La Retour de la Colonne Durutti  

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"[[La Retour de la Colonne Durutti]]" (October 1966, The Return of the Durutti Column) was a four page comic strip as fold-out pamphlet by [[André Bertrand]], consisting of film stills and other visuals with added [[text balloon]]s. "[[La Retour de la Colonne Durutti]]" (October 1966, The Return of the Durutti Column) was a four page comic strip as fold-out pamphlet by [[André Bertrand]], consisting of film stills and other visuals with added [[text balloon]]s.
-This '[[detournement|détourned]]' comic strip was distributed by [[flypost]]ing it at the University of Strasbourg. +This '[[Détournement|détourned]]' comic strip was distributed by [[flypost]]ing it at the University of Strasbourg.
-The comic strip images and there translated speech balloons were featured in ''[[Ten Days that Shook the University]]''.+The comic strip images and their translated speech balloons were featured in ''[[Ten Days that Shook the University]]''.
 + 
 +The rock album ''[[The Return of the Durutti Column]]'' (1980) was named after it.
==Snippets== ==Snippets==
===En volant des marchandises=== ===En volant des marchandises===
"En volant des marchandises pour les donner, certains blousons noirs evitent cette ambiguite. Ils reproduisent a un niveau superieur la pratique du don qui a domine les societes archa'iques et que l'echange, en tant que formalisation des rapports sociaux sur la base d'un faible niveau de developpement des forces productives, est venu miner. Ils trouvent ainsi une conduite encore mieux adaptee a une societe qui se definit elle-meme comme societe de l'abondance, et amorcent pratiquement son depassement." --[[L'indépendance de la marchandise]], from [[Internationale Situationniste]][https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-nnuHUvppOwl_gWvx/Internationale_situationniste_10_djvu.txt] "En volant des marchandises pour les donner, certains blousons noirs evitent cette ambiguite. Ils reproduisent a un niveau superieur la pratique du don qui a domine les societes archa'iques et que l'echange, en tant que formalisation des rapports sociaux sur la base d'un faible niveau de developpement des forces productives, est venu miner. Ils trouvent ainsi une conduite encore mieux adaptee a une societe qui se definit elle-meme comme societe de l'abondance, et amorcent pratiquement son depassement." --[[L'indépendance de la marchandise]], from [[Internationale Situationniste]][https://archive.org/stream/pdfy-nnuHUvppOwl_gWvx/Internationale_situationniste_10_djvu.txt]
===Un critique de la vie quotidienne=== ===Un critique de la vie quotidienne===
-"Oui la pensée de Marx est bien un critique de la vie quotidienne.", set in a text balloon in [[Ingres]]'s ''[[Jupiter and Thetis]]'' (1811) painting+"Oui la pensée de Marx est bien un critique de la vie quotidienne.", set in a text balloon in [[Delacroix]]'s ''[[The Death of Sardanapolous]]'' painting
===Ces couillons syndicalistes=== ===Ces couillons syndicalistes===
Line 36: Line 38:
*[[The Return of the Durutti Column]] *[[The Return of the Durutti Column]]
*[[Cerith Wyn Evans]] *[[Cerith Wyn Evans]]
 +*''[[The Return of the Return of the Durutti Column]]'' (1997) by Cerith Wyn Evans
- +==References==
-Notes+*[[Paris Match]], “Lepoids des mots, le choc des photos”
-1.+*[[UNEF]]
-A black panel with speech bubbles is labeled at the bottom with the words “Paris Match”—apparent humorous reference to the French weekly magazine founded in 1949 and immensely popular through the 1950s though in significant decline through the 1960s. The magazine’s moto was “Lepoids des mots, le choc des photos” and was most popular for its simultaneous coverage of world events and celebrity lifestyles. The Situationists would have considered it a quintessentially “bourgeois” publication deserving little more than ridicule, a magazine worth stealing perhaps but certainly not worth buying. One voice mentions “UNEF”—Union nationale des étudiants de France—the primary national student union in France founded in 1907 as an umbrella organization to unify the various AGEs (Associations générales d’étudiants) that existed and still do in each city where there is a university. Historically the most noteworthy action of the UNEF was its annual meeting on May 27, 1968 at which nearly 40,000 students came together in the Stade Sébastien Charlety in Paris for one of the most significant and politically charged events of the May ’68 student revolt. Another voice in the dark panel mentions Abraham Moles (1920–1992) who held doctorates in physics and philosophy. He was a pioneer in the field of communication aesthetics who at the time of the publication of this comic taught sociology and psychology at the University of Strasbourg. He is perhaps best known for his work in electroacoustics in particular his invention of the “morphone,” an electronic echo chamber as well as his theories on the dynamics of “kitsch.” Moles had been singled out by the protesting students for particular scorn, on one occasion pelting him with tomatoes as he lectured.+*[[Associations générales d’étudiants]]
- +*[[Abraham Moles]] (1920–1992)
-2.+*[[morphone]]
-A panel with a photo of a woman smiling while covered in soap suds. Below the panel are the words “Positif ”—a popular monthly French film magazine founded in 1952 and still in production today. It was known in its early years primarily for its leftist political language due in part to the fact that the review was managed not by professional journalists but by university academics and students interested in film both as an art form and a medium of popular culture.+*[[Positif]]
- +*[[Lenin]]
-3.+*J.C.R [[Jeunesse communiste révolutionaire]]
-“Durutti Column”—allusion to the Durruti (note misspelling) column, the largest anarchist column formed during the Spanish Civil War. The column was lead by Buenaventura Durruti and consisted of , volunteers organized into centuriae or militias many of which were composed of foreigners and often named after influential anarchist thinkers. The Centuria Sébastien Faure was composed of French and Italian volunteers including Simon Weil, the Centuria Erich Mühsam of Germans and the Centuria Sacco and Vanzetti of Americans.+*Francisco Goya, [[Los Caprichos]], No. 49 “[[Duendecitos]]” (Hobgoblins).
