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Documents from May 1968

Documents from May 1968

Monthly Archives: May 2015

Mai 68 Exhibition – Video – Antoine Grimaud speaks about Mai 68

30 Saturday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in First-hand Account, Internationale Situationniste, Maurice Grimaud, Police, Students, Video

≈ 1 Comment

  

(Click on image to view video – links to Youtube)

Last night was the opening of the Mai 68 exhibition featuring some of my collection of posters. It is being held at Alliance Français, Brisbane, and continues until July 31.

The highlight of the night for me was being able to show this video made specially for the night by my friend Antoine Grimaud. Antoine was 17 in 1968 when he joined in with the student protests. In the film he shares his feelings and experiences from the time. It’s a fascinating first-hand account.

An intriguing part of his story is that Antoine’s father was Maurice Grimaud – Paris’ prefect of police in 1968. As time has passed Maurice Grimaud has been praised by many (amongst them Daniel Cohn-Bendit) for his handling of what was a very volatile situation in 1968. This is highlighted by the fact that his predecessor was Maurice Papon (Maurice Grimaud had taken over the Prefect’s role in 1967). Papon’s legacy of deaths at the hands of the police under his control (especially in the events of October 17 1961 and Charonne) was still an open wound in France in 1968. 

Antoine went on to join the Lettriste group in 1972. One real treat for me in the video is that it is opened and closed with 2 of Antoine’s Letterist poems – so for many viewers this will probably be the first time you will have heard real Letterist poetry. The video is made in a Letterist cinéma discrépant style too – with images and script a-synchronous to each other.

For more information on Antoine & his art visit his website (which, as you might imagine, is in French).

Poster – “Our Struggle Continues” (June 1968 – Atelier Populaire)

18 Monday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in Atelier Populaire, Poster

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“Our Struggle Continues”

(June 1968 – Atelier Populaire)

Green screen-print on poster paper (Atelier Populaire stamp)

43 x 55cm

Documented in: 
Peters #106; Mésa, p111

Online References:
ENSBA #10751/10818
Zurich – 64-0685
BNF

Poster – “Vote Anyway, I’ll do the Rest” (June 1968)

17 Sunday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in Comité d'Initiative Pour un Mouvement Révolutionnaire, de Gaulle, Elections, Poster

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“Vote Anyway, I’ll do the Rest” (June 1968)

Comité d’Initiative Pour un Mouvement Révolutionnaire

Offset black print on yellow poster paper

56 x 75cm

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Documented in:
Camard #164a, Beaubourg #43, Beauty #71; Gasquet p.54; Beaubourg #43; Peters #231; Paves; Artcurial #532

Online References:
ENSBA #10826 
BNF 
Bienecke: BrSides Folio 2008 180
Zurich – 64-0726

Poster – “May” (June 1968? – Paul Rebeyrolle)

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in Artist-produced, Poster

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Paul Rebeyrolle

  

“May” (June 1968)

 Paul Rebeyrolle

Along with the lithographs documented in this blog by Asger Jorn and Karel Appel, this is another of the artist-produced posters produced to be sold to fund the student movement. 


3-colour lithograph

60 x 80cm


Documented in: 

Beaubourg #277; Murs #186; Artcurial #599/600

Poster – “(CRS) SS” (May 18 1968)

15 Friday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in May 13-19 1968, Police, Poster

≈ 1 Comment

  

(CRS) SS 

(May 18)

This poster is one of the most iconic from May 1968. The first version produced only had the image of the CRS policeman (drawn by cartoonist Jacques Carelman) on it. This is the later version with the “SS” added to the shield. This refers to the student chant: “CRS SS!”. 

Brown offset on poster paper

32.5 x 50cm

Documented in:
Gasquet p.47; Imagination #5; Beaubourg #7; Peters #12 ; Les Affiches #128; Beauty #163b ; Mesa p29; Murs #82; Dobson #40 ; Paris p114

Online References:
ENSBA # 10682
Bienecke: BrSides Folio 2008 34
Zurich – 28-0225

Poster – “A Youth Who Worries About the Future too Often” (May 25 1968)

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in de Gaulle, May 20-26 1968, Poster, Uncategorized

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A Youth Who Worries About the Future too Often 

(May 25 1968)

Purple offset on gloss paper

43cm x 56cm

This is one of my favourite posters from May 68 – and indeed one of my favourite graphic images of all time.
The text is almost a direct qoute from a speech made by de Gaulle on May 24: “the profound troubles, especially amongst the youth, who are concerned about their own role and who worry about the future too often” (“les troubles profonds, surtout dans la jeunesse, qui est soucieuse de son propre rôle et que l’avenir inquiet trop souvent”)

There were at least 3 versions made of this poster – my copy is one of the later offset printed ones (the earlier versions were less graphically less sophisticated and screen-printed).

