The Long Journey Is Not Over Yet. Michèle Bernstein and Jacqueline de Jong

The Situationist International developed a radical critique of capitalism and contemporary forms of life through a plethora of activities, including theorisation and publishing, activism and artmaking. What was it like to be a situationist? And how can we understand the legacies of the group sometimes referred to as the last avant-garde?

This afternoon will provide a rare opportunity to experience two key figures of the situationist movement in conversation. Michèle Bernstein and Jacqueline de Jong played different, but equally pivotal, roles in the history of the Situationist International. Along with artists and intellectuals such as Asger Jorn and Guy Debord, Michèle Bernstein was among the founders of the Situationist International in 1957. In addition to her contributions to the journal Internationale situationniste, she published two novels revolving around the lives of the situationists, Tous les chevaux du roi (All the King’s Horses) in 1960 and, the following year, La nuit (The Night). At this point in time, the artist Jacqueline de Jong had joined the group and would soon propose the making of a situationist magazine in English. When she published the first issue of The Situationist Times in 1962, however, De Jong had already been excluded from the Situationist International. Published and edited by De Jong, The Situationist Times became a platform for an alternative mode of situationist activity, with Asger Jorn as a prolific contributor. Together with Jorn, De Jong also worked on other publication projects throughout the 1960s, including the recently published The Case of the Ascetic Satyr: Snapshots from Eternity.

The conversation marks the launch of a comprehensive new book published in conjunction with the IVAM exhibition Open Creation and Its Enemies – Asger Jorn in Situation. Lavishly illustrated and brimming with previously unpublished materials, Open Creation and Its Enemies – Asger Jorn in Situation is edited by Ellef Prestsæter and includes contributions by both Bernstein and De Jong.