Books of Warfare: The Collaboration between Guy Debord & Asger Jorn from 1957-1959

1. The Collaboration

Asger Jorn was one of the founding members of the Situationist International (SI), after he had enthusiastically received copies of Potlatch from a friend, a magazine which pre–dated the founding of the SI. The magazine sparked Jorn’s fascination with Guy Debord and the two met in Paris in 1954. Almost immediately they set out to plan several collaborative projects. The making of the two books happened in what Guy Atkins describes as «the first, formative, tentative, and relatively tolerant phase» of the SI[1].

Jorn’s involvement in the movement was short lived, as he decided to leave the SI in the early 60s due to the fact that he was starting to sell his paintings and make a profit, something which did not fit with the direction in which the SI was moving. He was one of the very few people who along the way became involved with the SI, and who on his own terms decided to leave. It was practically a custom within the SI to expel members left and right, when Guy Debord saw them to be illfit for the movement. Even though Jorn had left the SI he still remained good friends with Debord, and over the years he contributed a large amount of money to the printing of the Situationist magazine, International Situationniste[2] . Guy Atkins describes his departure in the following way:

He resigned in April 1961 owing to various personal circum-stances, but probably in part because he felt that the formative period, during which he could exert some influence, was coming to an end.

Before I go into a analysis of the two books, I think it is necessary to draw out some details about the relationship between Guy Debord and Asger Jorn. It is described very differently, depending on the source. Guy Atkins who wrote a three volume biography on Jorn draws up quite a hostile picture:

As a prototype Marxist intellectual Debord needed an ally who could catch up the difficult human relationships and who could rise above the petty egoisms and squabbles of the members. Their quarrels came into the open the moment Jorn’s leadership was withdrawn in 1961.[3]

It seems very clear that Atkins is trying to diminish the role that Jorn’s involvement in the movement had for him, even though it clearly founded his interest in the usage of using paint as a device to connect parts of the image surface with other parts, and interconnecting text with each other[4]. This method which he developed for Fin de Copenhague was later used in his paintings. It is, however, never hinted anywhere in Situationist writing or writing about the Situationists that they ever had more than one leader — which was Guy Debord. No one else was ever in charge of the SI. Jorn describes Debord in the afterword to the facsimile edition of Fin de Copenhague as:

«I contracted a debt towards the movement Situationist and, by name, towards this single character, deeply worrying, and encouraging who is Guy Debord».

In the preface to Debord’s 1964 book, Contre le Cinéma, Jorn writes:

I have met no one else but Guy Debord who, unaware of the other problems which could attract his attention, concentrates himself exclusively, with a maniacal passion and a capacity which comes from that, on the task of correcting the rules of the human game according to the new given conditions of our time.

Even though Jorn’s involvement was brief, it took place during a very intense period. He managed to create some of the most infamous SI projects, partly alone and partly in collaboration with other members. Most notably was the work he did together with Guy-Ernest Debord. At this point, late 50s to early 60s, the SI was busy creating maps of cities, critiquing modern urban development. Ideas of new urban and inner city development materialized in this period from a wide range of SI members.

One of the many people that Jorn introduced to the SI, was the Dutch architect Constant. While he was a member, he developed the plan for a architecturally designed refugee camp. Other members played on the idea of purposeful disorientation. One idea that surfaced was that one would walk through a city guided by the map of another city, thus getting lost. It was only when you had completely lost control of the city’s normal guidance system (a system that is only there to constrain you) that you would be able to rediscover the city on your own terms, and not those dictated by the city.

The notion of psychogeography and détournement were terms that were formulated during the existence of the Letterist International (LI), Debord’s group prior to the SI. The notions worked as the overall skeleton on which they could build and expand their ideas of a critique of the city. One of the earlier methods of psychogeography was dérive — or drift. The idea was based on a character walking through the city and rediscovering it on his own terms, without ever having a goal. Drifting through the street, seemingly without a purpose. Paris was the city of choice for the LI, it was here their ideas were coined, it was here the thinking, drinking and experimentation took place and it will ultimately here that the war would be fought.

One of the first results to come out of the collaboration between Debord and Jorn was a screen printed map of Paris. They had taken a three dimensional overview map and cut it into pieces, each piece represent ting a part of the city that they thought was «worthy of study and preservation»[5]. The map was entitled Guide psychogéographie de Paris: discours sur les passions de l’armour. Each piece of the city was placed in its correct position within the city and black arrows were drawn to indicate how you could get from one part of the city to another by Taxi, thus ignoring the rest.

