Mai sans fin: voices of the 1968 revolution
mai sans fin or infinite may is a témoignage as French would call it — an evidence of an era as well as a collage of its artifacts: witness diaries, interviews with the event participants, clippings from newspapers, posters, flyers of trade unions, parties and groupuscules form a polyphonic and, using the word of the era, — spontaneous narrative — just as dizzying as the events themselves.
Epigraph and title/contents spread
The book begins with a historical article that introduces reader to context and describes the prerequisites for the emerging uprising
The texts of French popular songs reflecting the mood of the era are placed in between the sections. The spread is filled with black for a clearer separation of sections and for the dramatic effect
Black from those dividing spreads leaks into the next spread
The second section is the Chronicle. One of its texts comes from « Journal de la commune étudiante » — documents that are turned 90° and cut through the spreads
The newspaper clippings and posters also flow from spread to spread. In this section, the role of gray tone has changed, so that images and documents stand out on the natural color of paper
Photos have their own allocated pages filled with black. They are contextual — bound to events, described in the adjacent texts
The second body of text in the Chronicle section is Maurice Brinton’s diary which is set in italics with a rigid left edge alignment, which contrasts with the form of historical articles
Quotes are also placed on white plaques that flow over the margins to the next spread
Slogans are given in french, placed on white plaques and set in a large type size mirroring the epigraph (which also uses quote that served as a slogan during the events of May)
The black from the divider spreads usually ends on the left page, giving way to white or gray, but not in the case of the final chapter — the Epitaph
It is opened by an interview with Alain Krivine, the leader of one of the left-wing organizations that has extensively partaken in the events of May 68…
…and is closed with a short essay by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, « Mai 68 n’a pas lieu »
The following text were translated and used in a design of mai sans fin:
- Maurice Brinton — Paris: May 1968
- Alain Schnapp — Journal de la commune étudiante [documents' numeration corresponds with the original text]
- Jack Kenny — Young People & the French Communist Party: May 1968, the final straw?
- Marc Rohan — Paris ‘68: graffiti, posters, newspapers, and poems of the events of May 1968
- Жиль Делёз и Феликс Гваттари — Мая 68‑го не было (Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, Mai 68 n’a pas lieu , translated by Evgeniy Blinov, Ad Marginem Press, 2016)
- Mitchell Abidor — May Made Me: An Oral History of the Uprising in France of 1968
- Claire Fouchereaux — The ‘Darkening Sky’: French Popular Music of the 1960s and May 1968
Curators:
- Evgeniy Korneev
- Sofja Kruglova
Content-consultant:
- Mikhail Nisenbaum
Designer:
- Georgiy Novikov
Typefaces:
- AG Book Pro (Günter Gerhard Lange, Berthold, 1969)
- William Text Pro (Maria Doreuli, Typotheque, 2016)
Format:
- 200 × 250 mm
- 156 p.
Paper:
- Arena Ivory 120 gsm
Printed by Vladimir Semenkov at HSE Prepress Lab, bound by Georgiy Novikov
