All the King´s Horses: Letterism Today?
A seminar on the history and the actuality of the Letterist movement
24.5 2011 – 25.5 2011
Stockholm
May 24, 4pm in the Auditorium
May 25, 4pm in the Cinema
Admission free.
Language: English
Letterism was founded in 1945 by the Romanian poet and artist Isidore Isou (1925-2007). The Letterist movement was one of the earliest and most influential avantgardes of European postwar art. Among its members was Guy Debord, who would later distance himself from the movement and create the Situationist International. But Letterism has continued to operate in the periphery of the French artworld, and a number of poets, artists and filmmakers are still producing new works with reference to the concepts and theories introduced by Isou.
Participants:
Frédéric Acquaviva: artist, musician, curator and collector, specialized in the Letterist movement. He recently curated the exhibition of Gil Wolman’s works at MACBA in Barcelona and the Fundação Serralves in Porto.
Nicole Brenez: film historian, critic and curator, specialized in French experimental film. In 2001, she published the anthology Jeune, dure et pure! Une histoire du cinéma d’avant-garde et expérimental en France, in collaboration with Christian Lebrat.
Anne-Catherine Caron: Letterist artist and writer. Also works as a curator.
Michel Giroud: publisher, ”oral painter”, and historian of avant-garde movements. In 2008 he published Paris, laboratoire des avant-gardes: Transformations – Transformateurs, 1945–1965.
The seminar is organized by Jonas (J) Magnusson and Kim West, with support from Allianz Kulturstiftung. Curator in charge at Moderna Museet: Camilla Carlberg As a part of the project two evenings about Letterism will also be organized in Paris. At the Institut suédois Frédérique Devaux will talk about and show letterist films. Thursday May 19, 7.30 pm. At Castillo/Corrales Bernard Girard and Michel Giroud will discuss the history of Letterism and how it can be written today. Saturday May 21, 6 pm.
The seminar is organised by Jonas (J) Magnusson and Kim West, with funding from Allianz Kulturstiftung.
Seminar curator at Moderna Museet: Camilla Carlberg
All the King’s Horses
Alla kungens hästar (All the King’s Horses) is a series of events, seminars and exhibitions that will investigate the legacies and the actuality of the Situationist movement, the most influential and, some would claim, the last of the European postwar avantgardes. In the 50s and the 60s, the Situationist International, the movement’s dominant group, developed a number of famous concepts and techniques for transcending art and subverting all established culture. The importance of these concepts and models for contemporary art and thinking cannot be overestimated.
However, attempting to trace the different Situationist concepts and models, we soon realize that they originate from a wide range of places and contexts. The Situationist International was enmeshed in a sprawling network of groups, where events occuring in the peripheries, in excluded or marginalized sections and constellations, were often just as important as those taking place in the ideological center. It is therefore high time to ask: Which histories remain to tell about the Situationist movement? And in what senses does it live on in contemporary artistic, theoretical and political practices?
Alla kungens hästar is a multinational project that will trace the Situationist International and its network of associated sections and groups as they spread out across Europe. It is co-organized by the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, and is initiated by Daniel Birnbaum and Kim West.
All the King´s Horses: Jacqueline de Jong/A paradise of Letters, 25 February 2012
All the King´s Horses: Legacies of the Situationist International, 1-2 December 2010