August, 2018 - Nowadays it is difficult to comprehend the events in Prague that happened 50 years ago this month. Why and how on earth did tanks and soldiers end up storming around the cobbled streets of this beautiful European city? To the people of Prague back then, it was not only bewildering, but terrifying.
Invasion Prague 68 is a touring exhibition that showcases the photos of Czech photographer Josef Koudelka who was on the streets with his camera in August 1968. This reviewer saw the exhibition whilst on display at Botanique in Brussels from 14 June to 12 August 2018.
The giant black and white photos are stark and life-like. Anxious faces leap out at you as smoke from angry fires, tank guns and armed soldiers straddle the urban setting with disdain.
This is high calibre press photography - the viewer is literally thrown onto the streets of Prague, the confusion and the utter disbelief that so-called allies are invading the country.
For a brief time leading up to the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops led by the Soviet Union, the Prague Spring had heralded the dawn of a more humane system: 'Socialism with a Human Face'. But Moscow was not amused - the lifting of censorship and burgeoning freedom of expression in Czechoslovakia could not be allowed to spread (uncovering uncomfortable truths about the past and openly criticising communism and its leaders).
Koudelka's photos were smuggled out of the country and published in the international press one year later with the anonymous credit of P.P. (Prague Photographer). It was only long after he had emigrated/escaped to the West during the 80s that Kodelka was able to take the credit for the photos. In the meantime his photos had won numerous prestigious photography awards and become emblematic of the tyranny of the Soviet Union.
Remarkably, the history of this invasion is neither deeply nor widely understood. It is more sexy to focus on the student protests and countercultural revolution that gripped many countries around the world in that very same year.
Koudelka's photos reveal the grotesque dichotomy of a tank accosting peaceful citizens trying to go about their everyday business. Many important questions are raised that need investigating.
