Situationist City by Véronique Vienne

the situationist citypresentation by Véronique Vienne

“…on the passage of a few people through a rather brief moment in time.”

Asger Jorn and Guy Debord, 1957

L’INTERNATIONALE SITUATIONNISTE (IS)

KEY SITUATIONIST CONCEPTS

1- Create “situations” that subvert the complacency of consumers

2- Use “disorientation” to access out-of-the-box thinking(“urban drift” as a technique to connect with the city)

3- Appropriate existing advertisements by co-opting their messages(“adbusting” to debunk hypocrisy)

4- Avoid “spectacular” behavior

The spectacle.What spectacle?

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Cassandre

Cassandreby André Kertez

Atelier Loupot

…when life itself becomes “the” spectacle



1942 -----------> 1952

“Boredom is form of political oppression .”Guy Debord





Advertising messages are occupying the public sphere







Two opposing points of views: spectacular vs. non-spectacular

Situationist tactic no 1: THE DRIFT(La dérive)

a.k.a Psychogeography

The drift is a technique for wandering around aimelessly in order to subvert the patriarchal

order of the traditional time-space

Subverting the map

Lettrist exercises:subverting the integrity of the page

Exercises in graphic “disorientation”(Asger Jorn et Guy Debord)

Disorientation map

Psychogéography/Situationist maps





lust.nl



Worldmapper

lust.nl





Christian Nold

Andreas Nicolas Fisher





Johnathan Harris

Situationist tactic no 2:REROUTING IMAGES

also calledDETOURNEMENT

One of the most popular techniques to subvert the « spectacle »

Seattle 1999

Abu Ghraib 2006

Adbusters magazine

Adbusters “Buy Nothing” campaign



Reappropriation of “détournement” by designers and advertising agencies















Mai 1968 Situationist slogan:“shop more, live less”



Malte Martin



Les graphiquants

Situationist tactic no 3:« CONVIVIAL UPRISING »

Building barricades against boredom

Under the cobblestones, the beach







Paris Mai 1968













Grapus: Pierre Bernard

The Punk Mouvement /Jamie Reid



Subverting the walls

Let the walls speak!

Barbara Kruger

New York: East Village





Paris today: rue Denoyer

Paris: rue Ramponeau

In the subversive tradition:up againt the walls

Berlin 1988

Berlin Wall 2003

Ernest Pignon Ernest

Ernest Pignon Ernest

West Bank Wall Banksy

Banksy

Banksy

Sao Paulo: Alexander Orion

Situationist “in situ” events today

Malte Martin

Malte Martin

Malte Martin

Malte Martin

Paris Nuits blanches

JR in the favelas

Situationist Drift:Reinventing urban space

situationist exercise

The north-south axis

Example of a Cardo Maximus: Apamea, Syria

Other examples: Reims and Jérusalem

Broadway splits Manhattan in halves

An overland route during the Bronze Age, it was used to transport tin from England to Greece. To avoid crossing large bodies of water, it followed the watershed line across Europe.

(tin and copper were essential to manufacture bronze.)

The Tin Road from Cornwall to Corinth

The US Continental Divide

Scott McCloud



The gutter between the pages

the gutter is a fold with an erotic dimension…

the cardo maximus of Paris:rue Saint Denis

Paris cardo maximus

the cardo extended into the countrysidethrough the “Lendit”

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the street used to be a country road

the Saint Denis street is a narrow canyon that splits the city in halves.

Claude Monet

… It’s really a “gutter”, where, for centuries, prostitutes have offered their services to pilgrims and tourists.





Passage du Grand Cerf… Passage du Caire… Passage du Prado

It is a street of secret passages

South of the arch: the street with its fancy courtyards

North of the arch: the country road with its back alleys

Rue Saint Denis crosses the plain north of Paris: it is a mythological path through the Lendit,

a celtic “ground zéro”

the “monjoies” were mysterious monuments.

Bronze was used for weapons, tools, statues and coins.

The Lendit fairground

The Stade de France, at the very center of the Lendit plain, is also the center of of the Ile- de-France

Porte Saint Denis in Manhattan?



The Manhattan Bridge Architectes: Carrere & Hastings, 1916

News & Politics

Situationist City by Véronique Vienne