Discussion on Situationism - Please contribute freely:

The situationists were a group of young anti-artists who believed that art and culture should not only be for international elitists but for all people - predominantly the proletarian. Guy Debord was a key figure within Situationism (along with Asper Jorn, Charles Radcliffe and Ralph Rumney to name a few) who founded the Situationist International. He and his fellow situationists (Parisian and other global derivatives) were highly inspired by the Dadaists and the Futurists who felt that through culture there can be a revolutionary breakthrough within the state. They stood within the left wing of political activities using bold system of avant-garde art forms, to create ‘situations’ in which they could convey a message to the ‘everyday’ working people. These messages motivated the likes of the revolts of 1968 in Paris and furthermore to the likes of Punk-rock and Post-modernism.
They were against capitalism and it is evident that they were highly influenced by Marxist theories - however, they did not let these go unchallenged . One example is shown in Len Brackens’ Critical Biography ‘of Guy Debord where he explains that; “ Debord wasn’t an uncritical follower” of Marx. He then goes on to say that “Debord would criticise Marx’s identification of proletarian revolution with the seizure of state power...”
Through this we see how, the likes of Debord confronted and developed the Marxist ideas that had stimulated the situationsist movement.