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The practice of détournement involes the capturing of various spectacular images and
turning them around in a new presentation in order to subvert the authority of the
sign and the significations it sets in order. Détournement was the practice of the
International Situationist movement in post-war France and northern Europe that
emerged out of Lettrism in the 50s, and developing into a powerful and subversive
critique of modern commodity society in the 60s. Inspirational to the multitude of
challenges to mainstream authoritarian society in 1968, the Situationists--led by the
infamous Machiavellian Debord--understood that the creation of a spectualuar
illusionary universe of meaning, at once integrated and diffuse, was at the very heart
of contemporary capitalism.
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