The fourteenth edition of Rotterdam Cultural Histories showed how Rotterdam newspapers reported on international and local events that took place in May 1968, a revolutionary period that is still considered a turning point in history. In this time, just before television became a standard household item, newspapers, as well as radio, served as the main channels for disseminating information.
May 1968
The month of May 1968 is usually associated with the notorious student movements in Paris. Fifty years ago, students from the Sorbonne University held a demonstration against social inequality in France. Sympathizers from all walks of life and trade unions soon joined in and a general strike was called. The uprising was not limited to France; it mobilized activists worldwide. Although the newspapers in May 1968 mainly reported on the events in Paris, attention was also drawn to the Prague Spring that had begun in Czechoslovakia in January of that year, to the war in Vietnam and to the civil rights movements in the United States.
Rotterdam context
This documentary exhibition includes an installation based on newspaper covers from Rotterdam newspapers and an events programme. The selection gave a sense of the times, by expressing topics and voices that are important to Rotterdam. In the Netherlands, the first colour television broadcasts took place in 1968 and the contraceptive pill was introduced. Another important event that took place in Rotterdam at that time was the installation of the Rotterdam Council for Youth and Children, set up to meet the growing need to give the city's youth a voice. It was also then that the groundbreaking publication 'The Inner City Experience in Rotterdam' by Prof. Dr. Rob Wentholt, which initiated the analysis of the new urban culture and expectations of Rotterdammers after the reconstruction.
These and several other stories from the May 1968 newspapers, and the question of what other events took place here that were not reported in the newspapers, formed the basis of a series of public programs around Rotterdam Cultural Histories #14: May 1968.
Rotterdam Cultural Histories
In Shared Space, our shared exhibition space on the first floor, TENT and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art alternately present presentations on topics from the history of art and culture in Rotterdam. This collaborative project was initiated in 2014 by Defne Ayas (Witte de With) and Mariette Dölle (TENT) to explore the shared roots of both institutions in Rotterdam.
With thanks to the Algemeen Dagblad, the Rotterdammer, the Tijd–De Maasbode, the Rotterdams Parool, the Vrije Volk, the Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant, the Rotterdamsch Nieuwsblad and the Rotterdam Municipal Archives.