Giovedì sera --12.08.04 ––Intorno (riprenderà dalla coda) – La Société du spectacle Guy Debord -- Film and reading

Tematica:

1. Su questo giovedì
2. Sul libro che leggeremo e sul film che vedremo
3. Su Guy Debord

link:

http://www.nothingness.org/SI/
http://www.notbored.org/debord.html

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1. Su questo giovedì

Cosa: La Société du spectacle Guy Debord Film and reading
Quando: 8.30 pm, Giovedì 12 Agosto, 2004
Dove: Stabilimento Gruppocacao, Via Duodo n.4, Lido di Venezia (VE)
(scesi alla fermata di Santa Maria Elisabetta, Lido, percorrere la Riva di San Niccolò, dopo il distributore Total girare alla prima a destra, Via Duodo, il palazzo è il secondo sulla destra)
(after arriving to Santa Maria Elisabetta stop in Lido, turn left and walk down the Riva di San Niccolò, after the Total gas station turn right, the building is the second on your right)
Chi: tutti sono invitati

Incontro con l’artista Silke Witzsch che presenterà alcuni suoi lavori.

Proiezione del film La Société du spectacle scritto e realizzato da Guy Debord, dal suo libro La Société du spectacle, 1973, b/n, 80 min., versione originale con sottotitoli in inglese e lettura di alcuni estratti dal libro.

Screening of the film La Société du spectacle written and directed by Guy Debord, from his book La Société du spectacle, 1973, b/w, 80 min., original version with english subtitles and reading extracts from the book.

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2. Sul libro che leggeremo e sul film che vedremo

Nel 1967 Debord pubblica La Société du Spectacle, la sua opera maggiore. Nel testo sostiene che lo spettacolo, o la dominazione delle immagini sulla vita, ha inglobato tutte le altre forme di dominazione. Egli attacca il lavoro salariato e la produzione di massa, qualsiasi forma di gerarchia, nell’elaborazione di una teoria Situazionista, ma rivendicando che essi continuano ad esercitare il potere solo nell’inclusione nello spettacolo. Egli scrive che lo spettacolo è “capitale ad un tale livello di accumulazione che diventa un’immagine” e che le immagini costituiscono la moneta della società contemporanea. La Société du Spectacle ebbe un’enorme influenza sulla rivolta studentesca nel 1968. Molte citazioni vennero prese dal testo per diventare graffiti sui muri a Parigi in quell’epoca. Membri dell’Internazionale Situazionista intervennero insieme a agli Enrages dell?università di Nanterre nell’assemblea permanente: l’ Occupations Committee della Sorbonne. Nel 1973 Debord realizzò la versione filmica de La Société du Spectacle (Simar Films) e nel 1989 egli aggiornò il testo con Commentaires sur La Société du Spectacle provando il suo potere di resistenza come testo definitivo sull’imperialismo culturale, il capitale e la mediazione nella società.

Le analisi che la vita ha ridotto nello spettacolo, come risultato di tutte le relazioni divenute transazioni nella società capitalista, possono essere viste come un rimaneggiamento dei primi scritti di Marx sull’alienazione. Il contributo situazionista a questa teoria è il riconoscimento di “pseudo-bisogni”, creati dal capitalismo allo scopo di assicurare continuamente un consumo crescente. Essi girano la consapevolezza dalla sua determinazione al punto di consumo, guardando il moderno capitalismo come la società dei consumi. L’individuo, o il lavoratore, non è più riconosciuto come essere produttivo, ma corteggiato come consumatore.

I Situazionisti credevano necessario pensare al momento immediato come il più alto potenziale per il cambiamento, e che liberare se stessi significava trasformare la società creando un effetto nelle relazioni di potere. Cambiando la percezione sul mondo, credevano di trasformare la struttura della società. La loro pratica si basava sulla costruzione di situazioni che irrompevano nelle norme della società. Con questo spirito hanno lavorato sull'idea di deriva: come un flusso di atti ed incontri; e di "detournement": come un ri-dirigere le immagini e gli eventi. Hanno incoraggiato il vandalismo, gli scioperi e il sabotaggio, sia come metodo per minare la società del consumo e dello spettacolo, sia come atti creativi. I situazionisti sentirono la responsabilità di rendere esplicito alle masse il sistema in cui erano già coinvolti. Speravano di essere catalizzatori di un processo rivoluzionario, che avrebbe poi reso i situazionisti ridondanti e causato il loro scioglimento. Questa fantasia non si realizzò, tuttavia, dal momento che il gruppo si dissociò per dispute interne nel 1972. Le loro idee continuano a influenzare l'arte, la politica e la filosofia.

Society of the Spectacle, Debord’s major work, was published in 1967. In the book he takes the position that the spectacle, or the domination of life by images, has subsumed all other forms of domination. He attacks wage labor and commodity production, indeed all forms of hierarchy, in an elaboration of Situationist theory, but claiming that they continue to wield power only in their subsumption into the spectacle. He writes that the spectacle is "capital to such a degree of accumulation that it becomes an image" and that images are the currency of contemporary society. Society of the Spectacle had an enormous influence on the student rebellion in 1968. Many quotations were taken from the text to become graffiti on the walls of Paris at the time. Members of the SI acted with the Enrages from Nanterre University in the assembly held in permanent session: the Occupations Committee of the Sorbonne. In 1973 Debord made a film version of Society of the Spectacle (Simar Films) and in 1989 he updated the text in Commentaries on Society of the Spectacle, proving its holding power as a definitive text on cultural imperialism, capital, and mediation in society.