- +*[[Jules Ravachol]] (1859–1892)
-4.+*[[tapisserie de Bayeux]]
-A panel with a man with a woman in his lap with his hand on her thigh has the words “Positif” below (see Appendix 2, note 2).+*[[Eugène Delacroix]], [[The Death of Sardanapolous]] (1827) “[[critique of everyday life]]”
- +
-5.+
-A panel with a photo of Lenin which is an excellent example of détournement as it is employed throughout this comic. The original photo manipulated in this image was of Lenin speaking in Red Square on November 18, 1918 to commemorate the first anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution. In particular, it should be noted how Lenin’s right hand has been redrawn and extended into the previous panel for obvious effect. The speech bubble mentions the J.C.R—Jeunesse communiste révolutionaire—politically far left student organization with Troskyist leanings. The group was formed from the remains of the Union des étudiants communistes when this group was excluded from the Parti Communiste Français for having refused to back François Mitterand’s bid for the presidency in 1965. The JCR was closely aligned with the Ligue Communiste until the French government in June 1968 invoked the Loi du 10 janvier 1936 sur les groupes de combat et milices privées (Law of January 10, 1936 concerning armed groups and private militias) in an effort to disband both groups. This action was not without irony in that the law was originally enacted to control right—wing extremist groups.+
- +
-6.+
-Reproduced here is a portion of the bylaws for A. F.G.E.S. These appear to be the rules that were broken by the protesting students when they used the organization’s money to produce this comic.+
- +
-7.+
-Francisco Goya, Los Caprichos, No. 49 “Duendecitos” (Hobgoblins). In this series of prints Goya intended to point out the cruel stupidity in human nature.+
- +
-8.+
-Another derogatory reference to the J. C.R. Appendix 2, note 5.+
- +
-9.+
-The photograph of two cowboys on horseback is George Hamilton and Arthur O’Connell in the movie A Thunder of Drums (1961). The dialogue between the two cowboys is actually a quote from the Situationist Michèle Bernstein’s novel All the King’s Horses (1960). Bernstein was married for a while to the Situationist leader Guy Debord and her novel is one of very few contributions by a woman to the Situationist’s literary output. This image is perhaps the most famous of the entire comic in that it seems to appear in every discussion of both situationist thought and the use of détournement as a visual device. In 1978 an English Punk band named themselves The Durutti Column and used this image for the cover of their first album released in 1980.+
- +
-10.+
-The photograph of Jules Ravachol (1859–1892) makes him appear like a respectable academic when in fact he was a French anarchist implicated in numerous bombing attacks aimed at the government, the police and the courts. Arrested in Paris in April 1892, he was tried and executed by guillotine on July 11 of the same year. Witnesses reported that he refused the services of a priest and walked to the guillotine singing a popular anarchist song. As he shouted, “Vive la re...,” the blade came down and his head rolled into the basket. Unconfirmed reports say that half of his head that had been preserved in formaldehyde at the École de médicine de Paris was stolen and later found nestled against the foundation of the Panthéon.+
- +
-11.+
-This image is drawn originally from the tapisserie de Bayeux. The panel depicts a banquet held by William (the not quite yet conqueror) surrounded by his barons and the Bishop Odon who is blessing the wine and food. The banquet takes place after William has arrived in England, constructed an armed fortress but prior to the fateful battle with Harold. Within the context of the comic the image is one of extreme, smug confidence on the part of the ruling classes represented here by members of the royal class, high ranking clergy and the military—all members of the “international occult” referenced in the text and suggesting through détournement elements of excessive wealthy, political ambition and military power combined with church sanctioned authority.+
- +
-12.+
-The painting by Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapolous (1827), is a classic example of orientalist decadence. Here is shown Sardanapolous, the last king of Assyria, as he calmly looks on while all of his wealth is destroyed and his concubines murdered. The ironic reference to Marxist thought as a “critique of everyday life” is intended to underscore the disparity between theory and action. This comic is essentially a call to action especially with the final underlined text, “It’s your turn to play.”+
- +
-13.+
-On the Wretchedness of Student Life... (De la misère en milieu étudiant considérée sous ses aspects économique, politique, psychologique, sexuel et notamment intellectuel et de quelques moyens poury remédied, was a 29 page political brochure written primarily by Mustapha Omar Khayati, a militant Tunisian member of the Situationist International and close associate of Guy Debord. He left the organization for Jordan where he joined the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. One year after the original French publication an English translation was published in London entitled, Ten Days That Shook the University—The Situationists at Strasbourg. This publication included the complete text of the pamphlet and selected panels from the comic with translation. In 1976 Khayati contested the commercial publication of the pamphlet by Éditions Champ Libre claiming that such publication was a violation of the original intent of the work which was published, as were most Situationist texts, without copyright.+
- +
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Current revision