Only Taxis allow a true freedom of movement. By traveling various distances in a set time, they contribute to automatic disorientation. Since Taxis are interchangeable, no connection is made with the ‘traveler’ and they can be left anywhere and taken at random. A trip with no destination, diverted arbitrarily en route, is possibly with a Taxi’s essential random itinerary[6].

This map and a later one, The Naked City from 1957, were illustrating the notion of psychogeography. Each preserved part of the city had some sort of sentimental value attached to them. The maps also worked as a guide to the forgotten or overlooked parts of Paris, that were yet awaiting to be hit by the forces of capitalism.

The making of . . .

The making of Fin de Copenhague and Mémoires is explained in detail in a book compiled by Troels Andersen, the curator of Silkeborg Kunstmuseum. It is entitled, Erindringer om Asger Jorn (Memories on Asger Jorn), and entirely in Danish. It contains various stories from people who worked and — or knew Jorn well. In one specific story, V.O. Permild, a printer, explains how he met Asger Jorn and how their cooperation evolved over the years. Permild owned and ran a print house downtown Copenhagen that specialised in printing artists works, such as books and large-scale lithographs.

They had met more or less coincidental through a friend. Jorn had been looking for a printer who could print up his works. Permild’s business had gained an excellent reputation in artists circles. Jorn, who had a professional background as a book binder, was very keen of being part of the whole process. Since he knew how it worked, he was able to control the technically sophisticated process — and use it for whatever purpose he saw fit. Permild explains how Jorn worked:

Asger normally worked very swiftly. From the moment he positioned himself by his worktable, he worked, and until the result was lying in a finished printed version, only a short time went by. Silently singing he worked spontaneously, but conscious on the printing plates and did not stop, before he would be standing with the finished result in his hand. Though, at occasions there could go a while before the graphic found a need.

It is important to understand that both books were the result of a col­laboration not just between Jorn and Debord, but also with the printer, Permild & Rosengreen. It is common to neglect the importance of the prin­ter’s role. It is impossible for anyone to know everything about the process of making a book. At some point in the development it is necessary to give some aspects of the making into the hands of people who deal with this sort of thing; in this case the printing. It is not a negative thing to emphasise his or her importance, which was something that Jorn was aware of.

The Artist can only very rarely do without the help of a printer, for it is precisely through the co-operation of artist and printer that first­rate results have been achieved[7].

To acknowledge the work done by Permild & Rosengreen, Jorn drew up a logo of their business and added it to his book, Fin de Copenhague. It also appears at the end page of Mémoires.

2. The Books

Fin de Copenhague

Permild goes on to explain how Jorn and Debord one day came into the print house, with a request to be driven into town. They had just arrived from Paris, and «something had to happen» , as he put it. They were dropped of outside a kiosk, went in and bought a huge variety of national and international newspapers and magazines. The next morning they arrived with 32 pages of newspaper collages. Pictures and text had been combined overnight, to what should turn out to be Jorn’s goodbye to Copenhagen. According to Debord the making of Fin de Copenhague had happened in a «bad tempered and drunken afternoon after a raid which he and Jorn had made to a Copenhagen news­stand. They had stolen newspapers and magazines. . . »[8] .

This is a good example of what the Situationist meant by the when they referred to the spectacle. It also introduces us to another SI concept, namely détournement. They saw the spectacle as the all embracing alienating culture in which they lived. A culture that took all real experiences away from its inhabitants and replaced them by used one’s that had been played over and over again. In this case the newsstand is an obvious example of propaganda for the spectacle, presenting that alienating world view. They had set out to «auto-destruct» the spectacle by means of détournement. A word which was already present in the French dictionary, but one that the Situationists adopted. It emphasized the idea of re-using already established elements. It translates as:

Détournement: diversion, rerouting, hijacking, embezzlement or misappropriation (of funds), corruption of a minor.

The collages were re-photographed and transferred unto print plates. Then Jorn got hold of a ladder and positioned himself above the plates, where he dropped cup after cup of different coloured Indian ink unto the fragile zinc plate. In the end, the plates were etched and were ready for printing. The cover was made up of cardboard substance from discarded newspaper and embossed under extreme heat and pressure.

This was a radical attack on the sacred institution of print making. Jorn had set out to intentional handle the fragile zinc plate as he felt like by dropping ink on them from great heights. A method that is not normally practiced, representing not only a disrespect for the nature of print making but also a indication that print making should not be looked upon as a black art. «The whole cavalier attitude to the sacred rituals of printing may be taken as a fair example of the frame of mind that prompts Jorn to refer to himself and colleagues as the Bauhaus Imaginiste or even Bauhaus Imaginaire»[9].

