Thank you for your letter and for the proofs of the negatives. Like you, I think it is necessary for us to present the "Conference at Cosio" as the point of departure for our clearly organized activity and, from now on, to advance quickly (it is necessary to immediately come up with a new name). When Ralph [Rumney] and you return to Paris, it will be necessary for us to plan two or three small, simultaneous operations -- tracts, etc. -- so as to make our most recent positions known in France. I will write a note on the Cosio meeting for Eristica and also for the next Potlatch,[1] which will permit the official passing of the "lettrist" heritage to the new movement.
Very good concerning Cardazzo.[2] I hope that you can easily arrange it without him.
The Swiss [who sent a tract that Jorn translated from German to French for Debord] are thus idiots. I suspected it: not a minute to waste on them.
Will Walter Korun[3] be in Paris?
After our experiment on Fin de Copenhagen, I've been collecting a very large number of elements for the new construction of a recitation, about which I've already spoken to you.[4] I will ask you for colored lines of a sufficiently great complexity that will be used to form the "supporting structure," as one says in architecture. If Permild[5] is ready for an even more difficult job, all goes well.
I am also assembling several citations for an article on automation, which, I believe, we must write together.[6]
I haven't received any news from [Piero] Simondo, other than a letter addressed to me on 15 August [1957], which contained no specific information. I have written to him, pressing him for manuscripts for our next journal. I still haven't received anything.
Work advances on "Charm and Mechanics."[7] It will be ready by your arrival.
[Guiseppe] Pinot [Gallizio] has written to me to say that the scandal in Venice was grandiose.[8] Ralph must be in London at this moment and I await his passage through here in three or four days, after which he will return to Italy. He has many good ideas, which he has communicated to me in his most recent letter.
I have news from [Mohamed] Dahou, who has returned to Paris. His return can be useful in certain aspects of propaganda.
See you soon. Very amicably,[1] The 29th issue of Potlatch, Information Bulletin of the Lettrist International, was published 5 November 1957 (cf. Potlatch (1954-1957), Gallimard, "Folio" Coll[ection]).
[2] Carlo Cardazzo, a rich Milanese dealer of paintings, director of the Del Naviglio Gallery.
[3] Walter Korun, real name Pieter De Groof, member of the M.I.B.I. [Mouvement Internationale pour un Bauhaus Imaginiste], and situationist in the Belgian section.
[4] Memoires by Guy Debord.
[5] Verner Permild, Danish printer (Permild & Rosengreen), Fin de Copenhagen.
[6] The article "The Situationists and Automation" would appear in I.S. [Internationale Situationniste] #1, p. 22, under the sole signature of [Asger] Jorn.
[7] Text by Jorn on the role of vandalism in the history of the arts, which would appear in Pour la Forme [On Form] in September 1958.
[8] [Exhibition] in the museum of Peggy Guggenheim, whose daughter, Pegeen, married Ralph Rumney.
(Published in Guy Debord, Correspondance, Volume 1, 1957-1960. Footnotes by Alice Debord. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! May 2005.)