Expo '58
Encyclopedia
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
after World War II.
Background
Nearly 15,000 workers spent three years building the 2 km² site, found on the HeyselHeysel
Heysel or Heizel , is an area in Brussels and may in particular refer to:* Heysel Park, a part of Brussels* Heysel Metro Station, one of the metro stations on line 6 of the Brussels Metro...
plateau, seven kilometres northwest of central Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
. Many of the buildings were re-used from the Brussels International Exposition (1935)
Brussels International Exposition (1935)
The Brussels International Exposition of 1935 was held in Heysel Park, Brussels, Belgium from April 27 through November 6, 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
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
of 1830. However, the Belgian government under prime minister Achille Van Acker
Achille Van Acker
Achille Honoré Van Acker was the 33rd Prime Minister of Belgium in four different cabinets from 1945 to 1958, for a total period of seven years. He was a member of the BSP-PSB - the then still national Belgian Socialist Party. He was nicknamed Achille Charbon.-Life:Van Acker was born in Bruges on...
decided to forego celebrations in 1955 to have additional funding for the 1958 Expo.
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.
Exhibition
The site is best known for a giant model of a unit cell of an iron crystal (each sphere representing an atomAtom
The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
), called the Atomium
Atomium
The Atomium is a monument in Brussels, originally built for Expo '58, the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. Designed by André Waterkeyn, it stands 102 metres tall...
, which decades later remains one of the best known landmarks of Brussels.
Edgard Varèse
Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....
composed "Poème électronique
Poème électronique
Poème électronique is a piece of electronic music by composer Edgard Varèse, written for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. The Philips corporation commissioned Le Corbusier to design the pavilion, which was intended as a showcase of their engineering progress...
," which was recorded to be played back from 425 loudspeakers, placed at specific points in the Philips Pavilion
Philips Pavilion
The Philips Pavilion was a World's Fair pavilion designed for Expo '58 in Brussels by the office of Le Corbusier. Commissioned by Philips, an electronics company based in the Netherlands, the pavilion was designed to house a multimedia spectacle that celebrated postwar technological progress...
, designed by Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
while under the employ of Le Corbusier
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier , was a Swiss-born French architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930...
.
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
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
's Touch of Evil
Touch of Evil
Touch of Evil is a 1958 American crime thriller film, written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles. The screenplay was loosely based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson...
was awarded the top prize by then-critics Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
and François Truffaut
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut was an influential film critic and filmmaker and one of the founders of the French New Wave. In a film career lasting over a quarter of a century, he remains an icon of the French film industry. He was also a screenwriter, producer, and actor working on over twenty-five...
, despite Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
' domestic dumping as a B-picture.
Austrian
The Austrian pavilion was designed by Karl Schwanzer in modernist styleModern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
. It was later transfered to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
to host the museum of the 20th century. In 2011 it was reopened under the new name 21er Haus
21er Haus
The 21er Haus or Einundzwanziger Haus is a modernist style steel and glass building designed by Austrian architect Karl Schwanzer...
.
British
This was produced by the designer James GardnerJames Gardner
James or Jim Gardner is the name of:* James Gardner , musician and composer* James Gardner , American journalist and news anchor* James A...
, architect Howard Lobb & engineer Felix Samuely
Felix Samuely
Felix James Samuely was a Structural engineer.Born in Vienna, he immigrated to Britain in 1933. Worked with Erich Mendelsohn on the De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea , the British Pavilion for the Brussels World’s Fair and on various parts of the Festival of Britain. Published MARS plan for...
. The on-site British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
architect was Michael Blower
Michael Blower
Michael Blower AAdipl FRIBA FRSA is a notable British architect, activist for the preservation and restoration of England’s cultural heritage and accomplished watercolourist and recorder of England’s townscapes...
, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
born and bilingual.
Czechoslovak
The exposition "One Day in Czechoslovakia" was designed by Jindřich Santar who cooperated with artists Jiří TrnkaJirí Trnka
Jiří Trnka was a Czech puppet maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director. In addition to his extensive career as an illustrator, especially of children's books, he is best known for his work in animation with puppets, which began in 1946...
, Antonín Kybal, Stanislav Libenský
Stanislav Libenský
Stanislav Libenský and Jaroslava Brychtová are contemporary artists. Their works are included in many major modern art collections, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum....
and Jan Kotík
Jan Kotík
Jan Jakub Kotík was a Czech artist and rock drummer.- Life :Jan Jakub was the son of composer Petr Kotík and curator of contemporary art Charlotta Kotík, who emigrated to the USA in 1970. Jan was a musician and visual artist...
. 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
František Kahuda
Prof. RNDr. et PaedDr. František Kahuda was a Czechoslovak physicist and educator. Between 1954 and 1963 he worked as a Minister of Education, and in 1967-1985 he was one of the major promoters of psychotronics, within which he founded his own school, called psychoenergetics.His scientific career...
. He supported the famous Laterna Magika
Laterna Magika
Laterna Magika is a Non-Verbal theatre located in Prague. Its origins are connected with the Expo '58 in Brussels. The plays are internationally comprehensible since they are silent. The performances are a combination of dance, film and black theatre...
show, as well as Josef Svoboda
Josef Svoboda
Josef Svoboda was a Czech artist and scenic designer.Svoboda was born in Čáslav, Czechoslovakia . He began his training as an architect at the Central School of Housing in Prague. At the end of World War II he became interested in theatre and design...
's technically unique polyecran. The Czechoslovak pavilion was visited by 6 million people and was officially awarded the best pavilion of the Expo 58.
Mexican
This was designed by the architect Pedro Ramírez VázquezPedro Ramírez Vázquez
Pedro Ramírez Vázquez is a late twentieth century Mexican architect. He was born in Mexico City. He was persuaded to study architecture by writer and poet Carlos Pellicer....
. 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 (1897)Brussels International (1897)The Brussels International Exposition of 1897 was a World's Fair held in Brussels, Belgium, from May 10, 1897 through November 8, 1897...
- Brussels International (1910)Brussels International 1910Exposition Universelle et Internationale was a world's fair held in Brussels in 1910 from April 23 to November 1. This was just thirteen years after the previous Brussels world's fair....
- Brussels International Exposition (1935)Brussels International Exposition (1935)The Brussels International Exposition of 1935 was held in Heysel Park, Brussels, Belgium from April 27 through November 6, 1935....
External links
- Brussels World's Fair approaches completion, a March 17, 1958 UniversalUniversal NewsreelUniversal Newsreel was a series of 7- to 10-minute newsreels that were released twice a week between 1929 and 1967 by Universal Studios. A Universal publicity official, Sam B. Jacobson, was involved in originating and producing the newsreels...
newsreelNewsreelA newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
clip from the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. 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
- Vacation Photos of Expo 58