Architecture of the BArricAde = an iconographic research by the Arsenale institute for Politics of representation – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ –

FORGIA  MARINAREZZA Pareti scala 1:10 **15**

Parete interna di fronte Calle **15** **14 16** **7** Parete interna di fronte Riva **17**

**6**

Parete lato Calle Schiavona **13** **5** **18**

**4** **11** **20** **3**

Parete lato Sotoportego **10** **12 2**

**19** **9 1** **8**

**21**

Parete lato Riva

* * *

Architecture of the Ba rrica de – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ –

Bastiaan D. van d er V eld en _and W_ olfgang S cheppe _with S_ ara C od utti _Venezia, May 1, 2025, 7_ th Edition

* * *

1 T he Beginnings of the Barricad e

The barricade is a central myth in French history,
long associated with popular uprisings and resistance.
The emergence of the term barricade can be traced
back to the 16th century religious conflicts of the ‘barricades’ and ‘barriquades’.
catholic Sainte Ligue. The structure appeared again in
the 17th century amid the civil unrest of the Fronde. In
both periods, tensions between segments of the nobility and the expanding authority of the monarchy drew
ordinary citizens into the streets, culminating in dramatic episodes like the Journées des Barricades—days of
protest that would become etched in national memory.
Yet the barricade did not become a fully realized

protest that would become etched in national memory.
Yet the barricade did not become a fully realized
symbol of popular defiance—a recurring image in
art, literature, and political thought—until the revolutionary upheavals of 1830 and 1848. During these
19th-century revolts, the barricade evolved into a kind
of iconographic topos: the stage for urban insurrection,
embodying the spirit of resistance against oppressive
regimes. The collage-like barricade constructed of
random objects found on the street and misappropriated against the social context from which they derive,
originates in the 19th-century engraving; before this
date, few images are known, especially one woodcut,
which still depicts the barricade as a purely military
means without any connotation of civil unrest. This
picture embodies the earliest depiction of a barricade
that also uses this term. It was published in 1598, and
the first German language edition followed only 3
years later. (Joseph Boillot, Artifices de feu et divers
instruments de guerre, Chaumont-en-Bassigny, 1598).
By the time of the Paris Commune in 1871, however,

instruments de guerre, Chaumont-en-Bassigny, 1598).
By the time of the Paris Commune in 1871, however,
the role of the barricade had shifted. While still a potent
emblem of rebellion, it had lost much of its tactical utility.
The increasing sophistication of state military forces—
better weaponry, lighter and highly mobile artillery,
more coordinated responses, and centralized power
without inhibitions to sacrifice insurgent civilians on a
large scale—rendered traditional street barricades largely
ineffective in practice, even as they endured in the collective imagination as a symbol of the people’s struggle.
1.1 H.L. V P, La vraye

La Popeliniere is the author of an important work
on the history of the Wars of Religion, La Vraye et
toute Histoire (which had three revised and expanded
editions from 1571 to 1578-1579). He uses the word
barricade in several unstandardized forms, including
‘barricades’ and ‘barriquades’.

1.2 Barricade at the Porte Saint-Antoine in 1648,
in: ‘Le Magasin Pittoresque’, №. 38, Paris 1842.
The most common illustration of the 1648 barricade

The most common illustration of the 1648 barricade
at the Porte Saint-Antoine contains an error: it depicts
the wrong gate. In 1648, there was a gate with a single
passage, not three, which was constructed after 1678.

1.3 Barricade at the Porte Saint-Antoine in 1648,
postcard, 20th century.

1.4 Blaise d e Montluc, Commentaires de
messier Blaise de Montluc maréchal de France,
Lyon: Loys Clesinet 1593 (first edition, second printing).
During the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598)

Lyon: Loys Clesinet 1593 (first edition, second printing).
During the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598)
between Catholics and Protestants in France, Blaise
de Montluc served as a military commander on the
Catholic side. In his writings, Montluc described
a “barrage fait de barriques,” or a barrier made from
barrels. As Montluc’s forces advanced during the 1569
assault on the town of Mont-de-Marsan, Protestant
Huguenot troops took up positions behind a makeshift structure built from wine barrels. According to
Montluc, “The enemies fired directly at the bridge along
a wide street, where they had constructed a barricade,
which not everyone was able to reach.”

1.5 Les barricades de Paris en 1648, in: Le musée
des familles - lecture du soir, Paris: Bureau de l’administration 1849.

piqve-niqve: En vers bvrlesqve, Paris 1649.
Among the many satirical broadsheets that circulated in Paris during the Fronde, few were as pointed—or as playful—as those targeting a fictional group
known as the “Brothers of the Pique-Nique Binge.”
Depicted as a band of buffoons, they abandoned swords
and muskets in favor of cutlery and wine glasses. Their
battlefield was not the barricades of Paris, but taverns, where they waged war on roasted meats, stews,
and cabirotades. This caricature was typical of the
mazarinades—a wave of satirical and often burlesque
pamphlets aimed at undermining Cardinal Mazarin’s

* * *

4

authority. Over 5,000 such pamphlets were published
during the Fronde, offering a vivid glimpse into the
era’s popular dissent and political humor.

The events leading to the Journées des Barricades
in May 1588 are marked by a web of political tensions,
but a significant factor was the revolt of Parisian citizens
against royal authority. Tensions escalated when King
Henry III positioned troops at the city’s gates. The
king’s attempt to detain multiple residents was widely
viewed as exceeding the limits of the powers granted to
him, fueling a swift and coordinated public backlash.

1.8 Historie de France: Journée des Barricades
1648, ca. 1930, tradecard.
In 1648, amid growing tensions between the

In 1648, amid growing tensions between the
monarchy and the Parlement of Paris, residents of
the French capital erected barricades in defense of
their political rights and their representatives in the
Parliament of Paris. The confrontation was fueled by
opposition to the centralizing policies of Queen Anne
of Austria and her chief minister, Cardinal Mazarin.
Over the night of August 26 to 27, resistance unfolded:
numerous barricades—some adorned with flags—appeared throughout the city in a matter of hours. These
improvised structures were intended not just as
physical obstacles but also served as symbols of protest
against a monarchy moving toward absolutist rule.

1.9 Historie de France: La Fronde, Journée des
Barricades 1648, ca. 1930, tradecard.

1.11 C.C. d e l’A ub espine, Agréable récit de ce
qui s’est passé aux dernières barricades de Paris, M.
Mettayer, Paris 1649.

barricades and trap the royal troops occupying the city.
Parisians responded swiftly. Using whatever ma-

Parisians responded swiftly. Using whatever materials were available, residents and students from the
Faubourg Saint-Germain erected barricades. According to one account “the people erected barricades at
intervals of fifty paces. So, the garrisons suddenly found
themselves trapped between massive barricades, which
were being guarded by armed inhabitants. Additionally,
the windows of the houses were filled with musketeers
and infantrymen.” (Archives curieuses de l’histoire de
France depuis Louis XI, 1836, p. 336)
Though the uprising posed a serious challenge

France depuis Louis XI, 1836, p. 336)
Though the uprising posed a serious challenge
to royal authority, the confrontation did not escalate
into a full-scale battle. After successfully cornering the
King’s forces, Cossé-Brissac helped restore order and
personally escorted the Swiss troops back to the safety
of the Louvre.

1.13 C ard inal d e R etz, Mémoires du cardinal De
Retz, J.F. Bernard: Amsterdam 1731. \[barricades: Paris\
1648-1652\]
On February 28, 1649, cries echoed through the

1648-1652\]
On February 28, 1649, cries echoed through the
streets of Paris: “God bless the Coadjutor de Gondi!”
answered by the resounding chant, “No Mazarin!”
The scene, described by Jean-François Paul de Gondi himself, captured a moment of high drama amid
the Fronde, a series of uprisings that challenged the
authority of the French crown during the minority of
Louis XIV.
De Gondi, who would later become known as

De Gondi, who would later become known as
Cardinal de Retz, was then serving as coadjutor to
the Archbishop of Paris. Though he held a position
within the Church, his influence extended far beyond
the pulpit. In the revolt of 1648, he emerged as a key
figure, driven by a mix of political ambition, a taste for
intrigue, and a genuine opposition to the centralized
power of Cardinal Mazarin, the chief minister who had
come to symbolize royal absolutism.
“I gave my orders in two words, and they were

himself into the center of them.
Voltaire offered in Le Siècle de Louis XIV a sharp
and nuanced portrait of de Retz. He described him as
“the first bishop in France to have launched a civil war
without religion as his pretext.” In his Mémoires, de
Retz depicted himself with theatrical grandeur, marked by a restless intelligence and a tendency toward con-July 7, 1647, to April 6, 1648. What began as a protest
tradiction—qualities Voltaire saw as both the source of against a new tax on fruit imposed by the Spanish
his influence and his instability. viceroy quickly grew into a broader rebellion, driven by
On the so-called Journée des Barricades, de Retz long-standing economic grievances and deep-seated

his influence and his instability.
On the so-called Journée des Barricades, de Retz
claimed to have personally armed and mobilized the
citizens of Paris, transforming the city into a maze of
barricades. While his account may exaggerate his role,
the day nonetheless became emblematic of his unique
place in French history—a clergyman who wielded rebellion as deftly as rhetoric, and whose life blurred the
line between political theater and genuine resistance.

1.14 P.G. Jeanniot, La barricade, Paris: Librairie
Hachette et Cie 1887, postcard.
The lithograph from the perspective of a military

Hachette et Cie 1887, postcard.
The lithograph from the perspective of a military
unit attacking a barricade in street fighting by one of
the most prolific French illustrators of the turn of the
century around 1900 bears on the reverse an almost
conceptual definition of the barricade category: “In
street fighting, the enemy is often stopped with the help
of entrenchments called barricades. For the barricades to
have any useful effect, they must be supported on either
side by troops shooting from the windows. Then they are
hard to remove. (...) It is very dangerous for an attacker
to get caught in this crossfire. A barricade is built from
whatever materials you can find, e.g., cobblestones, pieces of wood, furniture, cars, barrels, etc. (...) Also, this type
of defense is only temporary. If her role were limited to
passive defense, their utility would be of little use.”

1.15 Scène de la Fronde, le peuple demandant la
liberté de Broussel, 1648, in H. Gourdon de Genouillac,
Paris à travers les siècles, F. Roy, Paris 1879.

1.21 F rancis Mid on, The History of the Rise and
Fall of Masaniello, the Fisherman of Naples, Containing
an Exact and Impartial Relation of the Tumults and
Popular Insurrections, that Happened in that Kingdom,
(in the Year 1647) on Account of the Tax Upon Fruits.
Collected from Authentick Memoirs and Manuscripts
by F. Midon Jun, London 1747.
The Neapolitan uprising led by Tommaso Aniello

1.19 Rue de Flandre a Bruxelles, Jeudi 23 Septembre 1830, postcard.

July 7, 1647, to April 6, 1648. What began as a protest
against a new tax on fruit imposed by the Spanish
viceroy quickly grew into a broader rebellion, driven by
long-standing economic grievances and deep-seated
resentment toward Spanish rule in southern Italy.
While Masaniello, a fisherman by trade, became

resentment toward Spanish rule in southern Italy.
While Masaniello, a fisherman by trade, became
the face of the revolt, the deeper currents of the
uprising were shaped by many of the same forces that
were simultaneously fueling unrest in other parts of
Europe, such as the Fronde in France. In Naples, the
call to resist took visible form in the streets. According to one contemporary account, “barricades were
everywhere erected—of barrels filled with earth, sacks of
wool, and faggots, and when these failed, the branches of
the magnificent fruit trees of the royal park were used.”
The uprising briefly led to the declaration of the first
Repubblica Napoletana, or Neapolitan Republic.
Masaniello’s leadership, however, was short-lived.