The whole thing was printed and bound, two hundred copies signed and numbered by Jorn and Debord. Less than 24 hours had passed, from idea to production, to the finished product. This was a spontaneous project – and with a very limited edition printed, echoes the values embedded in Old World «artist books». Most copies of this publication are probably lost by now. Quite a few are, thankfully, part of historical book collections at most major Danish libraries. Needless to say, this Situationist book has risen to a stupendously high price, if you are able to find one on the market[10].

Not only is the book itself a visual example of détournement, the making of it, conforms to the notion as well. The very idea of assembling a book, something which usually takes months and months of planning and careful crafting, and printing it within such a short time frame, casts some light on the madness of early Situationist works.

The SI was battling a war against the fact that everything in their lives had already been turned into a commodity ready for consumption. No part of it had been left untouched by the spectacle. Nothing remained sacred or immune to its powers. It saw itself attached to a class system, strongly depending on a structured society where everybody knew their place. When one spectacle ended, there was always another ready to take its position.

The spectacle epitomises the prevailing model of social life. It is the omnipresent celebration of a choice already made in the sphere of production, and the consummate result of that choice. In form as in content the spectacle serves as total justification for the conditions and aims of the existing system[11].

Jorn and Debord took that «choice which had already been made» , and reused it, creating new meaning. A new visual representation of a representation. As earlier mentioned, the making of these books took place during their artistic phase, where they still thought that art could make a difference. This changed radically in the early 60s. The SI decided, with Debord at the steering wheel, that it was about time to change direction. At this point they were more interested in theorising their ideas, than producing works around them. Those who tried otherwise, were expelled, « . . . a member proposed that any work produced by a Situationist from now on be labeled anti-Situationist»[12].

Looking at the cover of the original, gives you an impression of how much craft went into making it. Consisting of a densely embossed razor blade advertisement; very hard to read or even to make sense of. Running your hand over it reminds you of a medieval manuscript with thick embossed text. The cover completely lacks colour, which does not corresponds to the visual experience of the actual content of the book, which is spacious and colourful.

Fin de Copenhague is physically not very big, almost like a little A5 folder. Printed on matt yellowish paper and sewn together. It has a very fluid design, with the paint floating on the page, intermixing with the text cutouts, comics and photographs — all extracted from a wide range of national and international newspaper and magazines. Taken out of one context and replaced within another one. The collage parts and colours were technically produced as two individual layers. First a zinc plate with the newspaper clipping would run through the lithographical printing machine, then a plate with the colours would through, using the same piece of paper. Ultimately merging the two on the page. Asger Jorn is credited as the author with Guy Debord «conseiller technique pour le détournement» (Adviser in the techniques of détournement). The book was published under EDITE PAR LE BAUHAUS IMAGINISTE, Jorn’s pre-situationist group. This group was merged into what should become the SI in the summer of 1957, a few months after the making of Fin de Copenhague.

While the original Bauhaus had sought to apply art to functional purposes, Jorn’s Imaginiste Bauhaus took the opposite stand and advocated the use of technology for aesthetic, that is, non­functional, ends[13].

The book is Asger Jorn’s goodbye to Denmark – an insult in itself, since he had always had a close relationship to his home country. It draws up a seemingly random picture of Jorn’s life, and shows us disconnected maps of the places he devoured. Moreover, the book has no structure. It has no inherit narrative that guides you from page to page. It can be enjoyed from front to back or the other way around. The book itself seems to show the many places where Jorn spend his youth; where he got drunk. It «May be read in any direction, and [which] the reciprocal relationships between phrases are invariable incomplete»[14]. This goes hand in hand with the intentions of the Psychogeographical map that the book is.

A science of situations is to be created, which will borrow elements from psychology, statistics, urbanism and ethics. These elements have to run together to an absolute new conclusion: the conscious creation of situations[15].

Psychogeography is this science, or at least a pseudo­science since it cannot be compared to a science in the traditional sense of the word. For the Situationists psychogeography was a method of finding the lost city within the already established boundaries of the city. By ignoring all the parts of the city that emphasised the powers of the spectacle, they could somehow re­discover its lost values. Debord would later ‘codify’ the many Situationists terms, and he wrote of détournement as the «. . . study of the precise effects of the geographical milieu, whether consciously arranged or not, and its direct influences on the effective behaviour of individuals»[16]. In this case, the individual is Asger Jorn. The book is not a self-portrait, but a satire on Copenhagen and Denmark, with its inclusion of specific danish products spread across a few pages. It reads, for instance, in the beginning of the book: «Copenhague — I spend my time . . . the feeling to be crushed of tiredness». There are no direct references to Jorn’s life, perhaps with the exception of specific locations and alcohol. The amount of liquor bottles contained in Fin de Copenhague is massive and together with the colours thrown on the pages, it sometimes resembles the very liquid contained in them.

