D'etournement;
noun,
a diversion, to subvert meaning.
D'etournement
is the subversion, devaluation and re-use of present and past cultural production,
destroying its message while hijacking its impact.
Comics,
ads, movies, 'fine art' or even city spaces are manipulated and placed in new
and radical contexts (one contemporary example is 'adbusting' or 'subvertising'
and culture-jamming).
Paris. May, 1968: the SI (Situationalist International) successfully fed the revolutionary spirit by subverting popular comics in posters and flyers.
D'etornement is most commonly associated
with a bunch of 'out there' revolutionary artists known as the Situationalists,
whose ideas and spirit inspired the near spontaneous revolution in France in
1968. Situationists envisioned a society on the foundations of creativity, pleasure
and free play where people actively participated in the reconstruction of every
moment in life. By encouraging people to d'etourne their own everyday-roles,
'spectacular lifestyle' and seize control over their own lived space through
the creation of unique situations, the SI hoped to achieve a way towards Utopia
by functioning as the trigger to a grand anti-spectacular revolution by the
people.
The Situationists were not the
kind of people who thought the only right thing to do was just to sit down peacefully
and wait for a revolution to pop up in a distant future. Instead they recognised
the idea of doing something immediately and reinvent everyday life here and
now as necessary.
Art was considered central in the deconstruction as well as reconstruction of
society, but the SI didn' t acknowledge the production of traditional art as
a legitimate revolutionary occupation (causing a split with the more 'artistically
oriented members' in 1962). Paintings, sculptures and such were considered 'spectacular
phenomenons'. Instead of transforming everyday life to art, it remained an entity
separated from everyday life or just another type of commodity.
Situationist 'art' emphasised more on human interaction and the 'art' of creating
new spaces and forms of communication. Arguing that our perception of the world
is closely related to the structure of the society, the prime task was to liberate
people's everyday-life from the narrow-minded discourse provided from the spectacle.
If ordinary citizens were given a widened and more creative perception of what
our world was capable of becoming the structure of society would change.
(Huge chunks of this text were taken from www.interactingarts.org)
Playing
the fool...
Using humour and detournement in everyday life.
"Fantasy
will destroy power.
Laughter will bury you."
Graffitti,
Rome 1978
" The only safeguard
against authority and rigidity
setting-in is a playful attitude." Raoul
Vaneigem.
Paris. May, 1968:
The first non-university territory to be occupied by students during the revolt
was the 'Theatre de France' at the Odeon. The wardrobe department was raided
and dozens of demonstrators came out to face the CS gas dressed as centurions,
pirates and princesses.
Acting the fool is a political act. When pomposity and over-seriousness reign it is left to the fool to be the voice of sanity. Getting started is easy; powerful cultural symbols can be demystified, from current politicians to corporate logos. Simple, humourous and brutally honest street theatre is often the easiest medium for this. The closer street theatre comes to resembling reality, the more shocking and thought-provoking it becomes. The more humourous it is, the more people will accept it. Large public events or huge Shopping Centres are often good opportunities as far as reaching the most people is concerned.
Likewise, the inauthenticity of advertisements
can be exposed by anyone willing to use a bit of intelligence and a spray-can
or felt-tip marker. (As a bonus the new message carries all the visual impact
and presentation that the media-niks worked so hard to put into the origional.)
But discomforting trends in popular humour are soon absorbed into mainstream
culture; television political satire which scandalized the establishment 40
years ago is now presented at peak viewing time as satirical comedy.
It may make us laugh, but it rarely does more than encourage our cynicism -
as Shakespeare observed,
"There is no harm in an allowed fool."
Revolutionary buffoonery must attempt to jolt
people out of customery ways of thinking and behaving.
Our pranks have nothing to do with practical
jokes. Too often practical jokes are played by the confident and cunning on
the helpful and guileless. The message of practical jokes is that we should
not be trustful of others, nor be too eager to be of assistance - a profoundly
reactionary message. Revolutionary buffoonery tries to build confidence, not
cynicism; it tries to demystify, not alienate. But most of all it brings play
back into daily life.
It has always been the aim of jesters,
by playing the fool themselves, to expose the real fools.
""kh"The
most effective way of attacking vice is to expose it to redicule.
People can put up with rebukes but cannot bear being laughed at;
they are prepared to be wicked but they dislike appearing rediculous."
Moliere
(Huge chunks of this text have
been lifted from 'Spectacular Times: Amazing Tales of Political Pranks and Anarchic
Buffoonery'
by Spectacular Times Press 1988).