First ever English-language anthology of the Scandinavian Situationists
Cosmonauts of the Future: Texts from the Situationist Movement in
Scandinavia and Elsewhere
Edited by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen & Jakob Jakobsen
This is the first ever English-language anthology collecting texts and
documents from the still little-known Scandinavian part of the
Situationist movement. The book covers over three decades of writing,
from Asger Jorn’s Luck and Chance published in 1953, to the statements
of the Situationist Antinational set up by Jens Jørgen Thorsen and J.V.
Martin in 1974. The writings collected gravitate around the year 1962
when the Situationist movement went through it’s most dynamic and
critical moments, and the disagreements about the relationship between
art and politics came to a culmination, resulting in exclusions and the
split of the Situationist International.
The Situationists did not win, and the almost forgotten Scandinavian
fractions even less so. The book broadens the understanding of the
Situationist movement by bringing into view the wild and unruly
activities of the Scandinavian fractions of the organisation and the
more artistic, experimental, and actionist attitude that characterised
them. They did, nevertheless, constitute a decisive break with the
ruling socio-economic order through their project of bringing into being
new forms of life. Only an analysis of the multifaceted and often
contradictory Situationist revolution will allow us to break away from
the dull contemplation of yet another document of Debord’s archive or
yet another drawing by Jorn. There is a lot to be learned from the
history of revolutionary failure. It is along these lines that this book
points forward beyond the crisis-ridden capitalist order that survives
today.
Texts by: Asger Jorn, Jørgen Nash, Jens Jørgen Thorsen, Bauhaus
Situationniste, Jacqueline de Jong, Gordon Fazakerley, Gruppe SPUR,
Dieter Kunzelman, J.V. Martin, and Guy Debord.
Translated by: Peter Shield, James Manley, Anja Buchele, Matthew Hyland,
Fabian Tompsett, and Jakob Jakobsen.
Bio: Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen is an art historian and political theorist.
He is associate professor at the University of Copenhagen and has
published books and articles on the revolutionary tradition and modern
art. Jakob Jakobsen is an artist and political organizer. He ran the
Copenhagen Free University, cofounded the artist run TV station tvtv and
has participated in exhibitions all over the world.
PDF available freely online: http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=666
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