Masaniello’s leadership, however, was short-lived.
Within ten days of the revolt, he was assassinated—his
rapid fall from power a reflection of the chaos and
competing interests that marked the rebellion. Though
the republic itself would survive for nearly a year, the
uprising was eventually suppressed by Spanish forces.
Despite its limited duration and ultimate failure,

uprising was eventually suppressed by Spanish forces.
Despite its limited duration and ultimate failure,
the Neapolitan revolt resonated far beyond southern
Italy. It inspired a wave of artistic and literary responses
across Europe, most notably Auber’s 1828 opera La
Muette de Portici, which later influenced revolutionary sentiment in 19th-century Belgium. Still, in the
broader narrative of European history, the uprising has
often been overlooked, overshadowed by more enduring political changes elsewhere. Yet for a brief moment, Naples joined the chorus of early modern cities
challenging the prevailing order through the language
of barricades and popular resistance.

taisie par E. Tavan, Paris, Margueritat 1828, libretto.
La Muette de Portici (1828) stages political insurrection through operatic form, set in Portici—a liminal
zone outside Naples under Spanish control. The plot
revolves around Princess Elvire’s marriage to Alphonse,
son of the viceroy, interrupted by Fenella, a mute
woman who reveals, through gesture, her violation
by Alphonse. Her silence, paradoxically, becomes a
structural dissonance in this art form predicated on
voice. This muteness catalyzes Masaniello, a fisherman,
to lead a revolt.

* * *

6

1.24-27 La Muette de Portici, Extrait de Viande
Liebig, Paris ca. 1900, collector cards.
On the evening of August 25, 1830, King Wil-

Liebig, Paris ca. 1900, collector cards.
On the evening of August 25, 1830, King William I’s birthday, during a performance of Auber’s La
Muette de Portici at the Théâtre royal de la Monnaie in
Brussels, the opera exceeded its aesthetic fame. When
French tenor Jean-François Lafeuillade called out
“Aux armes!” in the third act, the audience reportedly
shouted “Vive la liberté,” “A bas le roi,” and “Mort aux
Hollandais”—transforming theatrical space into a site
of political contagion. By August 31, unrest spilled into
the streets; citizens began erecting barricades, reconfiguring urban space into a terrain of resistance. Within
weeks, the fragile post-Napoleonic construct of the
United Kingdom of the Netherlands—imposed by the
Congress of Vienna—collapsed. The opera, staged as a
cultural production, became an accelerant of historical
rupture: myth gave way to insurrection.

1.28 Portrait of Daniel Auber (1782-1871), ca. 1900,
photo.
After its incendiary role in 1830, La Muette de

photo.
After its incendiary role in 1830, La Muette de
Portici reappeared at the Théâtre de la Monnaie only
sparingly. It was played in 1930 for Belgium’s centenary
and again in 1944, with 14 performances marking the
liberation of Brussels from German occupation—its last
public staging. In 1980, tied to the 150th anniversary
of independence, the opera was abruptly canceled following threats from Flemish nationalist groups. In 2011,
another attempt to restage the opera was stopped amid
fears it might be read as an endorsement of Belgian
Unitarism. The work, once a catalyst of rupture, had
become politically unperformable—its symbolic charge
too volatile, its historical function too embedded in the
unresolved tensions of the entity it once helped bring
into being.

2 ILLUSTRATION OF THE BARRICADE

demarcation line that defines insurgent territory,
articulates identity, and performs autonomy. From
Khartoum to Hong Kong to Odessa, as recently as
2023, they remain a visible residue of popular struggle:
ephemeral structures that obstruct, delay, and symbolically contest the reach of dominant power.
While the concept of barricades in the struggle

While the concept of barricades in the struggle
of citizens against the government can be traced back
to the years preceding 1588, the iconic image of the
makeshift, collage-like, collectively built barricade is
more recent. Before 1830, there was no consistent or
recognizable form in which barricades were depicted.
Only in retrospect did the era of the bourgeois revolution interpret the construction of earlier barricades as a
pictorial representation of national prehistory.

2.1 Presa di Roma, L’assalto alla barricata di
Porta Pia, 20 Sept. 1870, XIX century engraving. \[Roma\
1870\]
On September 20, 1870, the artillery of the Royal

On September 20, 1870, the artillery of the Royal
Italian Army breached the Aurelian Walls of Rome,
near Porta Pia, after a four-hour bombardment. The
capture of Rome marked the end of the Papal State.

2.2 Corso Venezia, Barricate di Milano 1848,
postcard.

2.3 Barricata San Barnaba, Brescia 1849. 1899,
postcard.
The Ten Days of Brescia (Dieci giornate di Brescia)

postcard.
The Ten Days of Brescia (Dieci giornate di Brescia)
were a revolt of the citizens of Brescia against Austrian
rule, which took place from 23 March to 1 April 1849.

2.4 F. Donchi, Barricate erette nella attuale via
G. Verdi, ca. 1948, postcard.

2.6 Un episodio alle barricate nelle Cinque Giornate di Milano, 1848, in: Jessie W. Mario, Della Vita di
Giuseppe Mazzini, Milano, Edoardo Sonzogno 1886.
The Five Days of Milan (Cinque Giornate di

2.5 Le Barricate agli Archi di Porta Nuova, ca.
1898, postcard.

* * *

2.7 M. Deroy, Construction des barricades de la
rue Castiglione, Paris, in: Le Monde Illustré, 6 Mai 1871,
№ 734, engraving.
Contemporary accounts cast doubt on the military

№ 734, engraving.
Contemporary accounts cast doubt on the military
efficacy of many barricades erected during the 1871
Commune de Paris. A journal of the time notes that the
structures on rue Castiglione and Place de la Concorde lacked clear strategic intent, functioning more as
theatrical gestures than defensible positions. Paul-Olivier Lissagaray, in Les huit journées de Mai derrière les
barricades (1871), offers a more scathing critique: while
Gaillard constructed what he called “secondary fortresses” along rue de Rivoli and rue Castiglione—spectacles that drew crowds—crucial military sites such as
the Trocadéro, the Arc de Triomphe, and Montmartre
were effectively abandoned. The imbalance reveals
a tension between insurgent spectacle and strategic
oversight—where symbolic occupation of urban space
eclipsed the calculus of actual defense.

2.8 Descham ps, Combat a la barricade de a rue
St.-Antoine, 1830, engraving.
During July 27, 28, and 29, 1830, the so-called Les

St.-Antoine, 1830, engraving.
During July 27, 28, and 29, 1830, the so-called Les
Trois Glorieuses, 4,000 barricades were constructed in
the working-class districts of Paris.

2.9 Daniel V ierge, Nos malheurs, Barricades de
la rue de Paris, à Belleville, dans la journée du 19 mars,
Le Monde illustré, 25 mars 1871.
The barricades in Belleville were erected by the

2.10 M. P ad ro, Espagne, les insurgés construisent
une barricade dans la villa du Marquis de Cruilles, à
Gracia (d’après M. Padro), in: Le Monde illustré,
25 April, 1870, Paris, № 680.
The Revolta de les Quintes, which took place in

Le Monde illustré, 25 mars 1871.
The barricades in Belleville were erected by the
afternoon of March 18, 1871, with posed photographs
taken the following day, March 19. On that day, the
artist Daniel Vierge visited the district. Situated on the
rue de Paris—the old name for rue de Belleville—he
sketched the street scenes. The barricades were erected
in front of 37 rue de Belleville. The artist stood between two barricades—there may have been more.
He captured the signs: the Metivet pharmacy at 37,
Hauduy-Cuvier (a shoe merchant), and Bourdin (wines
and liqueurs) at 35. Ordinary spaces became charged
with revolutionary significance.

yielded a total of 27 deaths and the looting of a large
number of houses.

2.11 Soulèvement espagnol (la Bisbal), Les
troupes attaquent une barricade défendue par les rebelles commandées par le député Caimo y Bascos, in: Le
Monde illustré, 30 October, 1869.
The government that assumed power in Spain

Monde illustré, 30 October, 1869.
The government that assumed power in Spain
following the abdication of the Spanish queen in 1868
was characterized by a lack of clear direction. Pedro
Caymó y Bascós (1819-1878) played a significant role in
the 1869 uprising, assuming command of the insurgent
army in La Bisbal. Under his leadership, a force of three
thousand men was concentrated, and on the 4th, he
declared the establishment of a federalist Republic. He
was later incarcerated and received capital punishment.

2.12 Paris pendant la Commune, Construction
d’une barricade dans la journee du 18 mars 1871, in: A.
Bataille, E. d e Barins, Histoire illustrée de six ans de
guerre et de révolution, Paris, Librairie illustrée 1876.

2.13 Troubles A Paris - Tentative de Barricades à
Belleville, in: Le Monde illustré, 12 Feb. 1870, № 670.
Henri Rochefort, who had been living in exile

Belleville, in: Le Monde illustré, 12 Feb. 1870, № 670.
Henri Rochefort, who had been living in exile
in Belgium for several years, returned to France to
be elected deputy representing Belleville in 1869. He
subsequently established a newspaper known as La
Marseillaise. Henri Rochefort was sentenced to imprisonment in February 1870 for his act of insulting the Emperor during the Victor Noir trial. The event resulted in
a significant disturbance and the erection of barricades
in the streets of Paris. Rochefort’s fate took a turn for the
better during the Revolution of 4 September 1870, as he
was spared and subsequently entrusted with the role of
President of the Barricades Commission.

Dramatic depiction of the battle on a barricade of
the Paris Commune. Based on the historical model of a
barricade made of musical instruments, a heavy fortepiano is being dragged onto the pile of cobblestones in
the foreground.

2.14 M. S lom, Barricade de la rue Saint-Florentin,
entre l’hôtel de la Marine et la terrasse des Tuileries, in:
Le Monde illustré, 29 April, 1871.

* * *

2.16 Mob attempting to construct a barricade on
the Boulevard Montmartre, opposite Café des Variétés,
in: The Illustrated London News, vol. 54, 19 June 1869.
The 1869 French parliamentary elections were

The 1869 French parliamentary elections were
conducted in two stages in May and June of that year.
The elections gave rise to street fights, which had not
been witnessed in the city for over 15 years, and were a
direct consequence of the elections. The resurgence of
political activity is evident through the establishment
of a free press and the organization of public gatherings, primarily in major urban centers, notably Paris.

2.17 Nouvel engin employé par les fédérés aux
barricades de la place Vendôme, in: L’illustration, journal
universel, № 1472, 13 May 1871.
The new machine employed by the federated

The new machine employed by the federated
troops at the barricades of Place Vendôme, it lacks an
explanation of its operational mechanism.

2.18 F. N ad ar, portrait of Mikhail Bakunin (1814-
1876), ca. 1863, photo.

2.19 C arl Krause, Der Aufruhr in Dresden am 3.,
4., 5., 6., 7., 8. und 9. Mai 1849. Nach amtlichen Quellen
geschildert, Dresden, Adler und Dietze 1849.
On Wednesday, May 2, Bakunin remarked in the

geschildert, Dresden, Adler und Dietze 1849.
On Wednesday, May 2, Bakunin remarked in the
Dresden newspaper, “The barricade weather and the
revolutionary sky are doing wonders. Today, the German Association, through its executive committee, has
joined the Fatherland Association in all measures for an
immediate review of the Imperial Constitution!”.

2.20 C ham, Salon de 1848, in: L’illustration journal universel, Paris 1848.

“Bakounin suggested placing Rafael’s Madonna
and Murillo’s paintings in front of the last barricades
and using them as protection against the Prussians, who
would certainly spare Rafael and Murillo. But it was too
late. The troops had the upper hand. The insurgents saw
that their cause was lost.” H.P.G. Quack, De socialisten:
Personen en stelsels, Vol. 6: part II, Amsterdam, P.N.
van Kampen & Zoon 1912.

Mikhail Bakunin sits in the foreground in the
circle of the provisional revolutionary government.

2.21 R affaello, Madonna Sistina (1513-1514),
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, photo.
“Bakounin suggested placing Rafael’s Madonna

3 TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BARRICADE

Both the insurgents’ need for planning, organi
zation, and strategic oversight, as well as the ruling
power’s aspiration for absolute surveillance and control,
bring about the desire for topological representation.
The similarities of the mappings of barricades in May
1968 utilized by the Situationists and those employed
by the Paris police are striking. In both instances, the
city is portrayed as a contested political space in which
the subject tries to fight for his place in order to express
their claim to the whole of the form of rule.

