Now marking its fiftieth anniversary, the exhibition ‘Prague 1968’ shows black and white photographs of the people in Prague in October 1968, its crowded streets and the leading characters of that ‘Spring’. ‘Prague 1968’ was organised by the Italian Embassy, the Prague Italian Cultural Institute, the Regional Council of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and the Spilimbergo Centre for Photographic Research and Archiving (CRAF). The exhibition left Manzano (Udine) and transferred to the Baroque Chapel of the Italian Cultural Institute in Prague, where it was opened by Ambassador Aldo Amati. It will stay open until 10 June, then move to the Central European House of Photography in Bratislava from 26 June to 5 August, and then on to the National Museum of Photography in Jindřichův Hradec from 11 August to 23 September.
Over 100 photographs are on exhibition documenting the events of that year, and were shot by Czech photographer, Pavel Sticha, Swedish photographer, Sune Jonsson, and Italian photographers, Carlo Leidi and Alfonso Modonesi. They record the attempt to achieve political liberalisation in Czechoslovakia when it was dominated by the Soviet Union. This dream faded with the invasion of 20 August 1968, to be followed by the overcast Autumn of ‘normalisation’ that affected the country for many years. The ‘Spring’ marked a brief respite that began in January 1968 when reformist Alexander Dubček rose to power, and continued until August 1968 when troops from the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded the country to halt the reforms. However, these few months reverberated politically across both Eastern Europe and the whole European Continent afterwards.
Some of the most valuable photos in the exhibition were by Pavel Sticha, who was a photographer for the “Svoboda” newspaper before he left Czechoslovakia. He took pictures of many of the leading characters in those events: the President Ludvik Svoboda, Alexander Dubček, František Kriegel, Josef Plojhar, and even Gustáv Husak, in two of the most important episodes of that summer: the appointment of Dubček as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in February 1968; and the march held on 1 May that year. The exhibition also shows the work of Swedish photographer Sune Jonsson who took pictures in August 1968. Jonsson, along with journalist Dag Lindberg, was in Prague for the magazine “VI” to do an article on the Battle of Prague of 1648, the last action of the Thirty Years’ War. The two arrived in Prague to record and “reconstruct” the Battle of Prague that had taken place four centuries beforehand, but they found themselves witnesses to another battle: the invasion by troops of the members of the Warsaw Pact on 21 August. Finally, Carlo Leidi and Alfonso Modonesi took photographs of the events in Autumn 1968, including some of the ČKD production departments, then one of the biggest companies in Prague and the place where the Communist Party congress met in secret after the invasion. The Prague walls and balconies covered with scathing graffiti denouncing the invasion and supporting the “Spring” provide eloquent testimony to the events of that time. The most significant pictures include: those taken in Hradčany Spare (the castle overlooking the city) on the morning of 28 October 1968; the ones showing members of the public placing flowers and lights at the foot of the statue of Saint Wenceslas; and finally, the one of the grave of Jan Palach, the young student who set himself on fire in January 1969 in Saint Wenceslas Square, becoming a symbol of Anti-Soviet resistance.