Guy Debord
1931-1994
Guy Debord was born in Paris on December 28, 1931. In 1950 Debord began his association with the Lettrist International, which was being led by Isidore Isou at the time. The Lettrists were attempting to fuse poetry and music, and were interested in transforming the urban landscape. In 1953 they mapped out what they called the "psychogeography" of Paris by walking through the city in a free-associative manner, or "drifts". Texts on this activity were first published in Naked Lips in 1955 and 1956, in essays titled "Detournement: How to Use" and "Theory of the Derive." In 1957 the Lettrist International joined another group of avant-garde artists, called Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus, to form the Situationist International (SI), and founded the magazine called Situationiste Internationale. Debord proclaimed himself the leader of the SI, and saw himself responsible for maintaining the high ideals he had in mind for the group, but to equate Debord with the SI in all its activities would be misleading. He had a major role in unifying Situationist practice, but he also prevented its expansion into areas he felt would undermine his own goals. In 1967 Debord published Society of the…
Films