debord’s capacity not only as a theorist, but also as a typographic designer. It reads ‘To the producers of modern art. If you are tired of imitating demolitions; if it seems to you that the fragmentary repetitions expected of you are outdated before even existing, get in touch with us to organize, at a higher level, new powers of transformation of the surrounding environment. Internationale Situationniste, 32 rue Montagne-Geneviève, Paris-5e’. This is a very rare survival of an important work of Situationist ephemera: although two thousand flyers were thrown into the crowd in April 1958, only a few were kept.

See Debord (trans. Levin), ‘The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics or Art’, in McDonough ed., Guy Debord and the Situationist International (2002).

SKU: 2123505