3.1 Plan de Paris, indiquant les barricades des 27,
28 et 29 juillet 1830, in: G eorges T ouchard-L afosse,
Histoire de Paris, Paris, Krabbe, Boiscard & Langlois
1833-1834, Vol. 5.
The cartography records the topology of Paris dur-

The cartography records the topology of Paris during the July Revolution of 1830, which was a response
to the royal July ordinances. These ordinances imposed
strict press censorship and excluded a significant part
of the population from the electoral census. Over the
course of three days, from July 27th to July 29th, nearly
4,000 barricades were constructed. The successful
street fight of the early proletarian urban lower class
resulted in the overthrow and flight of King Charles X.

3.2 Gefechts-Plan von Dresden, in: F ried rich
G raf von Wald ersee, Der Kampf in Dresden im Mai
1849\. Mit besonderer Rücksicht auf die Mitwirkung der
Preußischen Truppen, Berlin, E.S. Mittler und Sohn,
Kgl. Hofbuchhandlung 1849.
The author, who later served as the Prussian Minis-

Kgl. Hofbuchhandlung 1849.
The author, who later served as the Prussian Minister of War, acted as commander for the Prussian auxiliary troops in 1849. In collaboration with Saxon military
forces, these troops played a pivotal role in the bloody
suppression of the May Uprising. His mapping aims to
document the strategic positions occupied by the military forces and most of the 108 barricades constructed by
the insurgents in the Old City in May 1849. The majority of the 250 deceased civilians, along with the majority
of the military combatants, were young people.

* * *

The 1932 Dutch Manual for Controlling Turmoil
№ 39 instructed the military on combating urban insurrections: “A city with its occasionally narrow streets
and alleys, extensive housing complexes, and ample
opportunities for concealed positioning and movement,
establishes a very confusing battlefield”. Urban warfare is characterized by a range of elements, including
skirmishes in streets and alleys, fights for control over
residential blocks, buildings, and squares, fights against
barricades and snipers and small units strategically positioned on rooftops, and man-to-man fights. The booklet
was a guideline for the Dutch colonial troops in the
Indonesian War of Independence in the year 1945-1949.

3.4 City map of Wien with the barricades of
May 26, 1848.

3.5 Anonymous, Paris au Combat, Paris, ca.
1944, photo.
The liberation of Paris during World War II took

1944, photo.
The liberation of Paris during World War II took
place from August 19 to 25, 1944. On August 21, the
first barricades were erected in Paris. The next day, an
order is given to the Parisians to erect barricades to
hinder the movement of German tanks.

3.6 I nternationale S ituationniste, Mapping
of the barricades in St-Germain, in: R ené V iénet, Enrages et situationnistes dans le mouvement des occupations, Paris, Gallimard 1968.

3.7 Mapping of the Paris barricades on May 10,
1968\. Préfecture de Police.

paving stones, overturned carriages, furniture, and the
trees along the streets.

3.8 Anonymous Pro-Situ movement, Merde!,
May 1968, photo.
Graffiti on a public transport network map, Régie

Graffiti on a public transport network map, Régie
Autonome des Transports Parisiens, Réseau Métropoli
tain.

3.10 C hristophe-Michel com te R oguet,
Insurrections et guerre des barricades dans les grandes
villes par le général de brigade Roguet, Paris, Librairie
Militaire de J. Dumaine 1850.
This military manual focuses on strategies for

Militaire de J. Dumaine 1850.
This military manual focuses on strategies for
combating insurrections and addressing the war
against barricades in the context of the 1848 revolution.
It delves into the causes and consequences of urban
unrest, as well as explores potential solutions to remedy
these issues. Count Roguet, aide-de-camp of Napoleon
III, was the son of François Roguet, a participant in
the military campaigns of the First Empire. François
Roguet gained notoriety for his brutal suppression of
the 1831 Canuts rebellion in Lyon.

3.11 Bulletin des lois № 124 - May 25, 1834 - On
holders of weapons or munitions of war.
Art. 9: “Shall be punished with detention individuals
who, in an insurrectional movement, will made or helped
to make barricades, entrenchments or any other work
intended to hinder or stop the movements of public force;

By this law, any holder of weapons and munitions of war
will be punished with a fine and imprisonment; forced
labor to those who will be found, one day of disorder,
arms in hand, and death to those who have used them.
The government of July, which demanded the abolition
of capital punishment for the trial of ministers, finally
lets slip the word death in political matters, which it had
on its lips for three years. An article of this law concerns
those who: will have made or helped to make barricades.
Here then is the government of the barricades coming to
demand a law against the barricades. The word barricades had never entered a law, the code ignored it; it is
Autonome des Transports Parisiens, Réseau Métropoli curious to note that those who will have registered it
there first were born precisely from this thing.” Revue
de quinzaine, Lanterne Magique (supplément au Le
Voleur), 1 juin 1834, № 7.

3.12 Bulletin des lois № 47 – 10 juin 1848

3.13 Jean-C laud e G arcias & P hilippe S im on,
Paralleles des barricades anciennes et modernes, in: The
Architectural Review, August 1989, Volume CLXXXVI,
№ 1110\.
To celebrate the anniversary of 1789, Treuttel

To celebrate the anniversary of 1789, Treuttel
Garcias Treuttel plot on a diachronic map the continuing struggles against authority of the people of Paris
between 1789 and 1968.

* * *

10

3.14 L ouis-A uguste Blanq ui, Instructions pour
une prise d’armes, in: Critique Sociale, October 1931.
Blanqui wrote this draft for standardized barricade

une prise d’armes, in: Critique Sociale, October 1931.
Blanqui wrote this draft for standardized barricade
constructions and street fighting with calculations
and sketches in 1868-69, but it was not published until
October 1931 in Critique Sociale, a journal directed
by several former Surrealists. It was a guide to building barricades, a vade-mecum of insurrection. Cities
became battlefields, the text gives practical guidelines
for resisting government in urban areas, with the aim
of blocking the administration and decision-making of
those in power and giving the proletariat time to organize. First, a Commission d’armement and a Commission
des vivres must be created. This program is purely strategic and military and ignores the political and social
question. The argument gives the impression this texts
is Blanqui’s reaction to the June 1848 experience. The
published text contains a reference to the Chassepot
rifle, which was not introduced into the French army
until 1866. First published as: Instructions pour une prise
d‘armes, Le Militant Rouge (11 November, 12 December
1926; 1 January, 2 February 1927 - published across four
issues). Second publication in: Archiv für die Geschichte
des Sozialismus und der Arbeiterbewegung, 1930.

4 PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE BARRICADE

donjon de Vincennes, ca. 1848. Graveur: P. R eb elw.
After the revolt of 1830, while still a student,
Blanqui made the observation that a new society had
to be founded on the collective will of the people, but
this could only be achieved through the use of violence.
As a consequence of his insurrectionary endeavors, he
was incarcerated for a significant portion of his lifetime, which earned him the nickname l’Enfermé (the
locked-up). Blanqui’s arrest took place on May 26, 1848,
subsequent to his confinement in Vincennes on May 15,
alongside protesters who had infiltrated the Parlement
in support of the Polish cause. The trial commences on
March 7, 1849 in the Bourges Supreme Court. Blanqui
was sentenced to a ten-year prison term.

to identify individuals who would subsequently be
convicted and sentenced to banishment, imprisonment,
and forced labor. With the emergence of this role of
photography, increasingly three essentially distinct
image acts have become closely associated with the
object of the barricade. Firstly, there is the state’s legal
imperative to document the destruction of private and
public property and identify perpetrators. Secondly, the
insurgents’ desire to record and present the achievements of their collective efforts. Lastly, the media’s process of transforming these historical acts into a moral
narrative of acting individuals.

4.1 M. T hib ault, La barricade de la rue Saint-
Maur Popincourt le dimanche matin, in: L’Illustration,
Journal Universel, 1-8 July, Paris 1848.
Wood engraving was made after the first known

Wood engraving was made after the first known
photographic image, by daguerréotype, of a barricade.

4.2 Barricade sur la place de l’Hôtel de ville,
insurrection de Paris 1871, photo.
On May 24, 1871, street fighting in Paris escalated.

insurrection de Paris 1871, photo.
On May 24, 1871, street fighting in Paris escalated.
Fearing encirclement, the last remaining officials of
the Paris Commune evacuated Hôtel de Ville. Around
10 a.m., flames consumed the building, reducing it to
ashes. The Palais de Justice and the Police Prefecture
elw also were on fire. The Paris Commune, which had held
out for nearly two months, came to a brutal end on
May 28, 1871, during the final clashes at Père Lachaise.
The Versailles repression was unrelenting, and many
insurgents were either executed or captured. It seems
that the iconic image of the Hôtel de Ville in ruins was
not taken during the initial destruction but staged after
May 28, reflecting the symbolic nature of the Commune’s collapse.

4.3 Barricade place de la Concorde, Paris 1871,
photo.

1906 - Barricade vue de l’intérieur, postcard.
The querelle des Inventaires was sparked by
the 1905 Law of Separation of Churches and State
and a subsequent decree requiring the inventory of
church property. Many Catholic churches, seeing the inventory as the first step toward expropriation of their
sacred objects, responded by barricading their doors.
In rural regions, where Catholicism and royalism
remained deeply entrenched, clergy and parishioners
resisted the state’s intervention. Bailiffs sent to conduct
the inventories were met with hostility, often confronted by men armed with sticks, pitchforks, and iron bars.

4.7 Paris pendant la Commune, Les barricades
de la place de la Concorde, in: A. Bataille, E. d e Barins,
Histoire illustrée de six ans de guerre et de révolution,
Paris, Librairie illustrée 1876, p. 497.
In the initial days of April 1871, the Commune

Paris, Librairie illustrée 1876, p. 497.
In the initial days of April 1871, the Commune
established the Barricades Commission, which was led
by Rossel, an officer in the Corps of Engineers. The
objective was to construct a sequence of barricades
encircling the city centre of Paris, consisting of improvised barricade forts on the major thoroughfares
and smaller structures in other streets. On April 30,
1871, Napoléon Gaillard, a master shoemaker, received
a commission from Rossel to undertake this task. In
reality, a limited number of the large barricades were
constructed with the intention of preventing the army
from Versailles from entering the city. Among these
barricades, the largest of these - the Château-Gaillard

- blocked the rues Saint-Florentin and Rivoli at the
  intersection of the Place de la Concorde. Additional
  constructions were built at various locations, including the Trocadéro, rue de Castiglione, and in the 14th
  arrondissement across the avenue de Maine at the
  Porte d’Orléans. However, it is important to note that
  these constructions constituted only a fraction of the
  originally intended second line of defense.

In 1903, in the days France discussed the separation

4.8 Les barricades de la place de la Concorde,
1871, photo.

4.9 Grèves de Limoges, Barricade de la Vieille
Route d’Aixe, Mort d’Estacade, jument du 21e chasseurs,
15 April 1905, postcard.
The Limoges porcelain workers demand first the

of state and church, the Fête Dieu was banned. Catholics protested, soon joined by republican counter-protesters. At the end of the day, the dragoons intervene
to disperse the demonstrators.

The Limoges porcelain workers demand first the
dismissal of foremen, exercising a droit de seigneur, in
reality sexual harassment, followed by wage demands.
The strikes and demonstrations had national impact.

4.12 Na rotunda da Avenida, Un aspect da barricada, Lissabon October 1910, postcard.

4.13 Revolução de 5 de Octubro de 1910, Rotunda
, da Avenida, Barricada e a heroina Amélia Santos, Lissabon, postcard.
Amélia Santos joined the republican revolutionaries

Amélia Santos joined the republican revolutionaries
during the Lisbon Republican Revolution of October 5,
1910\. Taking up arms on the barricades of the Rotunda,
she fought alongside the rebels and became a heroine of
the cause, as illustrated in postcards from that era.

