Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958[1]. It was the first major World's Fair after World War II.
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Background
Nearly 15,000 workers spent three years building the 2 km² site, found on the Heysel plateau, seven kilometres northwest of central Brussels, Belgium. Many of the buildings were re-used from the Brussels International Exposition (1935), which had been held on the same site.
Every 25 years starting in 1855, Belgium had staged large national events to celebrate its national independence following the Belgian Revolution of 1830. However, the Belgian government under prime minister Achille Van Acker decided to forego celebrations in 1955 to have additional funding for the 1958 Expo.[2]
Expo 58 was the 11th World's Fair hosted by Belgium, and the fifth in Brussels, following the fairs in 1888, 1897, 1910 and 1935. After Expo 58, Belgium has so far not arranged any more world fairs.
The Exposition
The site is best known for a giant model of a unit cell of an iron crystal (each sphere representing an atom), called the Atomium, which decades later remains one of the best known landmarks of Brussels.
The fair is known for a musical milestone, a melding of musical composition and architecture. Edgard Varèse composed "Poème électronique," which was recorded to be played back from 425 loudspeakers, placed at specific points in the Philips Pavilion, designed by Iannis Xenakis while under the employ of Le Corbusier.
More than 42 million visitors visited the site, which was opened with a call for world peace and social and economic progress, issued by King Baudouin I.
The fair is also remembered for being the place where Orson Welles's Touch of Evil was awarded the top prize by then-critics Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, despite Universal Studios' domestic dumping as a B-picture.
National Pavillions
British
This was produced by the designer James Gardner, architect Howard Lobb & engineer Felix Samuely. The on-site British architect was Michael Blower, Brussels born and bilingual.[3].
Czech (Czechoslovak)
The exposition "One Day in Czechoslovakia" was designed by Jindřich Santar who cooperated with artists Jiří Trnka, Antonín Kybal, Stanislav Libenský and Jan Kotík. Architects of the simple, but modern and graceful construction were František Cubr, Josef Hrubý and Zdeněk Pokorný. The team's artistic freedom, so rare in the hard-line communist regime of the 1950s, was ensured by the government committee for exhibitions chairman František Kahuda. He supported the famous Laterna Magika show, as well as Josef Svoboda's technically unique polyecran. The Czechoslovak pavilion was visited by 6 million people and was officially awarded the best pavilion of the Expo 58.[4].
Mexican
This was designed by the architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. It was awarded the exposition's star of gold.
See also
- The 50th anniversary of Expo 58 was selected as the main motif of a high-value collectors' coin: the Belgian 100 euro 50th Anniversary of the International Expo in Belgium commemorative coin, minted in 2008. In the obverse, the logo of the event is depicted together with the number 50, representing its 50th anniversary.
- Brussels International Exposition (1935)
References
- ^ "When the world was in Brussels". Flanders Today. April 16, 2008. http://flanderstoday.eu/jahia/Jahia/pid/1586.
- ^ Expo 58, The Royal Belgian Film Archive, Revised Edition, 2008, p. 78 (booklet accompanying DVD edition of footage from the exhibition)
- ^ See chapter by Jonathan Woodham - Caught between Many Worlds: the British Site at Expo ‘58’(see bibliography)
- ^ MF DNES, Expo 2010, Mimořádná příloha o světové výstavě v Šanghaji, 3.5.2010.
Bibliography
- The Architecture of Expo 58 by Rika Devos & Mil De Kooning (eds). Dexia/Mercatorfonds, 2006 (ISBN 0-0-0).
External links
- Brussels World's Fair approaches completion, a March 17, 1958 Universal newsreel clip from the Internet Archive
- Expo '58 and a Flash-based interactive map from the Atomium website
- brussels-expo58.be - Celebrating 50 years of Expo 58 in 2008
- Audiovisual archives about Expo 58.
- ExpoMuseum's Expo 58 Page
| Preceded by Port-au-Prince International |
World Expositions 1958 |
Succeeded by Century 21 Exposition |
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