Under the Paving Stones, the Beach - Photography Exhibition

The exhibition takes it’s title from the Situationist slogan from the 1968 student protests in Paris, ‘Under the Paving Stones, the Beach’ (Sous les Pavés la Plage), at which cobblestones were thrown at the police, exposing the sand beneath and leading to one of the best known slogans of 1968.

Whilst Darren’s photographs of the London Occupy Protests 2012 correspond to the anger against the authoritarian, bureaucratic and oppressive establishment felt by the 1968 student protesters, other images in this exhibition encapsulate the spirit of ‘the beach’; notions of festivity, freedom, spontaneity, self-determination and creativity that lie beneath the ‘paving stones’. In these photos the urban environment is transformed into a stage set for theatre, art and creative self-expression.