- De quoi t'occpes [sic] tu exactement ?
- De la réification.
- Je vois, c'est un travail trés sérieux, avec de gros livres et beaucoup de papiers sur une grande table.
- Non, je me promène. Principalement je me promène.

English translation

‘What’s your scene, man?’
‘Reification’.
‘Yeah? I guess that means pretty hard work with big books and piles of paper on a big table’
‘Nope. I drift. Mostly I just drift’.

--"La Retour de la Colonne Durutti" (1966) by André Bertrand, English translation from Ten Days that Shook the University

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"La Retour de la Colonne Durutti" (October 1966, The Return of the Durutti Column) was a four page comic strip as fold-out pamphlet by André Bertrand, consisting of film stills and other visuals with added text balloons.

This 'détourned' comic strip was distributed by flyposting it at the University of Strasbourg.

The comic strip images and their translated speech balloons were featured in Ten Days that Shook the University.

The rock album The Return of the Durutti Column (1980) was named after it.

Contents

[edit]

Snippets

[edit]

En volant des marchandises

"En volant des marchandises pour les donner, certains blousons noirs evitent cette ambiguite. Ils reproduisent a un niveau superieur la pratique du don qui a domine les societes archa'iques et que l'echange, en tant que formalisation des rapports sociaux sur la base d'un faible niveau de developpement des forces productives, est venu miner. Ils trouvent ainsi une conduite encore mieux adaptee a une societe qui se definit elle-meme comme societe de l'abondance, et amorcent pratiquement son depassement." --L'indépendance de la marchandise, from Internationale Situationniste[1]

[edit]

Un critique de la vie quotidienne

"Oui la pensée de Marx est bien un critique de la vie quotidienne.", set in a text balloon in Delacroix's The Death of Sardanapolous painting

[edit]

Ces couillons syndicalistes

"Ces couillons syndicalistes vont surement [sic] encore nous prendre pour une ...", found in Proses du monde: Les enjeux sociaux des styles littéraires (2017) by Nelly Wolf

Features an image of Lenin

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References


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