Paris Prefecture of Police archives, of Gamma-Rapho-Keystone, of Paris Match; texts by Bernadette Caille, Charles Diaz, Ludivine Bantigny and Patrick Boucheron; 1968, The Fire of Ideas series by Marcelo Brodsky.

1968. The postwar economic boom seemed to bring comfort and modernity in its wake. Women started taking the pill and demanding more independence. Society grew younger; the baby-boomers reached adolescence. They had their own models and culture and no longer identified with their elders’ values, considering them outmoded. Between demonstrations, riots, sleepless nights and street fighting, the Paris Prefecture of Police archives show what was happening on the other side of the barricades. Posters will also track the timeline of events. Many of them were made by students at the Paris School of Fine Arts, where artists gave them help and advice. Photographs, documents, books and posters show the social, cultural and political context of 1968 in order to help viewers understand how France was shaken by the biggest general strike in its history. Argentine artist Marcelo Brodsky’s work based on archival documents about worldwide unrest concludes the exhibition.