no idea, you got a tut or a video?

Kaleidoscope and a lot of blur?

I used G'MIC > deformations > random (incrementally on layers.)
Then used motion blur on the deformations.
Tweaked a bit with fade out.
Comes close

My guess, by the looks of those sharp edges in the .gif is G'mic->Cubism.
Create few copies of the original. In the first animation frame use 1 iteration, and so on.
It will create a vanishing effect but you probably need to use the other parameters too (didn't test yet).
Maybe some radial or zoom blur in the end frames?

I did this one in a video editor using a PNG made in Gimp. I could have added more effects, but you get the idea.

Simple explode, not too difficult using more-or-less standard tools. The only concessions ofnuts guillotine plugin and saul goodes linked to layer group.

Then it depends on how much time you are willing to spend. Only a few minutes for this.

Wilber eats cubistic nitroglycerin.
Made 3, or 4 copies of the original layer.
G'mic Cubism, first animation layer 1 iteration, 2nd layer 2 iterations, 3rd layer 3, 4th layer 4 iterations.
Some minor changes in density, thickness and more smoothing towards the end frames.
Rest 4 animation layers were just repeated with the last setting, ctrl+F. And last is pause layer using same BG layer.

Wohoo, I haven't won anything in ages. Feels like lottery jack pot I'm gonna have ice cream cone and coffee with Wilber.
After trying out myself, I figured the smoothness slider is helpful and blur is not needed
I think it was somewhere in the back of my brain that cubism can do it, had one setting saved as favourite.
Some animation programs have effect called scatter that looks very similar.

Not bad for all Gimp/G'mic effect. Yes shatter filter is what I used in my example. I added some light rays to add to the effect...

Where did you find that filter?

@Tas_mania, I used Aviutl for the animation effect. It has the shatter filter and many more. Sorry for the confusion.

Aviutl is still my go-to program for most animated effects. Its one of the very few reasons I still have a Win7 VM on my system. It can run under wine, but wine is a PIA to keep up. I no longer use wine.

Thanks racer. Aviutl - yes I remember that Japanese software. It's a pretty eye-catching effect for any kind of promo etc.
It would be great to have a Gimp plugin that does it.

Yes, it's a Japanese program, but I use an older English translated version. Aviutl_ExtraPack1-10_Win7.7z
No need to install, just unpack and run. It's an older version, but it works just fine. Assuming you can figure out how to use it.

The Aviutl pack works on Windows10 but I would rather use a FOSS script. I think your GIF actually wins because it really does 'explode'.
If you don't mind I will ask if any script coders would like to try to make a PY or SCM script that can do it

I'm posting the project files, if you want to see how it works. Just open the "explode.aup" project file in aviutl. You can play around with the settings such as debris size, gravity and so on. You can swap out the image used by clicking on the "Reference" button in the image properties window.

Have fun...

Thanks for the project file racer. Blowing-up text is an interesting idea IMHO.
Just make logos of stuff you don't like and shatter them

I always use swish 4 pro for animated effects. I believe it is free now. But Wallace, using GIMP and G'MIC only that's pretty darn cool!