An initiative of the
Transit 68/89
„Transit 68/89“ traces an historical arch spanning from the protest movements of the 1968ers in East and West through to the upheavals of 1989, seeking to gauge their formative power in a time following the alleged “end of history”. The landscape traversed is one of transborder cultural encounters and the myths and misunderstandings accompanying them. The actors with their ideas, positions and self-presentations themselves take centre stage. The publication is based on the journals created as part of the project “68/89 – Art.Contemporary.History”. The winner of several awards for their design (see below), these journals are brought together in a single volume that embarks on a unique time journey through German-Czech-Slovak cultural history in the years of revolt and new directions.
Jürgen Danyel, Jennifer Schevardo, Stephan Kruhl (eds.)
623 pages, hardcover, bilingual (German and Czech)
ISBN 978-3-940938-64-0
Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2009.
The designers from formdusche received the following awards for the journals and the publication “Transit 68/89”:
Certificate of Typographic Excellence, TDC New York (TypeDirectorsClub) 2008
EDaward 2009, GOLD, category book layout, European Design Awards 2009
if communications design award 2009, category typography, if design awards 2009
Introductions, Project résumé by Jürgen Danyel and tables of content (German/Czech) (pdf)
Journal crossing 68/89
The first journal is devoted to cultural transfer between East and West in the 1960s and 1970s, the reciprocating influences and interaction as well as the personal encounters defying the barrier of the Iron Curtain. With articles by Petr Fleischmann on his experiences of May 1968 in Paris, Christoph Kleßmann on 1968 in an East-West perspective, Vojtěch Lindaur on his encounter with the singer Nico in the mid-1980s, a “slogan atlas” by the young artist Zbyněk Baladrán, and much more.
Publication date: May 2008
ISBN 978-3-940938-08-4
Journal misunderstanding 68/89
This issue revolves around the ideological and personal misunderstandings of the “68er” in East and West, the propagated myths and overinterpretations of these events as well as the conflicts between those actively involved in 1968 and their children. Articles by Zdeněk Pinc on German and Czechoslovakian students visiting one another in 1968, a comic on love and the entry of Soviet troops in 1968 by Jaromír99, a contribution by Norbert Frei on today’s discussion on the meaning of 1968, an essay by Michael March on the right to lie, and much more.
Publication date: June 2008
ISBN 978-3-940938-09-1
Journal performing 68/89
This journal is devoted to the fate and further development of the cultural blossoming of the 1960s after the failure of the political projects of ’68. Focus is placed on the subtle repercussions of the art of the seventies, the Prague underground, the influence of the creeping “normalization” on mass culture, the crisis of pop culture in the West and the eternal start of Czech pop music. Featuring articles by Ondřej Štindl, Helena Srubar, Boris Ondreička, Jan-Phillip Possmann, et al.
Publication date: October 2008
ISBN 978-3-940938-25-1
Journal transforming 68/89
After traversing the long path from “1968” through to the ‘years of lead’, the 1970s, this journal brings the project to the exciting events of autumn 1989. Which links between these two salient events are recognizable? Taking place between them was a change of generation and the bitter experience, shared by many in the East and the West alike, that socialism had proven resistant to reform. Would 1989 complete what had begun in 1968? Which role did the actors from 1968 play in the collapse of communism? And what do the events of 1989 represent for outsiders? Featuring articles by Monika MacDonagh-Pajerová, Fernando de Valenzuela, Jiří Suk, et al.
Publication date: November 2008
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