The Explosion

Slought is pleased to announce The Explosion, a conversation exploring oral testimonies from the May '68 uprising and its aftermath, featuring writer and translator Mitchell Abidor in dialogue with Jean-Michel Rabaté, curator of discursive programs at Slought. The event will take place on Tuesday, April 17 from 6-7:30pm.

The upheavals that shook France in May 1968 were exciting, dangerous, creative and influential, changing European politics to this day. Students demonstrated, workers went on general strike, factories and universities were occupied. At the height of its fervor, the movement brought the entire national economy to a halt. The protests reached such a point that political leaders feared civil war or revolution. As we approach the 50th anniversary, Abidor and Rabaté will revisit these momentous actions as documented in May Made Me: An Oral History of the 1968 Uprising (Pluto Press, London, 2018), a forthcoming collection of interviews with twenty-one witnesses.

Abidor's May Made Me provides eye-opening oral testimonies of the rebels. By listening to the voices of students and workers, as opposed to that of their leaders, May '68 appears not just as a mass event, but rather as an event driven by millions of individuals, achieving a mosaic human portrait of France at the time. The discussion will also engage how these explosive experiences changed both those who took part and the course of history.