On March 28, 2017 I gave a talk at the Red Victorian in San Francisco:
“Spectacular Commodities: A History of the Situationist International through its Cultural Productions”
I am happy to report that the talk has been recorded (unfortunately, the first 5-7 minutes are cut out) and now available to view here
The video was also uploaded to YouTube and is available here
More posts coming soon — I am currently moving my collection from the East to the West Coast and will resume posting sometime this summer.
Hello
Re: French and Arabic Khayati translation project
I’m working on a chapter for a project being put together on the Situationist International, with each chapter addressing a particular subject to make up a “key concepts” book, providing intellectual history but also historical and political context beyond the strictly ‘intellectual’, narrowly understood.
My chapter will address issues of colonialism, nationalism and race in relation to Situationist theory and practice.
Part of what I’m intending to talk about is the work of Mustapha Khayati, both during and after his involvement with the Situationists. He was heavily involved in the Situationists’ engagement with struggles in Algeria and the Middle East, and when he left the Situationist International, very late in the organisation’s existence, it was to travel to the Middle East to join with part f the organised Palestinian Left.
At that point, as you know, Khayati began a collaboration with Latif Lakhdar, then active in the Front, and together they would put out a number of texts and publications.
However, as far as I am able to discern precisely none of the texts produced by Khayati and Lakhdar have been translated into English.
This the the immediate impetus to have certain texts translated. In the end I’ve decided to give most immediate priority to a text they put out in French called ‘The Persian Gulf’, and there is another text Khayati wrote from considerably later, ‘Brèves remarques sur le poème libertaire’, which I am also tempted to have translated, just because it looks interesting. But these choices are in part determined by access, by my having the materials to actually have translated.
However, I am looking for any texts, in French or Arabic, in the production of which Mustapha Khayati was involved. My intention is to have any such texts translated into English, for free and public distribution, as well as to use such materials in writing this chapter, of course.
You are one of the only people I am aware of who seems to possess any such materials!
Thus I am hoping that you might be willing to help me to arrange such translation?
My motivations are in no way commercial, or even career based – rather, I think the translation of any such materials is in the interest of wider appreciation and understanding of what I take to be important developments in the post-SI activity of one of the most important Situationist theorists. As well as understanding of radical tendencies within the Middle East.
In any case, I hope that you feel able to help with this project, or with suggestions at to how I might gain access to such materials.
I am aware of no current efforts to do this translation work other than my own willingness to organise and indeed pay for such translations.
Thank you in advance, and I very much hope to hear from you soon,
Ben Rosenzweig