I don’t remember ever seeing a book containing so many liquor bottles, and sometimes it feels as if the liquid colour is streaming out of the bottles. It is a psychogeographic drawing over the places, with intoxication and drunkenness, that Jorn seeked in his Scandinavian youth[17].

The book is full of small maps and other territorial markings. On a double page spread a map is presented to us, supposedly resembling Denmark. Its form has no similarities to that of Denmark, but a few city names have been scattered across with a vivid mono-colour floating in between and across them. In the upper right corner it reads: «Un splendid paysage que Bernard Buffet a souvent peint» (Splendid landscape that Bernard Buffet has often painted). All across the double page spread a vivid green colour has been thrown, floating unto the page from the left hand side. Four areas are marked in a black grid system varying in size, indicating different cities. It then reads the four city names next to the grid area: «Silkeborg, København, Aarhus and Kalyehave», all places with close connection to Jorn’s upbringing. Bernard Buffet was famous for painting his first painting at the age of 12 of his deceased mother. Jorn is obviously ridiculing the French painter by including the above sentence on a page that does not resemble his pain­ting style at all. The style cannot be compared with the green paint tossed across it. His paintings were of a figurative nature, as opposed to abstract, often containing characters with rather triangular faces. One of Buffet’s tra­demarks were his remarkably big signature that would often decorate the center of the canvas[18].

It was this kind of artistic individuality and style that the Situationist set out to bring down, or at least make fun of. Whereas Buffet’s paintings were carefully crafted, the page in Fin de Copenhague is of a diametrically opposite nature, with the paint carelessly tossed across it. The page becomes a statement, not personally against Buffet but against the carefully crafted nature of art. Buffet was probably selected because he was an easy target with his strictly personal style and his obscure back­ground history. It is somehow telling us that art does not need to be crafted, rather, the less energy that goes into making a piece of art the stronger it probably is, perhaps indicating a lack of spontaneity, something which was certainly present in Jorn’s book. Comparing this double spread with the rest of the book resplendently shows that no single page looks the same – but it does give the impression of a certain artistic style, even though the elements placed within the pages have been assembled from different sources. The style lies in the way Jorn used colour throughout the book. No block of colour has the same form or intensity, nevertheless, the book inherits a certain look. It is with this page spread as with the rest of the book; some of the juxtapositions make sense others simply confuse you more than anything else. For instance, if you would not know who Bernard Buffet was, the whole message would have been lost. Jorn and Debord is, with other words, depending on the fact that the book will be viewed by art infor­med people, or at least people with prior knowledge about key Situationist concepts. You need to know about these in order to unlock the pages. However, as Architectural Review wrote in their October 1957 issue: «The result has the elegance, and the lack of meaning, of a zoning diagram, and the paper-planners pretensions cut down to the size by the accurately back­handed caption Bernard Buffet [. . . ]»[19]. This is a good example of visual détournement in action. Using the pre-conceptions embedded in a painter such as Bernard Buffet, and then presenting an abstract green splash of paint across two pages with various city names spread between them. Building a map that relates to places where Jorn has been, and ridiculing a famous French painter. A simple, effective yet elegant way of using the means of détourement for the re-appropriation of existing matter. This is just one of the many visual examples of détournement in the book. On another striking double page spread it reads in English:

What do you want? Better and cheaper food? Lots of new clothes? A dream home with all the latest comforts and labour saving devices? A new car . . . a motor launch . . . a light aircraft of your own? Whatever you want, it’s coming your way -plus greater leisure for enjoying it all. With electronics, automation and nu-clear energy, we are entering on the new Industrial Revolution which will supply our every need, easily . . . quickly . . . cheaply . . . abundantly.

Fin de Copenhague double spread.

Directly asking its readers whether or not any of promises given by the spectacle have been fulfilled, or perhaps asking if those are the things we really want? Could it be an «aim of bringing to the surface the unfulfilled utopian promises that haunt mass-media communication»[20].

On one of the more direct double spreads it reads from bottom down: «Dix minutes aprés, l’émotion étant dissipé, on buvait le champagne» (Ten minutes after the emotion has gone down, excitement, we drank champagne). In English: «There is no whiteness», followed by «Long live the Algerian liberation» . Bottom: «Beaucoup de militaires conseillent les djebels pour guérir rapidement ‘la diffculté d’étre’» (Many militaries advised the djebels to heal from the diffculty of being).