4.14 Barricades a la rue Malaya Bronnaya,
Moscou, 1905, postcard.
The December Uprising of 1905 in Moscow oc-

The December Uprising of 1905 in Moscow occurred between December 7, 1905 (December 20 in the
Gregorian calendar), and December 18, 1905 (December
31 in the Gregorian calendar), primarily in the Presnya
district. This uprising was the culmination of the 1905
Revolution, during which thousands of workers participated in an armed revolt against the imperial government, advocating for social and democratic reforms.

4.15 Bronnaya (La petite), Moscou 1905, postcard.

4.16 Pont de Koursk, barricade des wagons,
Moskou 1905, postcard.

4.17 Las Barricadas levantadas por el pueblo, in:
La Vanguardia, 25 July 25, Barcelona 1936.

4.18 Las Barricadas en las calles de Gijón y de
Oviedo, October 5, 1934.
On October 5, 1934, the Asturian Socialist Repub-

On October 5, 1934, the Asturian Socialist Republic was proclaimed in Oviedo. Three days later, all of
Asturias was ruled by the miners. Ten days later, 30,000
workers formed the Red Army.

4.20 Barricade in Mexico, May 1914, photo.

* * *

12

4.21 La lutte pour Valence, 6 August 1936, photo.

The riots in Brest and Toulon of August 1935 were
caused after legislative measures reduced the salary of
civil servants by the newly elected right wing Laval
government. The workers of the arsenal of Toulon reacted virulent, the first day there are thirteen wounded.
During these days five people died due to government
violence.

4.23 Émeutes à Toulon, 1935, photo.
The riots in Brest and Toulon of August 1935 were

4.24 Tramway immobilisé par des chaînes tendues
en travers d’une des principales rues, Bombay, in: L’illustration, journal universel, 14 Feb. 1931.

4.26 Libération de Paris, Barricade Rue Saint-
Jacques, August 1944, photo.

4.29-32 Spartakusaufstand, Strassenkämpfe in Berlin, Papier-Barrikaden bei Mosse, January 1919, photo.

4.33 L’insurrezione di Parma, 1922, newspaper.

Building barricades for insurrection lacks efficacy
in the absence of theoretical framework, justification,
defined goals, or a vision of utopia on the horizon.
The majority of individuals are sedated into a state of
slumber through the means of pleasure, entertainment,
and thoughtless adherence to societal norms (Jarry’s
Decervelage & Debord’s Société du Spectacle). Those
individuals who are unaware continue to submit to an
oppressive system that is enforced by a tyrannical exercise of power. Blanqui, in one of his texts, put forth to
destruct the old structures in order to establish a new
society amidst the rubble, long before the Commune.
He believed that following the settling of dust subsequent to the final strike of the pickaxe, a utopia would

5 RESTORING ORDER

emerge triumphantly. When the short-lived utopia of
the Commune is on the verge of ending, Louise Michel
passionately declares, “Paris will be ours or will cease to
exist”, (May 17, 1871)

5.1 Het oproer te Amsterdam, in ‘Het Leven’, 10
July, Amsterdam 1934. Magazine.
In 1934, riots took place in the Amsterdam Jor-

In 1934, riots took place in the Amsterdam Jordaan neighborhood, following a reduction of about 10
percent in unemployment benefits. Five people were
killed and dozens injured.

5.2 J.B. R igaud, Un Démolisseur de Barricades,
lithograph, ca. 1830.

5.3 La police démolit une barricade édifiée rue
saint Maur, 9 Feb. 1934, postcard.
During the street battles that took place in Paris

During the street battles that took place in Paris
and its surrounding suburbs from February 6 to 12,
1934, barricades became a vital component. These
barricades were erected by both right-wing demonstrators from the 6th and 7th arrondissements and their
left-wing counterparts, primarily communists, from
the 9th and 12th.

5.4 Une barricade place de la Concorde, 6 février
1934, postcard, photo.

5.5-10 Entretien des voies publiques: Le pavage en
bois; Le macadam; Le dallage; L’asphalte; Le pavage en
grès; Le bitume, Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company, ca.
1900, collector cards.
The revolt usually ends with the indexing and

5.12 Man pushes a wheelbarrow towards a
blazing barricade, Paris, June 12, 1968, Associated Press.,
tele wirephoto.

5.13 Plus de paves au quartier Latin. Des ouvriers recouvrent une rue du quartier Latin d’une épaisse
couche de bitume, Paris, August 6, 1968, photo.

* * *

= an iconographic research by the Arsenale I nstitute for Politics of R epresentation – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ – ✕ –

During the summer of 1968, one hundred thousand 5.23 _Policemen on the Barricades, Paris, 10 Ave-_ square meters of cobblestones in the Latin Quarter _nue Frochot, Reporters Associés, Paris, May 1968, photo._ were covered with a layer of asphalt. For technical and economic reasons, the use of cobblestones was definitively discontinued in 1976. That year, the Paris council decided to begin covering the Boulevards 6 The Situationists in May 1968 des Maréchaux with a bituminous layer. However, at the end of 1980, city officials repaved the Place de la With the publication of a pamphlet at the Univer- Sorbonne, restoring it as a territory for tourists. sity of Strasbourg in 1966 the Situationists played a cru- cial role in the Paris student revolt of 1968: De la misère

5.14 _Cleaning the Latin quarter in Paris, 1968, en milieu étudiant: considérée sous ses aspects économ-_
photo. _ique, politique, psychologique, sexuel et notamment_ _intellectuel et de quelques moyenspour y remédier (On_

5.15 _Helmeted policeman driving a bulldozer tries the Poverty of Student Life: considered in its economic,_ _to clear the way in a Parisian street, Paris, May 25, 1968, political, psychological, sexual, and particularly intel-_ photo. _lectual aspects, and a modest proposal for its remedy)._ The brochure was published in numerous international

5.16 _Holes left in the pavement of Boulevard St._ editions and languages, probably reaching a total print
_Michel after the barricades, UPI F. Barthe, Paris, May_ run of half a million copies. The unrest at French uni- 24, 1968, photo. versities in 1967 was steadily radicalized by the dissem- Holes left in the pavement of Boulevard St. Michel ination of the pamphlet and was driven in particular after rioting students took away the cobblestones to use by the Situationists in Nanterre. On the campus of the them against policemen or to make barricades. new university satellite on the outskirts of Paris, there were constant police operations as early as the winter of

5.17 _Disparition des derniers vestiges du mois_ 1968\. At the beginning of May, the clashes spread to the
_de mai, une équipe composée de deux condamnés de_ center of Paris, and on May 13, the Sorbonne was oc- _droit commun et d’un gardien de la Paix, a ravalé, à la_ cupied. The next day, the first factory occupation took _peinture grise les murs de l’Ecole des langues Orientales,_ place at the Sud-Aviation aircraft factory near Nantes, AFP photo, Paris, August 7, 1968. photo. followed by the suburbs of Paris. Within a few days, In August 1968, the last vestiges of May disap-France was in the grip of a wildcat general strike. On peared. A team composed of two common law convicts the first night of the barricades on May 10, Situationists and a police officer repainted the walls of the School of and their sympathizers were involved in setting up the Oriental Languages with gray paint. barricades on the front line in Rue Guy Lussac.

5.18 _Visitors inspecting the barricades, Paris 1968,_ 6.1 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, Quartier Latin, Paris,
photo. probably on the night 10th of May 1968, photo.

5.19 _Policeman bringing giant bulldozer to clear_ 6.2 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, burning barricades in
_up barricades on the Boulevard Saint-Michel, Paris, the night, 10th of May 1968, Paris, photo._ May 24, 1968, photo. Members of the Internationale Situationniste participated in the building of barricades.

5.20 _Cleaning the Latin Quarter in Paris, Boule-_ _vard Saint-Michel, Paris, May 25, 1968, photo._ 6.3 _Qu’il y-t-il? Nous avons envisage toutes les_ _barrieres! Serait-ce un mur inconnu?, Paris, May 1968,_

5.21 \*Three Parisians having a picnic on the re-\*leaflet.
_mains of a barricade, rue Cujas, Associated Press, 1968,_ tele wirephoto. 6.4 Internationale Situationniste, Bulletin central _des sections de l’internationale Situationniste, № 6, Paris,_

5.22 _Marghera / Venice, strike in the Châtillon_ I.S., Conseil Central de l’I.S., August 1961), p. 4-5, revue.
_factory, 1968, photo._ The editorial of the magazine, which appeared sev- en years before the revolt in May 1968, begins with a

* * *

14

programmatic text entitled Instructions pour une prise
d’armes (Instructions for taking up arms). It contains as
its first illustration the misappropriated, i.e. détourned
drawing from a sci-fi comic strip. The speech bubble
evokes the appearance of the barricade in the face of
state powers: ‘Qu’il y-t-il? Nous avons envisage toutes
les barrieres! Serait-ce un mur inconnu?’ (What’s Up?
We have foreseen all the barriers! Could this be an
unknown wall?). The Situationists used this détournement of the ‘Mur inconnu’ repeatedly, for instance in
the subscription leaflet to the first Scandinavian edition
of their revue ‘Situationistisk Revolution’ in 1962.

6.5 David & S tuart Wise, in: King Mob Echo,
№ 1, London, Pygmalion Press, 1968.
Reproduction of a press photo of the Watts Riots

№ 1, London, Pygmalion Press, 1968.
Reproduction of a press photo of the Watts Riots
in the first issue of King Mob Echo, a British anarchist
magazine published by brothers David and Stuart
Wise, who were later joined by former members of the
British section of the Situationist International after
they were expelled: Christopher Gray, Donald Nicholson-Smith, and TJ Clark. The cover features Fantômas,
a personification of the threat to bourgeois society from
Louis Feuillade’s 1913 film. A famous quote from Karl
Marx’s early writing, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis
Napoleon, serves as the caption below: “I am nothing,
but I must be everything.” The article, Black Anarchy:
Looting as a Natural Response to an Affluent Society,
follows the reprinting of the same Watts Riots press
photo that I.S. used two years earlier with the same
tenor, and referencing Debord’s text.

6.8 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.
The screen printed poster Bourgeois vous n’avez

In May 1968, the Atelier populaire was set up in the
occupied art academy in Paris, the École des Beaux-
Arts, where the rebellious students reproduced posters
and flyers using the silkscreen process. In three of these
posters in particular, the influence of the Situationists
can be seen and demonstrated: One listed the chronology of events and barricade building with the closing line
a suivre (to be continued). Two carried an iconic motif
appropriating the famous cover image of the young
bleeding demonstrator of l’Observateur magazine. This
variant carries the message Bourgeois vous n’avez rien
compris (Bourgeois, you’ve understood nothing).

rien compris from the Atelier populaire is shown on a
wall in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in May 1968.

6.9 La France face aux jeunes, in: Le Nouvel
Observateur, № 183, Paris, May 15, 1968.
The mediatized image exhibiting the suffering

The mediatized image exhibiting the suffering
individual in the bourgeois press sympathizing with
the students.

6.10 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, graffiti L’alienation,
May 1968, photo.

6.11 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.
Quartier Latin, probably after 10th of May. On

6.11 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.
Quartier Latin, probably after 10th of May. On
the wrecked car it says: 2 places encore libres pour
Colombey (2 places still available for Colombey).
Colombey-les-Deux-Églises was the commune where
the family villa of De Gaulle was located. So the graffiti
wants to send him home with his wife.

6.12 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.

6.13 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.
Six typographic posters with slogans issued by

6.13 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.
Six typographic posters with slogans issued by
the Internationale Situationniste and their May 1968
offshoot C.M.D.O. (Conseil pour le maintien des occupations) are shown on a wall near the Sorbonne. The
posters have been distributed since May 22.

6.14 T he S toick s, Lika a shot / Device, Like A
Shot Records – LAS EP 001, Mr Clean – MC 003,
Vinyl, 33 RPM, EP, 1998, disk record.
Watts Riots, Los Angeles 1965, press photo.

6.15 Safari-Photos, C.D.R. – Comité de Défense
de la Revolution, May 1968, leaflet.
The provocative tract, presumably inspired by the

de la Revolution, May 1968, leaflet.
The provocative tract, presumably inspired by the
Situationists method of détournement, ironically offers
awards for photographing undercover and plainclothes
police officers and other state organs of repression, like
the state, which regularly used cameras to identify the
leaders of the riot.

