Love brings people together, both privately and socially. During the Summer of Love (1967), May ’68, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Bed-In for Peace, the intimate became public, the personal became political. 

Students and artists teamed up to protest the Vietnam War. They understood better than anyone else the power of words and images. The photo of Caroline De Bendern that appeared in Paris Match became iconic. On 13 May 1968, the British model walked with the artist Jean-Jacques Lebel in a demonstration towards the Place de Bastille in Paris. Her feet aching, she was hoisted on Lebel’s shoulders, and someone handed her a Vietnamese flag. Surrounded by cameras, she deliberately assumed a combative pose. The photographer Jean-Pierre Rey struck at the decisive moment. The resemblance to Eugène Delacroix’s painting La liberté guidant le peuple (1830) did the rest. Caroline became the Marianne of May ’68. She also appears behind a group of free-spirited naked women in Le joli mois de mai (1967), the pop art piece by Evelyne Axell that appears on the poster of our exhibition Love is Louder. The political revolution, the sexual revolution, and feminism went hand in hand. 

Wars are once again raging on Europe’s borders. Values and rights are under pressure. People are being discriminated against on the basis of gender and sexual preference. The love battle is far from over. Love is Louder looks at love between lovers, relatives, friends, and communities through the eyes of 80 artists. Sam Durant saw the slogan on a sign during a demonstration. It turned out to be the perfect title for our expo. Love is louder… Than what? Come and fill in the dots with us and numerous artists in the coming weeks – in words, images, dance, and music.