Journal Article

Buildings on Fire: The Situationist International and the Red Army Faction

Scribner, Charity

2007

Overview

Discusses the relationship between the 20th century art movement the Situationist International (SI) and the German terrorist group the Red Army Faction (RAF). The author explains that the film 'In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni' (1978; illus.) by Guy Debord drew attention to the connections between the two movements, argues that both groups challenged their societies and the process of modernization, and examines the two groups' attitudes to urban environments. She focuses on both groups' response to the Watts riots noting that a leaflet produced by the former Situationist Dieter Kunzelmann directly influenced the decision by members of the RAF to bomb German department stores, and describes the legal proceedings against those involved in the dissemination of the leaflet with reference to the analysis carried out by experts as to whether the work constituted a political or artistic work. She assesses the influence of aesthetic values on the RAF, notes that the SI rejected political violence and a vanguardist approach to politics, and studies Ulrike Meinhof's analysis of the department store bombings noting that she differentiated the actions from those of the Watts rioters. She comments on the attitudes of the SI and the RAF towards using the media to promote their actions, refers to the creation of a 'multimedia hagiography' relating to the RAF during the 1970s, and comments on Debord's analysis of terroristic acticivity, also studying the disbandment and legacies of the RAF and the SI.

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Subject: Aesthetics / Arson / Department stores / Left wing politics / Legacies / Political revolutions / Radicalism / Situationism / Spectacle / Terrorism