05 Mar 2009

May '68 at MGLC in Slovenia

The protests and strikes by students and workers in Paris and other French cities in May and June of 1968, which challenged the traditional values of society and destabilized the regime of Charles de Gaulle, left an indelible mark on the history of the second half of the twentieth century. The protests, which soon spread across the world, encompassed Yugoslavia as well, including Ljubljana. French artists, some inspired by Guy Debord, acted as a kind of propaganda machine for the uprising. They occupied universities, established people's studios, became agitators and activists, and exhibited their work on the streets and in factories.

The exhibition will present around eighty posters, loaned by the Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image Imprimée in La Louvière, Belgium. They were created for the events in Paris, and their image has become synonymous with the urban struggle.

The student movement in Ljubljana, from 1968 to 1972, will be documented by a film by Majda Širca, as well as the student newspapers Tribuna and SP (standing for slovensko podzemlje – 'the Slovene underground'), leaflets and announcements, and photographs by Tone Stojko, Edi Šelhaus, and Žare Veselič, from the Museum and Galleries of the City of Ljubljana and Slovenia's National Museum of Contemporary History.

Curator: Catherine de Braekeleer from the Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée. Co-ordinators: Marie Van Bosterhaut and Mirjam Behek (International Centre of Graphic Arts). Co-organiser of the exhibition Student Movement in Ljubljana, 1968–1972: Dunja Kalčič from The National and University Library, Ljubljana.

Co-organizers:
Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée, La Louvière, Belgium
The National and University Library, Ljubljana, Slovenia

This exhibition has been supported by the French Community of Wallonia-Brussels (Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles). We have prepared it as part of the accord between the French Community of Wallonia-Brussels and the Republic of Slovenia.