Provo
In 1965 a small band of Amsterdam anarchists, the Provos, who attacked the middle-class smugness and authoritarianism of Dutch society, sprang into national prominence when they protested the marriage of Crown Princess Beatrix to Claus von Amsberg, a German nobleman who had been in Hitler's SS when he was a teenager. Coincidentally, Robert Jasper Grootveld, a far-out performance artist (or "happener") had been conducting Klaas demonstrations (after Santa Claus or Sinterklaas) on the streets at midnight, for over a year. Grootveld was protesting the police crackdown on marihuana usage. Klaas became Claus, fusing the two movements, political and absurdist, in 1966, launching a movement whose momentum served to revolutionize Dutch society almost overnight. (Source)
Exhibitions
- section on Provo in Netherlandic Treasures exhibition at the University of Michigan Special Collections Library, c2003.
- Two or Three Things I Know About Provo, installed by Experimental Jetset at W139, Amsterdam, 2011; and at Brno Biennale, Brno, 2012.
Archives, libraries
- Provo Archive in International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam. [=format%3A%22Visual+documents%22 Section with visual documents]. Archive inventory (PDF).
- Provo documents in Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
- Provo images, includes Provo magazines, pamphlets, posters & varia.
Literature
- Jacques Dalny, "Les «provos» n'ont rien inventé. Derrière les jeunes gens en colère d'Amsterdam on trouve une Internationale occulte", Le Figaro littéraire 1059, 4 Aug 1966, pp 1 & 3. (French)
- Duco van Weerlee, Hvad er Provo, Copenhagen, 1966. (Danish)
- Roel van Duyn, Provo. Einleitung ins provozierende Denken, Berlin, 1966. (German)
- Delta: A Review of Arts Life and Thought in the Netherlands 10(3): "Provo-Movement", ed. L. van der Land, Delta International, Autumn 1967. Special issue of the magazine. (English)
- "Révolte et récupération en Hollande", Internationale Situationniste 11, Paris, Oct 1967, pp 65-66. (French)
- "Revolt and Recuperation in Holland", trans. Reuben Keehan, Not Bored!, n.d. (English)
- Margret Kosel, GammlerBeatniks Provos. Die schleichende Revolution, Frankfurt am Main, 1967. (German)
- Hans Tuynman, Ich bin ein Provo. Das permanente Happening, Darmstadt, 1967. (German)
- Paolo Romano Andreoli, Provo, Rome, 1967. (Italian)
- Aimée Racine, Christian Vassart, Provos et provotariat. Un an de recherche participante en milieu provo, Brussels, 1968. (French)
- Paul Jorion, Quelques considérations relatives au phénomène «provo». Amsterdam 1965-1967, Amsterdam and Brussels: Mémoire de maîtrise, 1968-69. (French)
- Danièle Madrid, "Le mouvement provo en Belgique", Interrogations. Revue internationale de recherche anarchiste, 12 Oct 1977, pp 31-48. (French)
- Yves Frémion, Provo: la tornade blanche, Brussels, 1982. (English)
- Yves Frémion, "Les Provos 1965-1967", in Mai 68. Les mouvements étudiants en France et dans le monde, eds. Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand and Laurent Gervereau, Nanterre, 1988, pp 48-52. (French)
- Teun Voeten, "Dutch Provos", High Times, Jan 1990, pp 32-36 & 64-66 & 73. (English)
- Tjebbe van Tijen, "Les Provos", ed. Geneviève Dreyfus-Armand, in Les années 68: événements, cultures politiques et modes de vie. Lettre d'information, IHTP, 14 Jul 1996. Lecture transcript. (French)
- Niek Pas, Imaazje! De verbeelding van Provo 1965-1967, Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek, 2003, 463 pp. PhD dissertation. (Dutch)
- Richard Kempton, Provos: Amsterdam's Anarchist Revolt, 2003; new ed., New York: Autonomedia, 2007, 192 pp. [1] [2] (English)
- Nicolas Pas, "Images d'une révolte ludique. Le mouvement néerlandais Provo en France dans les années soixante", Revue Historique 2, 2005, pp 343-373. (French)
- Marga van Mechelen, in De Appel: performances, installaties, video, projecten 1975-83, Amsterdam: De Appel Foundation, 2006. [3]. (Dutch)
- De Appel: Performances, Installations, Video, Projects, 1975-83, trans. Michael Gibbs, Amsterdam: De Appel Foundation, 2006, pp 21-22. [4] (English)
- Niek Pas, "Mediatization of the Provos: From a Local Movement to a European Phenomenon", ch 10 in Between Prague Spring and French May: Opposition and Revolt in Europe, 1960-1980, eds. Martin Klimke, Jacco Pekelder and Joachim Scharloth, New York: Berghahn, 2011, pp 157-176. (English)
- Magdaléna Kobzová, "Provo", ch 9.4 in Taktické média ako miesta konvergencie, Prague: FAMU, 2013, pp 85-87. Section in PhD dissertation. [5] (Slovak)
- Niek Pas, Provo! Mediafenomeen 1965-1967, Wereldbibliotheek, 2015, 256 pp. Excerpt. [6] [7] [8]. Review: Duivenvoorden (BMGN). (Dutch)
- Alan Smart, "Rules for Breaking In", ARPA Journal 4, May 2016. (English)
