Danish artist Asger Jorn (1914–1973) is internationally renowned for his activities within the CoBrA and the International Situationist groups. Quite apart from his paintings, prints, ceramics and sculptures, Jorn produced a remarkable amount of theoretical work. His ideas are still extremely relevant to contemporary discourse. However, in contrast to his artistic oeuvre, Jorn’s theoretical arguments have received much less attention from scholars of architecture, art history or philosophy. This book for the first time reveals this largely ignored aspect of Jorn’s work. Jorn’s opinions and motivations are subsequently contextualized within the theoretical debate of his time and are linked in the book to examples of built architecture, which influenced and informed his conception of architecture and urbanism. His position regarding the relationship between architecture and art encompasses a harsh critique of modern architecture. By developing the concept of an “Architecture Sauvage,” a notion coined by Guy Debord many years later, Asger Jorn tries to map out a series of perspectives for the way modern architecture can help to create a pleasing and dynamic everyday environment for human beings.