This image is also famous for inspiring Jaimie Reid in making an early version of the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” 7″ cover.

  
Documented in:

Gasquet p. 167; Wlassikoff p. 64 ; Dobson #43 ; Les Affiches #203 ; Peters #53;  Beauty #81′ Mesa p43 ; Paris p142

Poster – Cross of Lorraine (June 3 1968, Fac Medicine)

07 Thursday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in de Gaulle, Elections, Fac Medicine, June 3-9 1968, Poster, Uncategorized

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Cross of Lorraine 

(3 June 1968, Fac Medicine)


Black screen-print on newsprint

This poster was released just after de Gaulle had announced the election to be held at the end of June.

The Cross of Lorraine (Croix de Lorraine) was the symbol of Free France (the government-in-exile led by Charles de Gaulle) during World War 2, and was retained by de Gaulle after the war as the symbol of his political movement: Gaullism.

So here we have a depiction of the generic French voter with de Gaulle’s symbol screwed right into his brain.

Documented in:

Camard #145; Peters #237; Beauty #146; Beaubourg #71;  Gasquet p.97; Paves; Dobson #67
Online References:
BnF

Zurich – 64-0708

Poster – “The Police Speak to You Every Evening at 8pm” (June 6 1968 – École des Arts Décoratifs)

04 Monday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in Ecole des Arts Décoratifs, June 3-9 1968, ORTF, Police, Poster, Uncategorized

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“The Police Speak to You Every Evening at 8pm” (


École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs)
Red screenprint on poster paper

46cm x 62cm

Documented in:
Gasquet p. 122; Beaubourg #63 ;Wlassikoff p. 102 ; Camard #180 ; Imagination #45; Artcurial #354 ; Dobson #83 ; UUU p. 83 ; Peters #186 ; Beauty #82+117b ; Paves ; Mesa p85 ; Murs #103 ; Paris p73

Online References:
ENSBA # 10756, 10757
BNF 
Bienecke: BrSides Folio 2008 37

Poster – “Vote, Old Man, Vote for the Fifth [Republic]” (June 1968, Fac des Sciences)

04 Monday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in de Gaulle, Elections, Fac des Sciences, Poster, Uncategorized

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 Edit   

Vote, Old Man, Vote for the Fifth [Republic] (Fac des Sciences)
Orange screenprint on computer paper (Faculté des Sciences stamp)

28cm x 42cm

Documented in:

Camard #153b; Beauty #108b

Online References:

BNF

Mai 68 Exhibition in Brisbane May 29-July 24 2015

01 Friday May 2015

Posted by biffbang in Uncategorized

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I’m very chuffed to be able to work with Alliance Française in Brisbane to put together an exhibition of posters from Mai 68. It will feature about 20 of the most significant posters from my collection. I hope it can function as  both a memory aide, and as a prompt to future thought and action. 

I definitely recognise (and feel) the contradictions inherent in collecting and exhibiting objects that were made for purely political and revolutionary ends – and the potential fetishisation that could be the result. 

The Atelier Populaire put it best themselves:

“The posters produced by the ATELIER POPULAIRE are weapons in the service of the struggle and are an inseparable part of it. 

Their rightful place is in the centres of conflict, that is to say, in the streets and on the walls of the factories. 

To use them for decorative purposes, to display them in bourgeois places of culture or to consider them as objects of aesthetic interest is to impair both their function and their effect. This is why the ATELIER POPULAIRE has always refused to put them on sale. 

Even to keep them as historical evidence of a certain stage in the struggle is a betrayal, for the struggle itself is of such primary importance that the position of an “outside” observer is a fiction which inevitably plays into the hands of the ruling class.


That is why these works should not be taken as the final outcome of an experience, but as an inducement for finding, through contact with the masses, new levels of action, both on the cultural and the political plane.”

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