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1958

January

1 Nervenruh! Keine Experimente! (Stay Calm! No Experiments!), the first manifesto of the SI's German section, signed by Asger Jorn and Hans Platschek, Munich.

25 to 26 2nd SI Conference in Paris. Participants: Michèle Bernstein, Guy-Ernest Debord, Asger Jorn, Abdelhafid Khatib, Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio.
Exclusions of Walter Olmo, Piero Simondo and Elena Verrone of the Italian Section.

To the Producers of Modern Art, a 'filoform tract' by the French section.

A New Cultural Theater of Operations, tract by the French section.

March

15 March to 5 April Exhibition by Jorn at Rive Gauche Gallery, Paris.

April

4 Exclusion of Ralph Rumney, Italian section.

12 Address by the Situationist International to the General Assembly of the International Association of Art Critics, Meeting on 14 April 1958 at the World's Fair in Brussels, signed by A. Khatib, W. Korun, G.-E. Debord, H. Platschek, G. Pinot Gallizio and A. Jorn on behalf of the Algerian, Belgian, French, German, Italian and Scandinavian sections of the Situationist International.
On the back of the pamphlet: 'The classless society has found its artists. Long live the Situationist International!'
Judicial proceedings are initiated against Walter Korun for his role in the scandal.

24 April to 31 May Exhibition by Jorn at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London.

26 'First Industrial Conference' in Alba, Italy. Lecture by tape recorder and in person by Debord and Pinot Gallizio from the Italian translation of Debord's Report on the Construction of Situations.

May

Rapporto sulla costruzione delle situazioni, Italian edition of Guy Debord's Report on the Construction of Situations, with an introduction by Pinot Gallizio, Turin.

'Interview with Asger Jorn' by Walter Korun, on the meaning of the changes in experimental art before and after Cobra (1948-1951) in Kunstmeridiaan (Taptoe 58), volume V number 4-5-6, devoted to the avant-garde gallery Taptoe in Brussels.

30 First exhibition of industrial paintings by Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, assisted by Giors Melanotte, Notizie Gallery, Turin. Elogio di Pinot Gallizio (In Praise of Pinot Gallizio), by Michèle Bernstein.

June

Second edition of Debord's Report on the Construction of Situations, Brussels.

Guy Debord and Michèle Bernstein meet Henri Lefebvre in the street.

Internationale Situationniste #1. Central bulletin published by the sections of the Situationist International. Editor: G.-E. Debord. Editorial committee: Mahomed Dahou, Giuseppe Pinot Gallizio, Maurice Wyckaert.

July

4 Difendete la libertà ovunque (Defend Freedom Everywhere), pamphlet by the SI's Italian section protesting the internment in a Milanese lunatic asylum of the 'otherwise completely uninteresting' painter Nunzio Van Gugliemi, who has impulsively damaged a painting by Raphael (The Coronation of the Virgin) by pasting the tract 'Long live the Italian revolution! Down with the clerical government!' to its protective glass.

7 Stand By Van Gugliemi!, pamphlet in French by Asger Jorn on behalf of the SI, Paris.

8 Second showing of Pinot-Gallizio's exhibition of industrial painting, Montenapoleone Gallery, Milan.
Reissue of Michèle Bernstein, Elogio di Pinot Gallizio.
Asger Jorn presents a conference on industrial painting in Turin.

September

3 September to mid-October Exhibition by Jorn at Van de Loo Gallery, Munich.

Constant initiates a debate on Asger Jorn's ideas ('On our means and perspectives,' I.S. #2).

Publication of Pour la Forme: Ébauche d'une méthodologie des arts (In Favor of Form: Toward a Methodology of the Arts), a collection of texts by Asger Jorn written and published in several languages, notably 'Image and form' (1954), 'Form and structure' (1956), 'Structure and change' (1956), 'Against functionalism' (1957), and 'The situationists and automation' (1958). Published by the Situationist International, Paris.

October

10 Opening of La Méthode, a cabaret operated by Michèle Bernstein and Guy Debord on the Rue Descartes, Paris.

10 jaar experimentele kunst: Jorn en zijn rol in de theoretische inventie ('Ten years of experimental art: Jorn and his role in theoretical invention'), a text by Guy Debord, appears in Dutch in Museumjournaal, series 4 issue 4, Otterlo, the Netherlands.

Walter Korun, of the Belgian section, is relieved of his functions.

November

10 Constant and Debord's 'The Amsterdam declaration' (I.S. #2).

18 Surrealism: Is It Dead or Alive?, debate chaired by Noël Arnaud at Cercle ouvert, Paris. Advertized participants: Guy Debord, Henri Lefebvre (ill), Amadou, Sternberg and Tzara (all three absent). Guy Debord's contribution, accompanied by a guitar and played on a tape recorder despite his presence, provokes howls of indignation from surrealism's defenders.

Manifesto by the German Spur group (G. Britt, E. Eisch, L. Fischer, H. Prem, D. Rempt, G. Stadler, H. Sturm, H.P. Zimmer) and Jorn, Munich.

German translations of Constant and Debord's 'The Amsterdam declaration,' (Eklärung von Amsterdam) and Debord's 'Theses on cultural revolution' (Thesen über die kulterelle Revolution), are published by the SI's German section to serve in the preparatory discussion for the SI's 3rd conference.

December

Internationale Situationniste #2. Central bulletin published by the sections of the Situationist International. Editor: G.-E. Debord. Editorial Committee: Mohamed Dahou, Asger Jorn, Maurice Wyckaert.

Release of Mémoires by Guy-Ernest Debord, with the help of Asger Jorn (originally planned for 1 May 1958). Published by the Situationist International, Copenhague. The cover is a sheet of raw number 2 sandpaper.

This chronology has been adapted and expanded from Jean-Jacques Raspaud and Jean-Pierre Voyer, L'Internationale Situationniste: Chronologie, bibliographie, protagonistes (avec un index des noms insulté) (Paris: Champ Libre, 1972); Christophe Bourseiller, Vie et mort de Guy Debord (Paris: Plon, 1999); and Guy Debord, Correspondance (volumes 1, 2 & 3) (Paris: Arthème Fayard, 1999 , 2001 & 2003).

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