“Editors Note: In this No. of the Situationist Times (5) do we try to open up the problem of the ring, interlaced rings and consequently chains. This happens on the base of the three patterns of European culture which are introduced in Jorn’s article on ‘Meaning and Sense’….All we try to show here in an artistic way is a certain connection of the three patterns with topological aspects. It is up to the reader if he wants so, to make his own conclusions.”

This how the editor Jacqueline de Jong sums the contents of issue No 5 of the Situationist Times – a journal in letter-format (220x280mm). A total of 6 issues were published by de Jong from Paris and Copenhagen in 1600 copies per issue between May 1962 and December 1964. The article by the Danish artist Asger Jorn: Mind and Sense – on the principle of ambivalence in nordic huisdrapa and mind singing – is Jorn’s attempt to validate and evangelise the importance of Nordic Art in the face of Denmark applying to join the European Union (a process that began in 1961). After a three-page (2500-word) article, explaining the Nordic artist’s role as a shaman, the issue is a non-linear collage of images related to the theme of the “ring, interlaced rings and consequently chains”, with essays on the mathematical aspects, the history, mythology and symbolism, magic circles, games with hoops and rings. It is fascinating.