Editing Situationist International (section)

===Artistic period (1958–1962)===
[[File:Asger Jorn (1963) by Erling Mandelmann.jpg|thumb|right|[[Danes|Danish]] painter, sculptor, [[ceramic art]]ist, and author [[Asger Jorn]], founding member of the Situationist International.]]

During the first few years of the SI's founding, [[avant-garde]] artistic groups began collaborating with the SI and joining the organization. [[Gruppe SPUR]], a German artistic collective, collaborated with the Situationist International on projects beginning in 1959, continuing until the group officially joined the SI in 1961. The role of the artists in the SI was of great significance, particularly [[Asger Jorn]], [[Constant Nieuwenhuys]] and [[Pinot Gallizio]].<ref name="PoliOntheReport"/>

Asger Jorn, who invented [[Situgraphy]] and [[Situlogy]], had the social role of catalyst and team leader among the members of the SI between 1957 and 1961. Jorn's role in the situationist movement (as in [[COBRA (avant-garde movement)|COBRA]]) was that of a catalyst and team leader. [[Guy Debord]] on his own lacked the personal warmth and persuasiveness to draw people of different nationalities and talents into an active working partnership. As a prototype [[Marxism|Marxist]] intellectual Debord needed an ally who could patch up the petty egoisms and squabbles of the members. When Jorn's leadership was withdrawn in 1961, many simmering quarrels among different sections of the SI flared up, leading to multiple exclusions.
[[File:Internationale situationniste nº1.jpg|thumb|left|''Internationale situationniste'']]
The first major split was the exclusion of Gruppe SPUR, the German section, from the SI on 10 February 1962.<ref name="1963TheExclusion">(1963) ''[http://www.notbored.org/spur-exclusion.html The Exclusion of the Spurists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090520064219/http://www.notbored.org/spur-exclusion.html |date=20 May 2009 }}''. Internationale Situationniste No. 8 (Paris, January 1963). Translated by Ken Knabb.</ref> Many different disagreements led to the fracture, for example; while at the Fourth SI Conference in London in December 1960, in a discussion about the political nature of the SI, the Gruppe SPUR members disagreed with the core situationist stance of counting on a [[revolutionary proletariat]];<ref name="SI5Conf4">''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/SIOnline/si/london.html The Fourth SI Conference in London] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905181622/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/london.html|date=5 September 2008}}'',[http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/5.conf4.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923121507/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/5.conf4.htm|date=23 September 2009}} Internationale Situationniste No. 5 (December 1960)</ref> the accusation that their activities were based on a "systematic misunderstanding of situationist theses";<ref name="1963TheExclusion"/> the understanding that at least one Gruppe SPUR member, sculptor [[Lothar Fischer]], and possibly the rest of the group, were not actually understanding and/or agreeing with the situationist ideas, but were just using the SI to achieve success in the [[Economics of the arts and literature|art market]];<ref name="1963TheExclusion"/><ref name="Kunzelmann">''[http://www.kurr.org/t_nothing.php Nothing to talk about]'' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090105221228/http://www.kurr.org/t_nothing.php |date=5 January 2009 }} key, Halil Altindere and Sezgin Boynik (editors)</ref> and the betrayal, in the ''Spur #7'' issue, of a common agreement on the Gruppe SPUR and SI publications.<ref name="SI7Conf5">''[http://www.cddc.vt.edu/SIOnline/si/goteborg.html The Fifth SI Conference in Göteborg] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101029073104/http://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/goteborg.html|date=29 October 2010}}'',[http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/7.conf5.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923122644/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/7.conf5.htm|date=23 September 2009}} Internationale Situationniste No. 7 (April 1962)</ref><ref name="DebordVernissage150362">[http://www.notbored.org/debord-15March1962.html Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613154947/http://notbored.org/debord-15March1962.html|date=13 June 2010}} from Guy Debord and [[Uwe Lausen]] to the journal ''Vernissage'', 15 March 1962</ref>

The exclusion was a recognition that [[Gruppe SPUR]]'s "principles, methods and goals" were significantly in contrast with those of the SI.<ref name="1963TheCounter"/><ref name="Debord180662">[http://www.notbored.org/debord-18June1962.html Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613161653/http://notbored.org/debord-18June1962.html |date=13 June 2010 }} from [[Guy Debord]] to [[Rodolphe Gasche]] (member of the Gruppe SPUR), 18 June 1962</ref> This split however was not a declaration of hostilities, as in other cases of SI exclusions. A few months after the exclusion, in the context of judicial prosecution against the group by the German state, Debord expressed his esteem to Gruppe SPUR, calling it the only significant artist group in (Germany) since [[World War II]], and regarding it at the level of the [[avant-garde]]s in other countries.<ref name="DebordSpur280462">[http://www.notbored.org/debord-28April1962.html Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210228054921/http://www.notbored.org/debord-28April1962.html |date=28 February 2021 }} from Guy Debord To the Spur group, 28 April 1962</ref>

The next significant split was in 1962, wherein the "Nashists," the Scandinavian section of the SI led by [[Jørgen Nash]], were excluded from the organization. Nash created the [[2nd Situationist International]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=roJ1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 | title=Debord, Time and Spectacle: Hegelian Marxism and Situationist Theory | isbn=9789004356023 | last1=Bunyard | first1=Tom | date=20 November 2017 | publisher=BRILL }}</ref>