Global Context • 1968
May is a watershed moment for art and politics. French students demonstrate against President Charles de Gaulle in Paris, touching off nationwide demonstrations and worker strikes. Student riots erupt in various nations around the world. Strongly associated with The Situationist International, led by Guy Debord, the events forge a powerful link between art and political agitation and prompt widespread institutional, political and social reform.
An entry from the timeline included in the exhibition Dada South? Experimentation, Radicalism and Resistance (2009–2010) at the Iziko National Gallery, which proposed connections between art production in South Africa and abroad against the social and political contexts that framed them. A revised version of this timeline was later featured in the retroactive Flight Paths (2011) exhibition guide commissioned by Clare Butcher.