* * *

A barricade at the corner of Bd Saint-Michel and
Rue de Vaugirard, after May 24, 1968.

6.18 Préfecture de Police, May 1968, photo.
Photo of a young injured student protester during

Photo of a young injured student protester during
his arrest, also used to document his identity. It is the
very same person as on the cover of the L’Observateur
and on the posters of the Atelier populaire.

6.19 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.
Presumably, in rue Gay Lussac, overturned and

Presumably, in rue Gay Lussac, overturned and
burnt-out wrecked cars can be observed following the
events of the first barricade night on May 10th.

Chronological overview of key events in May and
June 1968.

6.21 Anonymous, Nijmegen, February 1981,
photo.
When the city council decided to demolish a

When the city council decided to demolish a
warehouse and houses in the city centre of Nijmegen
to build a parking garage, the location was occupied
by squatters. A barricade was erected with barbed wire,
sand, and a Citroën 2CV. 200 riot police vehicles, five
tanks, a helicopter, an armoured car, lots of tear gas,
and approximately 2000 men, including military personnel, were needed to remove the squatters from the
buildings they occupied. The activists and the squatters’
movement heavily resisted this eviction, the so-called
Piersonstraat riots.

6.26 Considérée en elle même, la ‘Jeunesse’, Internationale Situationniste, May 1968, leaflet.
This is the first sentence of the original French

6.22 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, photo.

This is the first sentence of the original French

6.23 Anonymous, Pro-Situ, May 1968, 3 photos.

edition of the pamphlet from the heroic phase of
preparation for the strikes and uprisings of 1968, which
began at the University of Strasbourg with the 1966
publication of the Situationist offensive named De la
misère en milieu étudiant. The quote was repeated on
one of their most important leaflets and wall postings
in the May revolt. In the depicted speech bubble, a
half-naked advertising beauty with her face covered,
states, “Considered in itself, ‘Youth’ is an advertising
myth that is already deeply linked to the capitalist mode
of production, as an expression of its dynamism.”

6.27 On the Barricades, The Journal for the
Protection of all Human Beings, № 2, City Light Books,
chirmb San Francisco 1968.
One the most lucid and beautiful publications on

chirmb San Francisco 1968.
One the most lucid and beautiful publications on
the iconography and logic of the barricade relating to
the May 1968 uprising in Paris. Beside the artist Roland
Topor, the writers Jean-Jacques Lebel and Jean-Louis
Brau have contributed to the publication of this City
Light publication. Brau was a member of Guy Debord’s
gang named Internationale Lettriste, the precursor of
the situationist group that existed between 1952 and 1957.

7 FOLKLORE OF THE BARRICADE

The barricade is a threatening specter for any
form of rule as it recalls with abruptness the will of
a neglected subject and its spontaneous unity. In the
construction of barricades, the collective asserts an
autonomous visibility of its standpoint. Therefore, even
though the barricade lost its character as a suitable tactical means in conflicts, it acquired a powerful symbolic
content of a metaphor for resistance. An elaborate folklore of the barricade has emerged due to this reason.

7.2 A lb ert R ob id a, Révolution de 1953: Première
Exposition Universelle de Barricades à Paris, in: Le
vingtième siècle, G eorges Decaux, Paris 1883, p. 274.
Albert Robida (1848-1926) was a French illustrator,

Albert Robida (1848-1926) was a French illustrator,
caricaturist, engraver, journalist, and novelist known
for his futuristic predictions: “An exhibition of barricades, is that really new? And it’s a French idea. We note
with satisfaction that France has not given up its role of
initiator and guide on the path of progress!”

* * *

7.3 Die Barrikaden von San Antone (Original title: The Last Command), advertisment, director: Frank
Lloyd, 1955, film.
In their fight for independence from Mexico, 187

7.4 A lb ert R ob id a, Révolution de 1953: Première
Exposition Universelle de Barricades à Paris, in: Le
vingtième siècle, G eorges Decaux, Paris 1883, p. 267.

7.5 C harles-E d ouard d e Beaum ont, Les Vesuviennes, “Ma’am Coquardeau, I forbid you to go to the
recall....it’s not sensible to leave me with three children
on my hands.....and no bottle!........” Paris, 1848.

7.6 Students use the Police sur la ville movie
sign as a barricade, Paris, May 1968, photo.
In the night of May 10 to 11, 1968, this cinema

In the night of May 10 to 11, 1968, this cinema
sign of a 1968 American film by Don Siegel with the
original title Madigan, starring Richard Widmark
and Henry Fonda was torn down by the students on
boulevard Saint-Michel in Paris and transformed into
a barricade. According to other sources this barricade
was erected close to the Bastille, next to a cinema at №
12 Rue de Lyon on May 24, 1968.

7.7 La barricada cierra la calle pero abre el camino, sticker.

1955\.
The song Tates, mames, kinderlekh, boyen barikadn, has been written by seventeen year old Shmerke
Kaczerginski in 1926, associated with a workers’ uprising in Lodz and the socialist General Jewish Labour
Bund movement: “Motye, bring the basket / Meyerke,
bring the table / We’ll bring the bureau drawers / And
the old barrel / We’ll build barricades here / In the
middle of the neighborhood.”

7.8 Aux barricades Gay-Lussac, battle song,
Internationale Situationniste, C.M.D.O. – Conseil pour
le maintien des occupations, Paris, 16 May, 1968, leaflet.

7.10 Tates, mames, kinderlech, bojen barikadn, in
S zm erk e Kaczerginsk i, Ondenk-buch, Buenos Aires
1955\.
The song Tates, mames, kinderlekh, boyen bari-

7.12 Jeu des manifestants, S.C. éditeur, Paris ca
1910\. Board game.

7.13 25th anniversary of the Russian revolution,
1905, CCCP 1930. stamp.

7.14 Spandau Ballet, Through The Barricades,
CBS Records, 1986. disco 45 giri/ep, disk record.
Spandau Ballet wrote in 1986: “We made our love

Spandau Ballet wrote in 1986: “We made our love
on wasteland / Oh, and through the barricades”.

7.15 Les Barricades, advertisement for Pilules laxatives Lucas, ca. 1930, postcard.

7.16 Barricata!!!, postcard.

7.17 Barricades of 1588, cigarette card.

7.18-20 25-9-1830 Attaque de l’entrée du Parc de
Bruxelles / 23-9-1830 Retraite des hussards hollandais,
Porte de Flandre / 25-8-1830 Représentation de «La
Muette de Portici», Wiel’s, Bruxelles. coasters.

7.21 Barricade, videogame advertisement, 1976.
Barricade is a clone of the Blockade arcade game,

Barricade is a clone of the Blockade arcade game,
released by RamTek in 1976. A four-player game where
players move their cursors across the screen to create
a wall to try and surround their opponents and force
them to crash. It was followed by Barricade II, produced by Taito in 1977, which instead is conceived as a
two-player game.

7.22 F rançois N ed elec, Duccio V itale,
Mai 68: La Nuit des Barricades, Un Jeu de Société Carnivore, Paris, La Folie douce, 1980, board game.
This strategy board game is based on the conflict

vore, Paris, La Folie douce, 1980, board game.
This strategy board game is based on the conflict
between insurgents and police forces in May 1968, and
incorporates imagery from Atelier Populaire. It was
conceived in 1979 by the historian and author of board
games, Duccio Vitale (born in 1954), and François
Nédeléc. It is illustrated by Stratépop and was first
produced by La Folie douce in 1980. A second version
came out by the commercial board games company
Rexton in 1991. Vitale published a book named Jeux
de simulation: Wargames, MA Éditions, Paris, 1984.
In a context of university and lycée students demonstrations on Friday, May 10, 1968, and The night of
the barricades this game pits a youth in revolt player
against a law enforcement player. The goal of the
game is for the youth player to survive for 12 hours
by mobilizing the lycees and faculties, while the

* * *

_policeman player aims to stop the ringleaders before_ 9.2 Johann G ottfried Z schaler, Geschichte they influence too many students. On the map of the _der ereignißvollen Jahre 1848 und 1849, Vol. 2, Dresden,_ Latin Quarter, the players will therefore pursue each C.G. Lohsesche Buchhandlung 1849. other, confront each other, and resolve these battles. This page from the illustrated popular history, The game is in the tradition of Guy Debord’s interest depicts the barricade fight in Dresden during the May in strategy games, f.e. with his own Kriegspiel. Similar Uprising, spanning from May 3rd to 9th, 1849. The to the Situationists, they appear to share a fascination street fights were orchestrated with the assistance of with the ludic as well, the logic of play as an elementa-Bakunin, Richard Wagner, and Gottfried Semper. The ry human goal in contrast to the compulsion of wage architect and professor of architecture, Semper, known labor as described in Johan Huizinga’s seminal book for several notable architectural works in Dresden, per- _Homo Ludens from 1938._ sonally designed certain barricades and oversaw their construction. Following the suppression of the revolu-

7.23 _Les Maquis, Guerilla barricades in occupied_ tion, Semper sought refuge in England as a persecuted
France 1944, children’s paper toy. revolutionary and did not return to Dresden. The maquis, a term derived from the Italian word _macchia for the scrubland where brigands could hide,_ 9.3 C arl Krause, Der Aufruhr in Dresden am 3., referred to the less organized and, unlike the Resist- _4., 5., 6., 7., 8. und 9. Mai 1849. Nach amtlichen Quellen_ ance, non-centralised rural and often spontaneous local _geschildert, Dresden, Adler und Dietze 1849._ guerrilla groups that resisted the German occupation of Dies ist die einzig bekannte Darstellung der France during the Second World War. They belonged berühmten Barrikade in der Wilsdruffer Gasse, bevor to differing political ideologies. Many had a communist Gottfried Semper sie tektonisch optimierte. or anarchist background, others were linked to right- wing movements. The paper game shows the use of a 9.4 Commission des Barricades, Journal officiel, barricade to attack a German convoy. 13 April 1871, séance du 12 Avril 1871 Between March 20 and May 24, 1871, two series of

7.24 French banknote of 100 fr., depicting a por-the Official Journal of the French Republic were pubtrait of Eugene Delacroix and his painting of the 1830 lished, one in Paris and the other in Versailles. On 12 barricades Liberty leading the people. April 1871, the ‘Commune’ Commission des Barricades decided how to construct the barricades in Paris.

9.5 _Haute Cour de Justice, copy of the papers_
8 Street photography May 1968 found in the apartment of Babeuf, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, An V

8.1–8.51 Anonymous, Pro-Situs, Quartier Latin, In the ‘Copie des pièces de Babauf’, a proposal of
Paris May 1968, 51 photos, faces rendered unrecogniza-the Insurrectionary Committee for Public Safety is ble with ink. included. This is one of the early instructions on how to apply the barricade. “In the event of opposition from _the soldiers at the Vincennes camp, we will barricade the_ _entrance to the Antoine suburb. Our initial strategy to_ 9 Literature _overcome this resistance will involve sending women_ _wearing civic crowns to engage with the soldiers and_

9.1 Johann G ottfried Z schaler, Geschichte _persuade them to join our side before they reach the_ _der ereignißvollen Jahre 1848 und 1849. Eine treue barricades.” p. 18 “Would it not be beneficial to construct_ _und faßliche Darstellung der außerordentlichen Bege-an additional barricade in the Antoine suburb on the_ _benheiten dieser Zeit, Vol. 1, Dresden, C.G. Lohsesche city side? This way, if the soldiers were to breach the first_ Buchhandlung, 1849. _barricade, they could still be contained within the suburb._ The lithograph from the popular compendium _There, they might engage in even more radical fraterni-_ about the revolutionary years 1848/1849 shows the _zation and potentially be fully converted to the interests_ barricade in the Burggasse in Altenburg, Thuringia, on _of the people, uniting their forces to march toward the_ June 18, 1848, when an attack by the Royal Saxon Army _designated locations. Paris, 20 Floréal, Year IV.” p. 19._ was successfully repelled.

