Thank you for your letter (and the photos, which are very beautiful). We have always been sure that you are strongly opposed to the metaphysics of which [Piero] Simondo currently reveals the dogmas. The sabotage at Cosio of the most issue of Eristica (for which only the stupid text by [Walter] Olmo was sent to us -- at the end of September -- whereas the totality of the promised articles and translations had to be delivered to me by 1 September [1957] at the latest, so that I could then send them to you in Alba and Ralph [Rumney] in Venice on 15 September) and this manner of brusquely unmasking a completely reactionary thought are the results of the fear of the concrete developments of our efforts and are expressions of a will to remain within a dsicourse on experience when one feels oneself powerless to do something else. Olmo, however, seems to me to have the capacity for real experimentation, but he is the victim of his naivete on the ideological level. One wishes that he renounces these false, received ideas in the future and pursues his true work. No doubt you will soon see him in Alba.
Asger [Jorn] has spoken to me of the events that you informed him about in your most recent letter. Here is our advice on the most urgent points:
1) Your address must remain the only address of the [Situationist] International in Italy.
2) No other painting or document belonging to the Experimental Laboratory can be claimed by Simondo (or Olmo) under any pretext -- and especially not under the pretext of a publication (Eristica or any other). We can no longer have anything in common with the publications that are controlled by Simondo. Our next publications will be edited by the majority of our comrades: we anticipate a journal edited in Paris towards the beginning of 1958.[1]
3) Any publication of a journal, tract or even letterhead mentioning a "Bauhaus of Cosio" will involve our immediate and definitive break with all of the participants in the enterprise. Send us as soon as possible all of the documents that come to your attention in this regard.
Asger is trying to organize an exposition for you in Paris. In my opinion, it would be necessary to show the most extreme works, of which you have spoken to me, so as to make a splash [choc]. Thus La Gran'Paura[2] has a multitude of enthusiastic admirers and also two visitors who declared that the spectacle made them feel sick.
Italy apart, our efforts advance well. Asger is thinking of trying to turn to account, and in a decisive fashion, the COBRA[3] exposition in Amsterdam. There are two interesting Belgians who will join us. The Ulm Bauhaus[4] begins to surrender: Max Bill has congratulated Asger on Fin de Copenhague. Ralph is arranging a series of conferences in London around March. If your exposition can be brought to Paris, we can publish your monograph at the same time. I have received from Denmark the negatives for the baroque.[5] And, coming here, you can indeed bring all of the usable prints and negatives.
See you soon, I hope. Regards from us all.
Guy[1] Translator: Internationale Situationniste #1 was published in June 1958.
[2] Translator: "The Great Fear."
[3] Translator: An international art group founded in 1949 that took its name from the cities in which its members lived: Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam.
[4] Translator: The functionalist orientation of which inspired Jorn to found the International Movement for an Imaginist Bauhaus.
[5] Tecnica dei colori nel barocco (brut-dry).
(Published in Guy Debord, Correspondance, Volume 1, 1957-1960. Footnotes by Alice Debord, except where noted. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! October 2005.)