What was the role of the Situationist International in painting and literature?

The Situationist International was an avant-garde political and artistic movement founded in 1957. It aimed to critique and subvert the prevailing social and political systems, particularly in capitalist societies. While the Situationist International is often associated with political theory, it also played a significant role in the fields of painting and literature.

The Situationist International believed that art should be integrated with everyday life and that artists should use their work to challenge the status quo. They sought to develop new forms of artistic expression that would inspire revolutionary change. One of their most famous contributions to painting was the practice of 'détournement', which involved taking existing works of art and subverting their meaning through alteration or re-contextualization.

In literature, the Situationist International developed a form of writing known as 'psychogeography', which aimed to explore the psychological effects of urban environments. They also developed a technique known as 'dérive', which involved wandering through an urban landscape without a pre-determined destination, in order to subvert the dominant social order.