Fifty years ago in Amsterdam, Provo was born, a youth movement that provoked lawful authorities, the monarchy, and 'the mindless masses' in a playful and imaginative way. In the streets Provo staged midnight and Saturday happenings near the sculpture 'Het Lieverdje' in the center of Amsterdam.
Provo became widely known for protesting the monarchy on the wedding day of princess Beatrix and Claus von Amsberg.
Provo invented various kinds of 'White Plans' such as the well known White Bicycle Plan, eventhough this plan was never carried out in Amsterdam. Many of these plans reflect a concern for a healthy environment and aim at making private property public. The Provo 'white concepts' as such were widely imitated, even internationally.
Its first printed manifestation was the journal PROVO on 2 Juli 1965.
It featured traditional anarchist ideology and recipes for homemade dynamite and other explosives.
It was confiscated instantly as a 'seditious broadsheet'.
This journal and all other papers pertaining to Provo, including the archives of individual Provo's like Roel van Duijn and Robert Jasper Grootveld, are housed at the IISH.
Provo App
The Amsterdam Museum has created an app that takes you along to typical Provo locations in the city, like Spui and Paradiso. The route also brings you to the IISH, where a creation by Robert Jasper Grootveld is put on display in the window until August 31st. An even more special part of the collection, the floating gardens of Provo and Anti-Smoke Magician Robert Jasper Grootveld, are located on the waterfront next to the IISH since 2007.
Guided Provo Tour in IISH
The IISH, in cooperation with the Amsterdam Museum, organize a special Provo Guided Tour behind the scenes of the institute on June 26th. The tour takes you through stockrooms that are normally closed to the public. Unique Provo archival material will be shown to you. Interested? Register here. (tour is in Dutch only)
Provo in the IISH
Please find an overview of the IISH’s web presentations and collections about Provo and other icons of the Provo movement:
- Peter Bronkhorst, provo and chronicler of the Sixties movement
- Roel van Duijn archive
- Fabiola, a Provo from the Nineties
- Robert Jasper Grootveld archive
- Bart Huges, pierced his own skull in order to be permanently stoned
- Kabouter Movement, collection Hijn Bijnen and Ewout van der Hoog
- De Lastige Amsterdammer
- Posters De Melkweg and Paradiso
- Oranje Vrijstaat, archive
- Provo (the archive) and Provo Provokes, Web Expo
- Provo Groningen en Provo Maastricht
- Ivo Samkalden , Mayor of Amsterdam
- Sigma Projecten, Art Projects, Tjebbe van Tijen and Simon Vinkenoog, archive
- Simon Vinkenoog, collection about drugs, psychedelics, art and other issues
- Collection about Social Movements
- Search IISH collections for smaller archives of individual Provo's
- Search IISH collections for photos and other audiovisual materials on Provo
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