The analysis that life has been reduced to a spectacle, as the result of all relationships becoming transactional in capitalist society, can be seen as a reworking of Marx's early writing on alienation. The Situationist addition to this theory is the recognition of "pseudo-needs", created by capitalism to continually ensure increased consumption. They switched consciousness from its determination at the point of production to the point of consumption, seeing modern capitalism as a consumer society. The individual, or worker, is no longer recognized as a producer, but courted as a consumer.
The Situationists believed that it was necessary to think of the immediate moment as the highest potential for change, and that to liberate oneself was to transform society by effecting power relations. They believed that to transform the structure of society we need only change our perception of the world.

Their praxis was based in constructing situations that were disruptive to social norms. It was in this spirit that they created the idea of the 'derive,' as a flow of acts and encounters, and the 'detournement,' as a redirection of images and events. As methods of undermining consumer society and the constructed spectacle they encouraged vandalism, wildcat strikes and sabotage, seeing these as creative acts. The SI saw it their responsibility to make apparent to the masses the system in which they were already implicated. They hoped to be catalysts in a revolutionary process that would eventually make the SI redundant and cause their dissolution. This fantasy was not to come about, however, as the group disbanded over tactical disputes in 1972. Their ideas continue to have a lasting influence on art, politics and philosophy.

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3. Su Guy Debord

Autoproclamatosi leader dell’Internazionale situazionista, Guy Debord è stato sicuramente responsabile della longevità e dell’alto profilo delle idee Situazioniste, sebbene abbiano male interpretato le sue idee. Brillante ma autocratico, Debord aiutò sia ad unificare le pratiche situazioniste dia a distruggere le espansioni verso aree non esplicitamente in linea con le sue idee. Il testo La Société du spectacle rimane ancora oggi una delle più grandi opere teoriche sul capitale moderno, sull’imperialismo culturale e sul ruolo della mediazione nelle relazioni sociale.
Dopo lo scioglimento dell’Internazionale Situazionista, Debord fu implicato lateralmente nell’assassinio del suo amico ed editore Gérard Lebovici. L’accusa infuriò Debord, che decise di vieta la diffusione dei suoi film in Francia durante la sua vita. Debord continuò a scrivere e nel 1989 egli pubblicò Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle, sostenendo che tutto quello che scrisse nel 1967 fosse ancora vero, con una sola eccezione: la società dello spettacolo ha raggiunto una nuoa forma, quella dello spettacolo integrato. La prospettiva di rovesciare la società dello spettacolo sembrava ancora più inverosimile che mai. Nel dicembre 1994, all’età di 62 anni, Debord si suicidò. La stampa francese che aveva sempre misconosciuto l’importanza dell’Internazionale Situazionista, improvvisamente lo rese una celebrità.

Guy Debord was born in Paris on December 28, 1931. In 1950 Debord began his association with the Lettrist International, which was being led by Isidore Isou at the time. The Lettrists were attempting to fuse poetry and music, and were interested in transforming the urban landscape. In 1953 they mapped out what they called the "psychogeography" of Paris by walking through the city in a free-associative manner, or "drifts". Texts on this activity were first published in Naked Lips in 1955 and 1956, in essays titled "Detournement: How to Use" and "Theory of the Derive."
In 1957 the Lettrist International joined another group of avant-garde artists, called Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, to form the Situationist International (SI), and founded the magazine called Situationiste Internationale. Debord proclaimed himself the leader of the SI, and saw himself responsible for maintaining the high ideals he had in mind for the group, but to equate Debord with the SI in all its activities would be misleading. He had a major role in unifying Situationist practice, but he also prevented its expansion into areas he felt would undermine his own goals.
The original membership of the SI were Parisian intellectuals and artists who were influenced by the Dada and Surrealist movements, and the group never grew to more than a dozen members. Members were rapidly admitted and expelled, and by 1963 all the original members had left or had been pushed out, including Asger Jorn, who was one of the most prominent members. At the beginning of the SI movement their goal was to transgress the boundary separating art and culture from the everyday and make them part of common life. They theorized that Capitalism has the effect of diverting and stifling creativity, dividing the social body into producers and consumers, or actors and spectators.

The SI saw art and poetry as a production by all people, that this was a way to make art the dominant power rather than having power rest in a small group of designated men. They argued for complete divertissement, and were against work. By 1962 they were applying their critique to all aspects of capitalist society, and no longer limiting it to arts and culture. They were inspired by the history of the anarchist movement, and looked to the First International, Spain, Kronstadt, and the Makhnovists in their research. They accused the USSR of being a "capitalist bureaucracy", and were advocates for workers' councils. They retained, however, Marxist elements and never identified as entirely anarchistic.
In 1971 Debord became friends with Gerard Lebovici, who would become his publisher and producer. In 1984 Lebovici was assassinated, and Debord was tangentially implicated. He was subjected to police interrogation, and suffered defamation in the press. Debord was infuriated by the accusations, and as a consequence, prohibited the screening of his films in France during his lifetime. He won his subsequent libel suits, and he published Considerations on the Assassination of Gerard Lebovici in 1985.
In 1987 Debord wrote The Game of War with his second wife, Alice Becker-Ho. In 1989 he published his Commentaries on the Society of the Spectacle, expanding on the earlier text by writing of the "integrated" spectacle, the new, more insidious form of the spectacle.

In 1994, Debord committed suicide in Champot, Upper Loire. It was not his first attempt, having tried to asphyxiate himself once before in 1955. His ashes were scattered on the point of Ile de la Cité, Paris. The French press promptly made him a celebrity, never before having acknowledged the significance of the Situationist International or Debord's work.