Warning! This file could be a fake (a very nice one!)

LUTHER BLISSETT: THE STATE OF THE UNION

 

"Perhaps all the wisdom, and all truth, and all sincerity, are just compressed into that inappreciable moment of time in which we step over the threshold of the invisible"

J. Conrad, Heart Of Darkness.

 

"You may go away from truth, so long as you anticipate it"

Somebody making a reference to the Situationist Internationale.

 

At this moment the Luther Blissett Multiple Name Project has been joined by dozens of mail-artists, underground reviews, poets, performers and squatters' collectives in some of the principal european cities. Fairly, many of them joined the project without declaring themselves, invisibly, thus the following report is incomplete.

The name of Luther Blissett came out in a release which claimed responsibility for some ludicrous sabotages in Norway and in Finland. In July, the 24th and 25th, the ancient Kauppatori Square of Turku (Finland) gave ospitality to the XVIth Art Festival dedicated to the national poet Elias Lonnrot (1802-1884). The day before, unknown persons had delivered false complementary tickets to the local youth ad to the russian and ukrainian immigrants; the tickets announced "FREE BOOZE AND STRIPPERS". Thousands of persons thronged at the barriers and overcame the cops when the promoters refused to accept the tickets; directly they invaded the square the Lonnrot Festival turned into a free concert. The responsibility has been claimed by Luther Blissett.

The hungarian neoist ANDRES VOITH ( 4004, Debrecen, Hungary) organized a press campaign for the liberation of Luther Blissett, which had been passed off as a U.S. political prisoner. Voith made mischief so much that there were parliamentary questions and were set up many Solidarity Committeess all over the country. A few weeks later, Voith revealed it was a bluff but nobody got angry with him, and some committess decided to continue an anti-racist activity of international solidarity.

It is said that in Europe circulates a collection of love letters (?) written in french by Luther Blissett and an unknown lady. In some letters, members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, hidden by an alias, are involved in a Hard-Gore & S-M orgy. If anybody could lay hands on it, write to: THE LUTHER BLISSETT PROJECT, c/o Radio K Centrale, via Azzogardino 23, 40122 Bologna (Italy).

If you want to know something about what Luther Blissett is doing in USA, write to:
LUTHER BLISSETT, c/o EAT ART/MIKE DYAR, 1913 Ellis Street, San Francisco, CA 94115 USA. All we know is that Luther Blissett is an american rhabdomancer.

In Italy, Luther Blissett (this infamous "international cultural terrorist") keeps on organizing situationautic assaults on the establishment. A "Miss Luther Blissett" - got the address by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - sent an open letter to the Rwandah Patriotic Front, whose matter was to urge Tutsis and Hutus to change of front: if they really want to butcher to each other instead of fighting against imperialism (as though if they liked to be enjoyed by white men as a bloody spectacle), why can't they move to Europe and fight in some bull-ring? This would be an "interactive" slaughter, since we'd not only keep enjoying them, but could also decide their fate with thumb up or down. We kow that other letters signed "Luther blissett" have been sent to Fidel Castro and to the Esthonian Gouvernment, but we don't know their subject yet.

Every wednesday night, Radio Città del Capo (the Bologna point of the national POPOLARE NETWORK) broadcasts "Luther Blissett", a psychogeographical reconnaissance of the city from midnight to daaybreak. The city is explored and re-discovered by several Luther Blissetts which the audience moves "by remote control". The audience follows (or precedes) the programme on a topographical map, and phones new itineraries and missions to the headquarter. The LB patrols are connected via-radio with the HQ, and act upon the orders in real time. The individual perception falls a prey to chaos while Luther Blissett describes scenes of social conflict, trespasses the invisible lines which mark the boundaries of any change in mood; the night patrol goes along the streets, there are missions to complete tonight: sing a serenade, deliver pizzas, shout "TTESSILBREHTUL!!!" in a main street at the top of one's voice, report an anti-hookers police raid, make a date with nobody, break into a house, link two parties... A practical critics of everyday urban life, a hard-boiled Bologna, a situationist talk-radio. The address is:
LUTHER BLISSETT, c/o Radio Città del Capo, Mura di Porta S. Felice 1, Bologna, Italy. Tel. -51-6596241 Fax -51-557441.

The 30th of september and the 1st of october, in Milan, AGAVE (Atelier Gluck Archivio Virtuale degli Eventi) promoted the meeting "MILLENNIUM - Languages of Change". The ghost of Luther Blissett fluttered on the conferences and on the video-installations. In the dysk containing texts and explanatory material, which was sold at the entrance, there was a precise description of the Luther Blissett Project in Europe. ATP (Art & Technology 4 Pleasure) presented an installation which consisted of a dead pigeon kept in formalin with monitors all around him cutting up junk-TV and scenes from an endoscopy ("The Real Interior Life of Wo/men, or The Defeat of the Psychanalisis"). One of the author's names was Luther Blissett, and that was also the pigeon's name. Every so often, one of the promoters announced the coming of Luther Blissett. However, the things ATP wrote about itself perfectly suit the Luther Blissett Project: "We keep on renewing our aestethic sensibility and the general aesthetics, we ain't got no roots, we came from anywhere in the world, we don't want forefathers nor descendants. We don't need an identity, we ever quarrel with each other and with other persons, and this is the only thing which allows us to act. We're foes and friends. We don't need to face up to competition, 'cause you can't compete with us, since we are you and you are we [...]".

 

THE LUTHER BLISSETT PROJECT

c/o Guglielmi, P.O. Box 744, Bologna centrale, Italy