The Situationists and the City: A Reader

New
Illustrated
2010
$18.76

The French radicals at the forefront of the revolts in Paris in 1968 were re-imagining the city as a revolutionary utopia. The Situationist International (SI), led by Guy Debord and central to the Paris uprising in May 1968, published many incendiary texts on politics and art in the journal Internationale Situationniste . One central theme to their work was rethinking the city: from a site for routine consumption and work to a utopia that breaks down barriers between function and play. In this essential volume, Tom McDonough collects together all of the SI's key essays on urbanism and the city. The book will be strikingly illustrated by images that were core to the SI project. It will include such key texts as The Theory of Derive , Formulary for a New Urbanism , and many previously untranslated texts, including those that came out of the Situationists' collaboration with Henri Lefebvre.

Synopsis

The French radicals at the forefront of the revolts in Paris in 1968 were re-imagining the city as a revolutionary utopia. The Situationist International (SI), led by Guy Debord and central to the Paris uprising in May 1968, published many incendiary texts on politics and art in the journal Internationale Situationniste . One central theme to their work was rethinking the city: from a site for routine consumption and work to a utopia that breaks down barriers between function and play. In this essential volume, Tom McDonough collects together all of the SI's key essays on urbanism and the city. The book will be strikingly illustrated by images that were core to the SI project. It will include such key texts as The Theory of Derive , Formulary for a New Urbanism , and many previously untranslated texts, including those that came out of the Situationists' collaboration with Henri Lefebvre.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 250
Publisher: Verso
Published: 18 Jan 2010
ISBN 10: 1844673642
ISBN 13: 9781844673643

Media Reviews

McDonough's new translations of key urbanist texts show that the Situationists were radical, idealistic but above all delightfully Parisian. PD Smith, Guardian A highly readable and well-organised compendium that is likely to be fingered for some time, it lays out neatly the movement's visionary take on the city (read Paris) 'as the primary site of alienation in modern society'. Christian Viveros-Faune, Art Review

Author Bio

Tom McDonough is Associate Professor of Modern Architecture and Urbanism in the Art History Department at Binghamton University, and an editor of Grey Room. He is the editor of Guy Debord and the Situationist International and the author of The Beautiful Language of My Century.