Expect Anything, Fear Nothing

by Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen (editor), Jakob Jakobsen (editor), Stewart Home (contributor)

The first English publication to focus on Scandinavian Situationists and their role in the Situationist International's attempt to revolutionize the world through rejecting bourgeois art and critiquing the post-World War II capitalist consumer society. While the previous reception of the Situationist movement has almost exclusively focused on the contribution of the French section and in particular on the role of the Guy Debord, this book aims to shed light on the activities of the Situationists active outside of Paris in places like Denmark, Sweden and Holland. The book contains articles, conversations and statements by former members of the SI as well as contemporary artists, activists, scholars and writers. The themes and stories chronicled include: The anarchist undertakings of the Drakabygget movement led by the rebel artists Jorgen Nash, Hardy Strid and Jens Jorgen Thorsen, the exhibition by the Situationist International "Destruction of RSG-6" in 1963 in Odense organized by the painter and Situationist J.V. Martin, the journal The Situationist Times edited by the painter Jacqueline de Jong, Asger Jorn's political critique of natural science and the films of the Drakabygget movement.

Genres: History, Art, Nonfiction, Sweden

288 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2011

About the author

Mikkel Bolt Rasmussen is an art historian and theorists working on the politics and history of the avant-garde, the politics of contemporary art and the revolutionary tradition. He is associate professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Reviews

[Mehdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sheds like on the so-called "Second Situationist". Articles are of uneven qualities, with some rare gems (including interviews of J. de Jong, or a reflection on the RSG-6 exhibit) while others are less convincing. Overall, an important document to understand the "Nashists"