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.

Background[link]

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.^[2]

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.^[3]

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[link]

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 Centenary Palace in Heysel Park, a centrepiece at the Expo (viewed from the Atomium)

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 pavilions[link]

Austrian[link]

The Austrian pavilion was designed by Karl Schwanzer in modernist style. It was later transferred to Vienna to host the museum of the 20th century. In 2011 it was reopened under the new name 21er Haus.

British[link]

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.^[4]

Czechoslovak[link]

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.^[5]

Mexican[link]

This was designed by the architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. It was awarded the exposition's star of gold.

[edit] Mozart's Requiem incident

Mozart's manuscript with missing corner

The autograph of Mozart's Requiem was placed on display. At some point, someone was able to gain access to the manuscript, tearing off the bottom right-hand corner of the second to last page (folio 99r/45r), containing the words "Quam olim d: C:". As of 2012^[update] the perpetrator has not been identified and the fragment has not been recovered.^[6]

If the most common authorship theory is true, then "Quam olim d: C:" might very well be the last words Mozart wrote before he died. It is probable that whoever stole the fragment believed that to be the case.

See also[link]

Brussels portal

• 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 (1910)
• Brussels International Exposition (1935)

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• The Architecture of Expo 58 by Rika Devos & Mil De Kooning (eds). Dexia/Mercatorfonds, 2006 (ISBN 0-0-0).

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Expo 1958

• 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
• Vacation Photos of Expo 58

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