* * *

9.6 L.-P. A nq ueth, Histoire de France, Paris,

Marescq 1851, Barricades dans la Ligue (1648), p. 393.

10 BArricade Photos

10.1 Anonymous, Paris au Combat, Paris, ca.
1945\. photo.

The July Column is a column erected on the Place
de la Bastille in Paris between 1835 and 1840 in commemoration of the three days of the July Revolution
taking place in 1830, known as the Three Glorious Days.

10.5 May 1968, Paris, Photo: Reporters Associés.

10.6 La costruzione di una barricata, 19 Marzo
1848, Litografia. Milano, Civica raccolta delle stampe
A.Bertarelli.

10.7 Massacre des cuirassiers, 28 juillet 1830
d’après une litho. de V. Adam (Bulla ed), postcard.

10.8 May 1968, Paris, Photo: AGIP, R. Cohen.

10.9 Somewhere on the Continent, British soldiers building barricades. WWI.

11.1 Noir Et Blanc, Qui est responsable de toutes
ces violences, revue, N°1212, 20-26 June 1968.

11 Books and magazines

11.2 Paris Match, Journées Historiques Des Barricades Aux Élections, revue, N°998, 15-22 June 1968.

11.3 A ugust H erm ann Z eiz, Die roten Tage,
Erich Reiß Verlag, Berlin 1920.
The journalist and author of this novel about the

The journalist and author of this novel about the
November Revolution of 1918/19 was involved in the
resistance against German fascism, among other things,
BArricade Photos as an escape helper for Jews which earned him imprisonment in the Dachau concentration camp. Unlike his
wife, he survived his imprisonment there.

11.4 P j otr P aw lenk o, Barrikaden, Ring Verlag,
Zurich 1933.
The Paris Commune from the perspective of a

The Paris Commune from the perspective of a
Russian writer, who collaborated with Sergei Eisenstein as his screenwriter.

11.5 E gid io S terpa, I fFigli sulle Barricate, Longanesi, Milano 1968.
The anti-communist journalist and writer became

ganesi, Milano 1968.
The anti-communist journalist and writer became
a politician being a member of the right-wing of the
Italian Liberal Party. He was a minister for this party
in Giulio Andreotti’s last two cabinets. He later joined
Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, for which he was active
as a deputy and senator. This book is his reactionary
view of the student unrest in Italy in 1968.

11.6 Klaus N euk rantz, Barricades in Berlin,
London: Martin Lawrence ca. 1932.
The Berlin May Day riots of May 1, 1929 and

12 A triptych of image acts

London: Martin Lawrence ca. 1932.
The Berlin May Day riots of May 1, 1929 and
the following days were known as Bloody May. At
the time, the state authorities acted with the utmost
brutality against unauthorized demonstrations by the
KPD, accepting the deaths of 33 civilians and numerous injured demonstrators and uninvolved civilians. In
the style of agitprop literature, the writer and journalist
Klaus Neukrantz in 1931 turned the carnage into a
reportage-like novel, which was called Barrikaden am
Wedding in the German edition and banned and confiscated immediately after publication. The author was
arrested when the National Socialists came to power
in 1933. His traces are lost in the fascist extermination
camps, which is why the date of his death remains
unknown.

* * *

and the police. The imagery, although all three panels
share the same subject matter, is the result of opposing
politics of representation.
In the pictures of the insurgents — photographed

In the pictures of the insurgents — photographed
by anonymous authors involved in the Situationist
movement — the actors appear as a general revolutionary collective whose members’ faces have wisely been
made unrecognizable.
Mediatized in French newspapers through the

Mediatized in French newspapers through the
biased gaze of photo-journalism, the actors are fictionalized and moralized under the aspect of human interest
as individuals committing or subjected to violence.
From the authorities’ point of view, the protago-

From the authorities’ point of view, the protagonists of the uprising, as the photos recently retrieved
from the archives of the Paris Prefecture of Police show,
are under surveillance in order to secure evidence and
identification so that crime and property offenses can
be visually verified and prosecuted.

13 barricade wall

13.1.1 Incendiaires de la Commune, Première liste
des monuments, habitations, établissements détruits
ou endommagés par les incendiaires de la Commune et
liste des barricades qui ont été enlevées par les troupes
de l’assemblée nationale, à Paris, pendant les journées
du 21 au 30 mai 1871, Paris, imp. Edouard Blot, poster.
\[barricades: Paris 1830\]
A series of four posters was published in 1871,

13.1.2 Liste des Barricades (II)

A series of four posters was published in 1871,
listing the destruction caused by the Commune. The
posters were titled List of Monuments, Dwellings, and
Establishments Destroyed or Damaged by the Incendiaries of the Commune and List of Barricades Removed
by the Troops of the National Assembly under the Orders of Marshal Mac-Mahon, Duke of Magenta, in Paris,
during the Days of May 21 to 30, 1871. Each building is
categorized as either burned or damaged.

13.2.1 Map of Paris, Aug. 1944. In: Paris Delivré Par
Son Peuple, Paris: Braun et Cie Editeurs 1944. Journal
with a collection of photos of the Liberation of Paris.

Paris à Jacques Bonhomme, E. Lévy, Paris, 1870, poster.
Mattresses, along with pianos, pushcarts, and cobblestones, are the preferred objects to build a barricade.
In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo describes: “Jean Valjean
stepped out of the cut, entered the street, traversed the
storm of bullets, walked up to the mattress, hoisted it
upon his back, and returned to the barricade. He placed
the mattress in the opening with his own hands.”

13.3.1 Kampf der königlichen Truppen gegen die
Bürgergarde und das Volk, auf der Toledostrasse zu
Neapel am 13 Mai, Lithograph. In: Johann G ottfried
Z schaler, Das ewigdenkwürdige Jahr 1848, oder treue
und faßliche Darstellung seiner außerordentlichen,
erfolgreichen Begebenheiten, Gedenkbuch für d. dt. Volk,
Dresden: Lohnse 1849.

13.3.2 Venezia, Proclamazione della Repubblica,
Marzo 1848, engraving after a drawing of Niccola Sanesi. In: F erd inand o R analli, Storia degli avvenimenti
d’Italia dopo l’esaltazione di Pio 9. al pontificato, Vol. 2,
Firenze: Batelli 1849.

13.4.1 Si prepara la repressione, Mondo Nuova, 15
Sept. 1968.

barricade wall 13.4.2 Un bulldozer de l’armée remet en état la rue
des Ecoles, devant la Sorbonne, 26 May 1968.
An army bulldozer cleans up the Rue des Ecoles, in

An army bulldozer cleans up the Rue des Ecoles, in
front of the Sorbonne, 26 May 1968.

13.5.1 Hinc justis iterum exardescit motibus omnis,
engraving, Willem Baud artius (1565-1640), Les
Guerres De Nassau, (...), Amsterdam, Michel Colin de
Thovoyon, 1616.
“Thus, once again, every citizen rises to take up arms,

13.5.3 Bloedig gevecht tussen de Calixtinen en
blestones, are the preferred objects to build a barricade. Thaboriten, pag. 295, engraving.
In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo describes: “Jean Valjean Between 1419 and 1434, the region of Bohemia—

“Thus, once again, every citizen rises to take up arms,
joining together to fight against the Germans and expelling the perpetrators of treachery from the city.” This
was the rallying cry as German forces withdrew from
the citadel of Antwerp on August 2, 1577, retreating to
their positions at the Nieuwstad. In the foreground of
the engraving illustrating the event, German troops
can be seen leaving the city, while, in the distance to
the left, the ships of the Prince’s fleet are visible on the
horizon.

19 within the Catholic Church. The Hussites, Hus’s
followers, rejected the authority of both the Papacy
and the Holy Roman Empire, placing Bohemia at the
center of a broader struggle over faith, power, and
national identity. But the conflict was far from a simple
clash between Catholics and reformers. It fractured the
reform movement itself. By 1432, a moderate faction
known as the Calixtines (or Utraquists) broke with
more radical Hussites, siding instead with Catholic
forces to oppose their former allies, including the more
militant Taborites. Amid these shifting alliances and
ideological divides, the Hussite Wars also marked
a turning point in military strategy. Facing larger
and more heavily armed opponents, Hussite commanders pioneered the use of mobile fortifications.
They arranged heavy wagons into square formations,
chaining them together to form improvised fortresses.
The barricades of these “wagon forts” proved highly
effective in fending off cavalry charges and artillery fire.
Quick to deploy and resilient under pressure, the tabor
system became a defining feature of Hussite warfare
and an early example of innovation driven by necessity
on the battlefield.

20

13.6.1-7 Strike in the Châtillon factory, Marghera /
Venice, 1968.
On July 13th and 14th 1968, a strike occurred at

Venice, 1968.
On July 13th and 14th 1968, a strike occurred at
the Petrolchimico factory in Porto Marghera, involving
4,000 manual laborers and 1,000 white-collar employees who demanded an increase in the production bonus
to 5,000 Lire for all workers. Student groups, who have
been protesting in Venice against the Biennale, traveled to Porto Marghera to support the demonstration by
four thousand oil refinery workers. The strike reached
its peak on August 1, 1968, when Porto Marghera witnessed significant unrest, characterized by the presence
of burning barricades along the access road.

13.6.8 Paris, press photo from the archives of the
Daily Telegraph, 12 June 1968.

13.6.10 Paris, police on a cobblestone barricade,
May 1968, press photo, 13 May 1968.

In early 1932, Adolf Hitler refused to consolidate
his paramilitary organizations into a single force under
the control of the Reichswehr, Germany’s national
military. In response, Chancellor Heinrich Brüning’s
administration imposed a ban on the uniformed
factions of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). When Brüning
was replaced by Franz von Papen as Chancellor in June
1932, the Hitler Youth was reinstated. On June 20, an
incident in Berlin’s Gotzkowskystraße sparked significant unrest. A pregnant woman with a young child was
facing eviction from her apartment, and the local leadership of the Communist Party (KPD) in the Moabit
district called on residents to resist the eviction, which
was being carried out by police with the assistance of
the SA, the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing. Although
the police were forced to retreat, tensions continued
to rise in the district. By June 22, the Berlin police had
effectively aligned themselves with Nazi paramilitary
forces. As the police attempted to advance further to
clear workers from the barricaded Rostocker Straße,
residents quickly mobilized, gathering garbage cans,
scaffolding, and other materials to build barricades.
Communists, Social Democrats, and Reichsbahn (railway) workers tore up the pavement to strengthen their
defenses. The combined forces of the SA and police
were forced to withdraw, waiting for reinforcements to
arrive. When an armored vehicle finally showed up, it
too was halted by the barricades and had to retreat.

13.8.1 Joseph-L ouis-H ippolyte Bellangé, 29 juillet 1830, Seulement de l’eau rougie, la petite mère (Only
red-colored water, ma’am), Album patriotique. Paris:
Gihaut 1831.

13.9.1–8 Salvate il Molino Stucky, photos.
After the announcement of the mill’s closure in

13.8.2 Joseph-L ouis-H ippolyte Bellangé, 31
juillet 1830, Oh! cré nom, Thérèse, c’est ça un brave
homme de Gouvernement... qu’on peut dire qu’est pas
fier... que je lui ai pris la main, tout comme je te parle...
et qu’il m’a appelé son brave camarade (Oh, damn it,
Thérèse! That’s a good man from the government...
who wouldn’t be proud to have shaken his hand, just as
I’m speaking to you... and that he referred to me as his
good comrade). Album patriotique. Paris: Gihaut 1831.

* * *

13.10.1 Baricata dei Napoletani a Porta Nuova, 2
Giugno 1860, Palermo, lithography. Album Storico
Artistico Garibaldi nelle Due Sicilie ossia Guerra d’Italia
nel 1860.

