The Situationist International which leaped to the fore during the Paris tumult of 1968 has
extended its revolutionary influence right up to the present day. In Leaving the Twentieth
Century the movement is captured for the first time in its full range and diversity.
McKenzie Wark traces the group’s development from the bohemian Paris of the ’50s to the
explosive days of May ’68. She introduces the group as an ensemble revealing the work and
activities of thinkers previously obscured by the reputation of founding member Guy Debord.
Roaming through Europe and exploring the vital lives its members—including Constant Asger Jorn
Michèle Bernstein Alexander Trocchi and Jacqueline de Jong—Wark uncovers a group riven with
conflicting passions. She follows the narrative beyond 1968 to the Situationists
International’s disintegration and beyond: the ideas of T. J. Clark the Fourierist utopia of
Raoul Vaneigem René Vienet’s earthy situationist cinema Gianfranco Sanguinetti’s pranking of
the Italian ruling class Alice Becker-Ho’s account of the anonymous language of the Romany
and Debord’s late films and his surprising work as a game designer.
