Surrealism/Situationism

Hijacked review: It's noon in London, and self-described "art terrorist" Banksy is preparing for his next installation. "I've created a cave painting," he says. "It's a bit of rock with a stick man chasing a wildebeest and pushing a shopping cart." The next day, Banksy carefully hangs his work - called Early Man Goes to Market and credited to "Banksymus Maximus" -�in Gallery 49 of the venerable British Museum, accompanied by a few sentences of explanatory text. He does this without the knowledge or consent of museum officials; they learn about the latest addition to the collection only after Banksy announces it on his Web site.

Hijacked summary: This book is the first to present in a single volume a complete guide to one of the most notorious and radical art movements of the twentieth century, the Situationist International (SI). Comprising a comprehensive history that includes an examination of the SI's far-reaching ideas about our 'society of the spectacle', this book also provides an insight into the Situationist legacy together with extensive visual material.

From the (counter-insurrectionary) publisher: his volume is a revised and expanded version of a special issue of the journal October (Winter 1997) that was devoted to the work of the Situationist International (SI). The first section of the issue contained previously unpublished critical texts, and the second section contained translations of primary texts that had previously been unavailable in English. The emphasis was on the SI's profound engagement with the art and cultural politics of their time (1957-1972), with a strong argument for their primarily political and activist stance by two former members of the group, T. J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith.

Hijacked review: Critical comments on "At Dusk: The Situationist Movement in Historical Perspective" (1975)

Hijacked summary: Larry Law's renowned series of situationist booklets. Probably the easiest to understand introduction to Situationist thought around. As far as I know they are all free of copyright.

Debord's follow-up twenty years later to Society of the Spectacle, a discussion of the domination at the heart of a society bound to a logic of integrated spectacle.

Hijacked summary: Self-proclaimed leader of the Situationist International, Guy Debord was certainly responsible for the longevity and high profile of Situationist ideas, although the equation of the SI with Guy Debord would be misleading. Brilliant but autocratic, Debord helped both unify situationist praxis and destroy its expansion into areas not explicitly in line with his own ideas. His text The Society of the Spectacle remains today one of the great theoretical works on modern-day capital, cultural imperialism, and the role of mediation in social relationships.

Hijacked review: WHILE THE NAME of Guy Debord has become one of the mindlessly repeated mantras of the past four decades via the invocation of his important and influential Society of the Spectacle (1967), he is little read and even less understood. The publication in English, for the first time, of both volumes of Debord's autobiographical Panegyric (which originally appeared in French in 1989 and 1997, respectively) remains, nonetheless, an event of note. Volume one was previously published in 1991 by Verso in a slightly different version, but this represents the first publication in the English-speaking world of volume two of which I am aware.

Publisher: The greatest hits, and a fine read for anyone interested in situationist ideas, anarchism, the 60s counterculture and beyond. Includes two substantial new texts—"The Joy Of Revolution" and "Autobiography," and reprints of all his old pamphlets, co-authored work, and translations of various situationist texts. A veritable treasure trove of pamphlets, texts, posters, comics, articles, leaflets, and essays. Over 400 pages, and every one is a winner!

A hijacked summary: "First published in 1974, Leaving The 20th Century was the first collection of Situationist writing in English. Chris Gray, its editor, was himself a member of the SI. Long out of print, it has gained an enormous reputation. This new, lavish, oversize edition keeps the original provocativeness, in easy translations, along with SI's cut and paste graphics, poster-art, and cartoons. It stands as a remarkable, and eminently accessible, introduction to a remarkable (and oft-times superficially, at least, inaccessible) revolutionary project. As we stand at the gates of the 21st century, it is time for a new generation of readers to take up this remarkable book."