13.10.2 Baricata a Porta Macqueda, 2 Giugno 1860,
Palermo, album Storico Artistico Garibaldi nelle Due
Sicilie ossia Guerra d’Italia nel 1860, lithography, Milano, Fratelli Terzaghi.
After a photograph by Eugène Sevaistre, taken

lano, Fratelli Terzaghi.
After a photograph by Eugène Sevaistre, taken
from Via Ruggero Settimo, depicting two barricades
constructed near Via Maqueda during the Palermo
insurrection of 1860. The barricades were erected by
the Palermitans, who armed themselves as best they
could. They utilized everything available, including
the cobblestones. This occurred when they realized
that Garibaldi’s forces were about to enter the city,
prompting them to rise up against the Bourbon troops
in support of his cause.

13.10.3 La Porta Di Gaeta Dopo L’assedio Del 1861.
Gaeta, lithography, Album Storico Artistico Garibaldi
nelle Due Sicilie ossia Guerra d’Italia nel 1860, 1862.
Following the siege of 1860–1861, the Porta di

Following the siege of 1860–1861, the Porta di
Gaeta—once a threshold of Bourbon military authority—stood in ruins, its stonework ravaged by relentless
bombardment. This siege represented the last stand of
the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies against the forces of
Italian unification. The fall of Gaeta effectively marked
the end of Bourbon rule in southern Italy and signaled
the irreversible consolidation of the Italian state. The
ruined gate was photographed in the days following
the surrender.

13.11.1 C esare C antù, L uigi G ualtieri, Grande illustrazione del Lombardo-Veneto, ossia Storia delle citta,
dei borghi, comuni, castelli, ecc. fino ai tempi moderni
per cura di letterati italiani, Vol. 1-5, Società editrice A.
Tranquillo Ronchi 1857.
The Cinque giornate di Milano was an insurrec-

lia nel 1860.
The Monastery of Santa Caterina nella Toledo in
Palermo was destroyed by a Bourbon bombardment on
27 and 28 May 1860.

which in five days of street fighting drove Marshal
Radetzky and his Austrian soldiers from the city. “So
minds were hanging between dismay and expectation,
when on the morning of March 18 we read on the street
corners that the imperial government promised a constitution to the entire empire, and in the meantime a free
press and national guard. Many advised accepting those
first legal concessions, to make a ladder to greater ones;
and already in this sense they published a newspaper
manifesto; others, arguing from them that a revolution
must have turned Vienna upside down, raised their
hopes higher, they shouted Long Live Italy, they aspired
to independence, and having taken the three colors, they
began that most memorable five-day battle, which gave
the Milanese the hitherto unusual glory of courage”

13.11.2 Trade card, Paris 1830.

13.11.3 Gravure de Achille de Harlay et de Mathieu
Molé ca. 1830.
On May 12, 1588 during the Day of the Barricades

On May 12, 1588 during the Day of the Barricades
in Paris, Achille de Harlay tried in vain to restore
order for the benefit of King Henri III. On the day of
the barricades in Paris on August 26, 1648, Mathieu
Molé went to see the queen and Cardinal Mazarin to
request the release of Pierre Broussel and René Potier
de Blancmesnil, whose imprisonment had been the
trigger for the riot.

13.11.4 Vor Paris, die sogenannte musikalische
Barrikade der zehnten Division, Über Land und Meer,
Allgemeine illustrierte Zeitung, № 24, 1871.

13.11.5 Commune de Paris, 1871.

13.11.9 Italy’s warfare in the Alpine valleys, Illustrated war news, 15 March 1916.

13.11.6 Troubles de la Fronde, 1648.

13.11.7 Barricade, July 1830, Paris.

13.11.10 Le Père Duchêne, № 32, 27 germinal an 79.
Le Père Duchêne was the title revived for a radical
newspaper that surfaced during key revolutionary
moments in 19th-century France. The publication

21

* * *

22

consciously echoed the incendiary spirit of Jacques
Hébert’s original Père Duchesne, published during the
French Revolution. Between April 21 and May 24, 1871,
ten issues were published. The final number appeared
during the Semaine sanglante, bearing witness—remarkably in real time—to the collapse of the revolutionary government.

13.11.11 The battle of Four Courts, Ireland, 1922.
National Army troops assault the Four Courts.
On 16th April 1922, 200 Anti-Treaty IRA under

National Army troops assault the Four Courts.
On 16th April 1922, 200 Anti-Treaty IRA under
Rory O’Connor occupied the Four Courts. Under increasing pressure from Britain, the Free State forces accepted two artillery guns and began shelling the building
on 28th June. Two days later, a large explosion destroyed
the building, leading to the surrender of the garrison.

13.11.12Odilon Barrot et ses amis arrêtés par les
barricades de la porte Saint-Denis, 1848, from: in: H enri
Martin, Histoire de France populaire, depuis les temps
les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, Furne, Jouvet et
Cie 1868-1885, Vol. VI, p. 193.

13.12.2 Barricade du cloître Saint-Merry. in:
E d ouard S im éon, Grands hommes et grands faits de
l’histoire de France de 1804 à nos jours : album de l’histoire de France; ouvrage illustré de 394 gravures sur bois
d’après les dessins de E. Bayard, Yan’ Dargent, Férat,...
etc., etc. Paris, Combet 1902.
On June 5th and 6th, 1832, was the first republi-

etc., etc. Paris, Combet 1902.
On June 5th and 6th, 1832, was the first republican insurrection under the July Monarchy. It began at
the funeral of General Lamarque, opposition deputy,
and ended in violent repression; the insurgents who
had entrenched themselves on the rue du cloître
Saint-Merri (or Merry) were largely massacred by the
National Guard. Hugo immortalized the episode in
Les Misérables. At the beginning of the July Monarchy,
Jean Goujon lived on rue Neuve-Saint-Merry. He
attended the funeral of General Lamarque on June
5, 1832, and subsequently participated in the ensuing
insurrection. Like Jeanne and Rossignol, he was among
the most determined insurgents at the barricade of the
Saint-Merry cloister. It was on this occasion that he
received an arm wound. On October 31, 1832, he was
found guilty of “having attacked, with violence and assault and in an armed group of more than twenty people,
the public force acting for the execution of the laws.”

13.12.3 Verwundung des Erzbischofs von Paris am 25
Juni 1848, lithograph, in: Johann G ottfried Z schaler,
Das ewigdenkwürdige Jahr 1848, oder treue und faßliche
Darstellung seiner außerordentlichen, erfolgreichen
Begebenheiten, Gedenkbuch für d. dt. Volk, Dresden:
Lohnse 1849.

13.12.4 Prise du Louvre (29 juillet 1830), in: H enri
Martin, Histoire de France populaire, depuis les temps
les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, Furne, Jouvet et
Cie 1868-1885, Vol. V, p. 509.

13.12.5 Große Barrikade vor dem kölnischen
Rathause zu Berlin in der Nacht vom 18 zum 19 Marz
1848, Geschichtskalender.

13.13.1 Odilon Barrot et ses amis arrêtés par les
barricades de la porte Saint-Denis, 1848, from: in: H enri
barricades de la porte Saint-Denis, 1848, from: in: H Martin, Histoire de France populaire, depuis les temps
les plus reculés jusqu’à nos jours, Paris, Furne, Jouvet et
Cie 1868-1885, Vol. VI, p. 193.

13.13.2 Situation actuelle de quai Bon-Rencontre à
13.12.1 Fusillades de la rue Saint-Denis, HLyon, April 1834. Le Charivari, 17 Mai 1834.
Two and a half years after the first Canuts revolt,

Two and a half years after the first Canuts revolt,
Lyon again was the stage for insurrection. In the spring
of 1834, tensions under the July Monarchy intensified,
particularly with the prosecution of mutualist workers
who had participated in strikes. Against this backdrop,
the April uprising broke out. It culminated in what
became known as the Bloody Week, ending on April
15 with the brutal suppression of the rebellion. More
than 600 people were killed. In April 1835, the state
launched a sweeping judicial response: a mass trial
in Paris involving over 10,000 insurgents. Many were
sentenced to deportation or long prison terms—a display of state power aimed at extinguishing the political
challenge posed by organized labor.

13.13.3 Les troubles de Cincinnati, L’Illustration, 26
April 1884.
In March 1884, public confidence in Cincinnati’s

* * *

13.13.4 Lagrange.
On February 23, 1848, Charles Lagrange was part

13.13.4 Lagrange.
On February 23, 1848, Charles Lagrange was part
of the group that transported the deceased from the
Boulevard des Capucines to the Bastille. The following
day, he was present at the Tuileries, where he announced Louis-Philippe’s abdication. He was elected
as a deputy for the Seine in the by-elections on June 4,
1848, but was later influenced by the workers’ uprising during the Days of June 23-26. Subsequently, he
worked diligently to secure amnesty, and his speech
advocating for amnesty, delivered on December 24,
1848, in the National Assembly, was published as a
pamphlet and sold to support the families of those who
were exiled.

13.13.5 Daniel V ierge, La Curiosité – Les étrangers
visitant les ruines de Paris, Le Monde illustré, 24 June
1871.

Insurgents strategically created openings in the interior walls of houses in order to fortify their barricades
on the first floor. This tactic was employed to counter
government troops who were unable to effectively defend themselves in barricaded streets against assailants
positioned on the first floor and firing upon them. After
the construction of the barricade, Auguste Blanqui explains: “…those manning the barricade should establish
contact with the nearby barricades by knocking holes
through the walls that separate the houses. The aforementioned procedure is to be executed concurrently in
the apartments lining both sides of the barricaded street.
Furthermore, it should also be implemented from right
to left along the street that runs parallel to the front of
the defensive position, extending towards its rear. Two
access routes should be established by creating openings
on both the first and top floors. This task is intended
to be executed concurrently in all four cardinal directions. In order to ensure the mobility and safety of the

combatants, it is necessary to breach the outer perimeter
walls of the houses located on the barricaded streets. This
should be done in a manner that allows the combatants
to access the parallel road at the rear, away from the
enemy’s line of sight and firing range.”

13.13.7 La Barricata di contrada nuovo a Milano
(Marzo 1848), G. Castagnola, Firenze Ballagny.

13.13.8 La fin de la Commune, prise de la barricade
de la Chaussée d’Antin, par deux compagnies du 55e de
ligne, le mardi 23 mai, in: Joseph Burn-S m eeton, Les
deux sièges de Paris, album pittoresque, 1871. Also in
L’Illustration, Journal Universel, 3 June 1871.

13.14.1 Paris, 10 May 1968, Reporters Associés,
photo.

13.14.2 Paris, 10 May 1968, Photo F. Roboth, photo.

14 CMDO Sorbonne Posters

14.1 À bas la société spectaculaire marchande
The conseil pour le maintien des occupations,

The conseil pour le maintien des occupations,
Council for the Maintenance of Occupations (CMDO),
was created on the evening of June 17, 1968 at the
Sorbonne at the initiative of members of the Situationist International (I.S.). They published the six famous
programmatic posters that were put up on the walls of
buildings in the Sorbonne area in the Quartier Latin.

14.4 CMDO, Abolition de la société de classe

14.3 CMDO, Le Pouvoir aux conseils de travailleurs.

14.5 CMDO, Occupations des usines.

14.6 CMDO, Que peut le mouvement révolutionnaire maintenant.

14.7 CMDO, A suivre.

* * *

15 Lawrence weiner 18.3 _Prise du Château d’Eau, Février 1848, № 3._

15.1 L aw rence Weiner, Flags folded out of sight 18.4 _La République proclamée, Février 1848, № 4._ _of the barricade, 1989, language + the materials referred_ On February 24, 1848, powerless in the face of a to, & dimensions variable. popular revolt fueled by the economic situation and Lawrence Weiner conceived this work on the growing democratic aspirations, King Louis-Philippe occasion of the bicentenary of the French Revolution in abdicated; a provisional government was established

1989. With its political connotations, this rarely exhib-and proclaimed the Republic. A college including ited wall installation of a commentary on the barricade Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, and Arago was established at is an unusual work in Weiner’s oeuvre. Unlike all the the head of the State. other conflicts of popular revolt against the powers of the political order that took place in the streets of Paris, 18.5 _Envahissement de la Chambre, Révolution_ the French Revolution did not typically feature the de 1848, Mai, № 5. methods of barricade fighting. Only one barricade is The demonstration in Paris on May 15, 1848, re- known to have been set up at the old Porte Sainte-An-sulted in the decapitation of the progressive republican toine, in the traditional district of the rebellious movement of the Second Republic on the eve of the precariat. political offensive of the conservatives of the Constituent Assembly.

