Prague, Wenceslas Square, August 22, 1968: an arm projects into the image. The wristwatch shows the time of day. The forearm is not raised vertically, contrary to traditional representations of revolution colored in red. Instead, the arm is extended horizontally, parallel to the bottom edge of the picture. The fist, however, is clenched, as if it were a question of protesting with the arm of time. Over the days leading up to this moment Warsaw Pact tanks had entered the city to the clatter and clamor of their tracks on the pavement.
The rumor of a street protest had spread like wildfire. The crowds were to convene in the square near the equestrian statue of the patron saint of the Czech Republic, in the shadow of the National Museum. But this was a trap set by Moscow’s agents provocateurs with the intention of igniting unrest to justify the invasion. Fortunately, the people of Prague were forewarned. At the appointed hour, the square was pretty much deserted, as can be seen in the image. This photograph by Josef Koudelka chronologically belongs to his series Invasion 68, which portrays the revolutionary resilience of his fellow citizens faced with the determination of the Red Army to drown the democratic impulses of the Prague Spring in blood. However, this is also the first image in Koudelka’s book, Exiles, published twenty years later, in 1988, by Robert Delpire.
Describing this now iconic image, Koudelka says that “the photograph is symbolic of Exiles.” It’s as if that day in August 1968, perhaps even that very moment, had triggered a slow countdown that would lead the photographer to leave his country of origin. In 1970, taking advantage of a trip abroad, Koudelka decided not to return to Czechoslovakia. This marked the beginning of long years of exile, following the paths of the world tracking opportunities.
Clément Chéroux
Clément Chéroux is a French historian of photography and curator, presently Senior Curator at the Department of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. This text is an excerpt from his essay published in The Making of Exiles.
Josef Koudelka, La Fabrique d’Exils
Published by Editions Xavier Barral
90 B&W photographs, 50 archival documents
Texts by Clément Chéroux, Michel Frizot
€42
http://exb.fr/fr/le-catalogue/300-la-fabrique-d-exils-9782365111188.html
