60 publications and documents.

In 1952, a group of dissident lettrists (Jean-Louis Brau, Guy Debord, Serge Berna and Gil J. Wolman), who had rejected the lettrism of Isidore Isou, founded L’Internationale Lettriste in Brussels. They were inspired by the manifesto Soulèvement de la Jeunesse (1950) by Isou and his ideas on the destruction of the arts. Said lettrist dissent drew more parallels with revolutionary Marxism, the Dadaism of Berlin and anarchic and nihilistic thinking than with lettrism. The theoretical basis of the dissident movement was to become L’Internationale Situationniste.

L’Internationale Situationniste formally emerged in the Italian town of Cosio d’Arroscia on 28 July 1957 after the merging of a series of groups of artists and intellectuals who had been members of L’Internationale Lettriste, the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus (formed by Asger Jorn), the CoBrA group and the London Psychogeographical Association (founded by Ralph Rumney).

After a period exclusively devoted to transcending traditional arts, the situationists resolved to re-establish a revolutionary theory of the world, criticising the mercantile society of the West and the state-sponsored capitalism of the East. The situationists favoured the establishment of workers’ councils and played a key role in the May ’68 uprising, participating in street protests. Together with its leader, Guy Debord, active members included Giuseppe Pinot-Gallizio, Gianfranco Sanguinetti, Asger Jorn, Raoul Vaneigem and Constant, among others.

The documents of Archivo Lafuente related to L’Internationale Lettriste/L’Internationale Situationniste include printed matter, original books, posters, books, artist books, manifestos and more. Among these documents, particularly noteworthy examples include Le Guide psychogéographique de Paris (1957) by Guy Debord; New Babylon (1963) by Constant, and the magazines Internationale Situationniste (1958) and The Situationist Times: International (1964).