15.2 L aw rence Weiner, Three works, 2014,
stamped offset prints, edition. 18.6 _Fête de la Concorde, Mai 1848, № 6._ The three sheets have been part of an artists book The Fête de la Concorde was a festival held on the of a German photographer and friend of Lawrence Champ-de-Mars in Paris on May 21, 1848. Architect Weiner, who owns these three statements relating to Henri Labrouste and painter Pierre-Victor Galland her work and to the topic of the barricade as well. contributed to the decoration of the event in 1848.

18.7 _Prise de la barricade de la porte St Denis, Juin_
1848, № 7. 23 June 1848. 16 sneaker

18.8 _Prise du Panthéon, 24 Juin 1848, № 8._
16.1 _Barricade, Tennis shoes, A_ d id as, 2023.
18.9 _Assassinat du General De Brea, Juin 1848,_
№ 9\. In Charge in June 1848 with operations against the 17 ecce homo insurgents on the left bank of the Seine, he succeeded in driving them back from the city walls: in the hope of

17.1 _De Gaulle Assassin, Action, 11 June 1968_ stopping them by peaceful means, he wanted to discuss
outside the barrier of Fontainebleau, but he was seized

17.2 \*De Gaulle Assassin, Affiche, Atelier Popu-\*and shot on June 25.
laire

18.10 _Mort de l’Archevêque Affre, Révolution de_
1848, № 10.

18 Revolutionary Porcelain 18.11 _Revue des gardes nationales par le Général_ _Cavaignac, Juin 1849, № 11._

18.1 _Une Barricade, Février 1848, N°1, from a set_
of 12 plates depicting the Paris revolt of 1848, Leboeuf 18.12 _Service funèbre en l’honneur des victimes de_ et Milliet, Creil et Montereau, ca. 1861 - 1867. _Juin, Juillet 1848, № 12._ Funeral ceremony July 6, 1848 on the Place de la

18.2 _Arretez c’est mon père, Février 1848, N°2._ Concorde, in honor of the victims of the June Days. There is an engraving on the same subject by Raffet, Auguste, in a series Journée du 24 Février 1848.

* * *

= an iconographic research by the Arsenale I nstitute for Politics of R epresentation
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

19 red flag

19.1 A rsenale I nstitute, Dystopic barricade
scène, woven Jacquard fabric, one of 12 motifs.

20 Tower clock hand

20.1 Tower clock hand, gilded iron, 18th century.
Walter Benjamin begins the XV Thesis from his

20.1 Tower clock hand, gilded iron, 18th century.
Walter Benjamin begins the XV Thesis from his
famous text Theses on the Philosophy of History, 1940
with this thought “The consciousness of breaking up
the continuum of history is peculiar to the revolutionary
classes at the moment of their action.” This applies not
only to the building of barricades, but also to a spontaneous activity by the revolters that is documented
during the 1830 July Revolution, when over 4,000 barricades were erected by the insurgents in just one day
and one night. Benjamin writes: “When the evening
of the first day of fighting had come, it turned out that
in several places in Paris, independent of each other and
simultaneously, shots were fired at the tower clocks. An
eyewitness, who perhaps owed his divination to rhyme,
wrote at the time:

Who would have believed it!

we are told that new Joshuas at the foot of every tower,

Who would have believed it!

we are told that new Joshuas at the foot of every tower,

as though irritated with

time itself, fired at the dials
in order to stop the day.”

21 Earliest Image of a barricade

Mareschal, 1598.
This first book on explosive weapons of war from
the 16th century appears to be the earliest depiction of
a barricade in which the very term is explicitly used. It
appears here decidedly not as a means of street fighting
by an oppressed urban population, but as an instrument
of military forces of an authority. It therefore does not
derive from the inventory of the proto-proletariat, but
from the armoury of a warring sovereign. Already six
years later in 1601 the work was published in a German
translation as Künst lich Feuerwerck und Kriegs Instrumenta. Straßburg, Antonium Bertram 1603.

21.1 Joseph Boillot: Modelles artifices de feu
et divers instrumens de guerre avec les moyens de s’en
prévaloir. (…)Utiles et nécessaires à tous ceux qui font
profession des armes, Chaumont-en-Bassigny, Quentin
Mareschal, 1598.
This first book on explosive weapons of war from

* * *

13 barricade wall

barricade wall The Arsenale Institute

The Arsenale Institute for Politics of Representation is an international institution for cultural studies
and philosophical research in Venice, Italy. It focuses
on image politics in different areas of social communication, the media and the arts. Special emphasis is
given to the study of image criticism in the avant-garde of the early 20th century. The institute grew out
of the Class on Politics of Representation at the IUAV
University in Venice. It was founded in 2006 by Lewis
Baltz, Marco de Michelis, and Wolfgang Scheppe.
In 2009, it became an independent entity under the
direction of Wolfgang Scheppe known for his urbanist
and image critical work since the 2002 project Endcommercial. It began exhibiting in its current location,
the Marinarezza spaces in Venice, in 2017.

The Arsenale Institute’s archive contains an extensive research collection of the avant-garde movements
of the early 20th century, with a focus on documents
and works by the Futurists, Raymond Roussel, DADA,
Marcel Duchamp, the Surrealists, Belgian Revolutionary Surrealism, the Lettrists and Situationists. The
Institute’s library and archive are available to research
for scholars and students upon request.
465

The Arsenale Institute’s archive contains an extensive research collection of the avant-garde movements
of the early 20th century, with a focus on documents
and works by the Futurists, Raymond Roussel, DADA,
Marcel Duchamp, the Surrealists, Belgian Revolutionary Surrealism, the Lettrists and Situationists. The
Institute’s library and archive are available to research
for scholars and students upon request.

* * *

Publications (selection)
Wolfgang Scheppe: Migropolis, Atlas of a Global
Situation, 2 Vol., Ostfildern, 2009.
Wolfgang Scheppe: Done.Book: Picturing the City
of Society, The British Council, Ostfildern, 2010.
Wolfgang Scheppe: The Garden of False Reality, in:
Lewis Baltz: Candlestick Point, Steidl, Göttingen 2011.
Lewis Baltz: Migropolis, in: Texts, Steidl,
Göttingen, 2012.
Wolfgang Scheppe: The Things of Life / The Life of
Things, 3 Vol., Cologne, 2014
Wolfgang Scheppe: Logical Rain, SKD, Dresden,
2014.
Wolfgang Scheppe: Supermarket of the Dead, Fire
offerings in China and the Cult of Globalised Consumption, 3 Vol., Cologne, 2015.
Wolfgang Scheppe: L’invention de l’image de la
Ville, in: Le Marais en héritage(s), Musée Carnavalet,
Paris, 2015.
Wolfgang Scheppe: Surveying the Non-Human.
On the Aesthetics of Racism, SKD, Dresden, 2016.
Wolfgang Scheppe: Die legislative Erfindung des
Stadtbildes, in: ARCH+ 225, 2016
Bastiaan D. van der Velden: Lautréamont in Nederland (1891-1917), L’horizon brumeux, Amsterdam
NA’P 2016.
Bastiaan D. van der Velden: Arthur Cravan, Die
Kunst, die Kunst, ich pfeife auf die Kunst, Hamburg, 8.
Salon 2016.
Bastiaan D. van der Velden: Rechtsgeschiedenis,
Heerlen, OU 2017.
Roberto Ohrt, Wolfgang Scheppe: The Most Dangerous Game, 2 Vol., Merve, Leipzig, 2018.
Bastiaan D. van der Velden: Mai 68 – Revolution
système D, Hamburg, Den Haag, 8. Salon, La Société
Protectrice des Enfants Martyrs, Bronco 2018.
Wolfgang Scheppe: The Ground-Rent of Art and
Exclusion from the City, in: The Property Issue. Politics
of Space and Data, Birkhäuser, Basel, 2020.
Wolfgang Scheppe: Taxonomy of the Barricade,
Image Acts of Political Authority in May 1968, Nero,
Rome, 2021.
Michael Vahrenwald, Wolfgang Scheppe: The
People’s Trust, Kominek, Berlin, 2021.
Wolfgang Scheppe: Leaving an Island (Lawrence
Weiner’s farewell), Köln, 2022.
Bastiaan D. van der Velden: De la Nouvelle France
à la brasserie Zimmer, La dérive d’André Breton et Nadja, Hamburg, Heerlen, 8. Salon, La Société Protectrice
des Enfants Martyrs 2023.

Wolfgang Scheppe: Kent & Kentridge, Venice,
Arsenale Institute 2024.
Bastiaan D. van der Velden, Wolfgang Scheppe:

Publications Bastiaan D. van der Velden: Documenten rond
Gerard Sanders, Heerlen, De Bij 2024.
Wolfgang Scheppe: Kent & Kentridge, Venice,

2009 Migropolis, Bevilacqua la Masa, Venice.
2010 Done-Book, 12th International Architecture
Biennale Venice, The British Council.
2014 The Things of Life / The Life of Things, SKD,
Dresden.
2014 Logical Rain, SKD, Dresden.
2015 Supermarket of the Dead, Fire Sacrifice in
China and the Cult of Globalized
Consumption, SKD, Dresden.
2015 Die Kunst, die Kunst – ich pfeife auf die Kunst,
Arthur Cravan im Ring mit 13 Künstlern
unserer Zeit, 8. Salon, Hamburg.
2016 Surveying the Non-Human. On the
Aesthetics of Racism, SKD, Dresden.
2016 The Soul of Money, DOX, Prague.
2017 Sacred Goods, Johann Jacobs Museum,
Zurich.
2017 Tous Contre le Spectacle, Marinarezza,
Venice.
2018 Unbuilt, Marinarezza, Venice.
2018 Mai 68 – Revolution système D, 8. Salon,
Hamburg.
2018 The Most Dangerous Game, HKW, Berlin.
2019 Hey Psycho!, Marinarezza, Venice, featuring
works of Douglas Gordon
and Florian Süssmayr.
2020 Paul Nougé, Non voloir, Marinarezza, Venice.
2021 Das Barrikadenwerk, 8. Salon, Hamburg.
2021 Architecture of Speed, Marinarezza, Venice.
2022 The Language of Lawrence Weiner,
Marinarezza, Venice.
2022 Und dennoch gibt Babeuf sich nicht
geschlagen, 8. Salon, Hamburg.
2023 Barrikadenwetter, MACRO, Roma.
2023 Barrikadenwetter, MOMus, Thessaloniki.
2024 William Kentrid ge, Self-Portrait as a
Coffee-Pot, Marinarezza, Venice.
2024 F ab io Mauri, The Langugae of War,
8\. Salon, Hamburg.

Bastiaan D. van der Velden, Wolfgang Scheppe:
Babeuf, Hamburg, Heerlen, 8. Salon, La Société Pro-
Wolfgang Scheppe: The Garden of False Reality, in: tectrice des Enfants Martyrs 2025.

Exhibitions (selection)

* * *

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Edited and curated by
Bastiaan D. van d er V eld en and Wolfgang S cheppe with S ara C od utti.

Installation by
R ita F ortin, Kees van d en Meirack er, S ofia P ittaccio, Marie L etz.

Gallery assistant
Max G lad er

Arsena le Insti tute for poli ti cs of representa ti on

Acknowledgements to
A lexand er Bonivento, A rthur G eh, P eter Kamm erer, T om L amb erty, Karl Borrom äus Murr,
Masha Negura, Eleonora Sovrani, A lice Weiner, Kirsten V.T. Weiner,
S taatliches T extil- und I nd ustriem useum A ugsb urg.

Castello 1430 /A
Riva dei Sette Martiri

Riva dei Sette Martiri
I-30122 Venezia

Riva dei Sette Martiri
I-30122 Venezia

May 7th – November 23, 2025

Open by appointment

email: [frontdesk@arsenale.com](mailto:frontdesk@arsenale.com)
Information: [www.arsenale.com](/content/site-root.html)