Kaufmann's Debord Biography Critiqued for Reducing Revolutionary to Bohemian

A review by Yan Ciret in artpress critiques Vincent Kaufmann's biography of Guy Debord, 'La révolution au service de la poésie' (Fayard, 2002). The reviewer finds the book both irritating and seductive, citing misattributed quotes, errors, and a heavy style. Kaufmann reduces Debord's existential matrix to the 'golden age' of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Lettrist International, a thesis of 'lost children' that sidelines Debord's broader project of surpassing art through Hegel and Marx. Ciret argues this truncation depoliticizes Debord's life-as-work, comparing it to reducing Marx to the 1844 Manuscripts while ignoring Capital. Despite flaws, the book's major interest lies in foregrounding Debord's plastic means (experimental and classical), helping readers understand Debord as a protean artist. However, Ciret notes it falls short of Agamben's analyses of time and slow motion in Debord's films. The review appears in artpress, March 2002.