At the very bottom of the page a satirical newspaper drawing of a French soldier attacking a civil Algerian, who is holding his hands up in the air to surrender. This corresponds quite clearly with the message that «There’s no whiteness». It also plays well with the fact the page is covered in islamic green. Small green dots are floating all over the place. We are in the same position. Engulfed with he enemy, France. An obvious political statement against the war that was going on in Algeria. The left page is covered with a slight hint of bright yellow.

The whole page is laid out in the most confusing way possible, an example of the anti-Bauhaus approach to typography and layout that Jorn’s pre-situ group, the Bauhaus Imaginiste had set up. The Bauhaus of the 1920s had preached that form should follow function, thus art should have a function, or the function should be a piece of art. They introduced the term asymmetry to typography and page layout. Before, typography had always been bound to the center axis of the page. With the introduction of asymmetry they tried to push text and or images away from the center to create a more pleasant and balanced double page spread. Such a revolt of typography was difficult if not impossible to achieve, because of typography’s indisputable connection to the printed word. All these terms of balance and typographic unity, was what Jorn’s Imaginiste Bauhaus was attacking. Instead they wanted the page to be abstract picture and realized this, for instance, by tossing colour across it, and letting the random form that this would cause, create the structure. This went against all reason and logic and rendered the printed word into something which should be viewed and not read. Experienced and not dissected. A radical attack on the institution of classical typography and page layout. It died out within the SI due to the demise of its artistic phase, but was adopted by Jorn in his future paintings.

An article about the musician Busoni has been cut into small pieces and spread all over the place, with the lines running up and down, in and out – of what resembles a music instrument. Then it reads in bold letters: «SOMETHING is wrong, but who’s pulling the wool over whose eyes». The Busoni text talks about him as a musical thinker, but one who ultima­tely failed. A big black arrow points at the instrument with the caption: «OUTMODED PHILOSOPHY». Another page that begs to be deciphe­red. The full name is Ferruccio Busoni an italian experimental musician who was widely regarded for his outstanding technique and innovative interpretations[21]. Busoni is quoted to have said: «I have expressed the very essence of myself in the Elegies’, he wrote, adding that these pieces were not designed to overthrow something existing but to recreate something that exists. . . Everything experimental from the beginning of the 20th cen­tury should be used, incorporated in the coming finality»[22]. A saying which might as well has as well been spoken from the lips of a Situationist, if it was not for the  «very essence of myself». He also saw himself as futurist within musical thinking, and perhaps this was the aspect that Jorn was ridiculing.

Occasionally text and images would fade into the colours blocks and di­sappear, making sections of them unreadable. Some pages have long quotes attached to them and other are nearly left alone with only the additional colour present. This unique combination of colour and prefabricated aesthetic elements combined with the fact that no attribution is made to any of the texts or images used, gives Fin de Copenhague its own voice. A voice that you cannot hear unless you have prior knowledge to Situationist key concepts. In this case namely psychogeography and détournement, even though the spectacle is lurking in the background, sometimes clearly visible. It is the combination of the many map elements, that in the end tries to build an atlas. The question that remains is, what does the atlas cover? On some pages the text has been laid out in such a way that it is nearly impossible to read. Hidden away behind paint or a picture, or cut out and moved, broken, displaced and misappropriated. The cover presents us an embossed advertisement as we never normally see them, and of a device that will remove hair. Replacing the spectacle with real lived experiences. You cannot draw any conclusions from Fin de Copenhague, other than the important fact that it is not only a critique on the spectacle, its a declara­tion of war against it. It is perhaps best understood when compared to their later collaboration Mémoires. Before I go into a analysis of that book, I will compare Fin de Copenhague’s original version to its only facsimile edition.

Facsimile: Fin de Copenhague

The original version of Fin de Copenhague is a rarity with only 200 copies made[23]. It is impossible to say how many survived the chaotic life of Jorn and Debord. The difference between the two versions is marginal. The cover of the facsimile has been reduced to a dull grey surface which renders the razor blade advertisement unreadable. The pages inside have been slightly cropped compared to the original. It has been sewn into the cover whereas the facsimile is glued, and as a cover it just displays the title of the book and who made it. The colours have been expertly matched in the facsimile and thus represents a valid representation of early Situationist works. As an appendix, the facsimile includes a little introduction by Asger Jorn, a review from The Architectural Review and an explanation of the original cover. Excerpts from its pages have been included in numerous articles and books about the SI, but its impossible to say whether or not these were based on the original or its facsimile, but then again, it does not really matter.