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Copyright: Le Memorial officiel de l'Exposition universelle et internationale de Bruxelles 1958-1962, Bd. 4, S.

Karl Pawek: Architecture as a balancing act

"Is the architecture at the EXPO really "architecture"? Is it not rather acrobatics and equilibriumism? It is of course also a circus number - it is part of the being of the exposition that it creates its own building style. Despite this the EXPO demonstrates architectural solutions which appear useful for the future and which allow a certain balance to be drawn of free architectural invention. The main feature of the pavilions and halls is their "airy spirit". They appear to float, they appear weightless, dematerialised, they are suspended, they do not generate loads, they are borne by a single point; they balance. In an age of jet aeroplanes and space rockets they create the illusion: up and away from the earth!"

Between shock and souvenir

The nations have agreed to show a smiling face at Brussels, to hide the atomic bomb and to act as if they had never heard of the word "armament". From the entire global industry of death only the Russians have exhibited a few old hunting rifles with which one could perhaps shoot down some birds. It appears as if EXPO 58 were invented by psychoanalysts in order to take away people's fear of the "atom". Brussels will go down in the history of mankind with the recollection that it was there that "fun with the atom" began. However, people still have their associations. They know why Sputniks were shot into space. (...) They do not live in pure science. The background remains apocalyptic even in Brussels.

Source: Magnum, June 1958, number 18, pages 20, 36.


- Werner Hofmann: Architecture as a substitute for reality

"What the panoramas and dioramas present the eye using the possibilities of an illusionists circular picture, that is what the exposition city attempts with much more drastic means: it builds distant worlds, exotic landscapes, aquarium and cult buildings, fortresses and palaces before the eyes of an amazed audience; it gives its illusions the character of palpable, three dimensional reality. (...) Regardless of this "clarity" one should not overestimate the connection these world expositions have to reality; what they erect with theatrical gesturing is an architecture of emblems and showy façades, which claim to be a substitute for profane reality. Every world exposition recalls the Tower of Babel and an announcement of the new Jerusalem. What they offer the eye are documented dreams, which are not based on the floor of hard facts but which give the fictive the justification of the actual. (...) EXPO 58 is also dedicated to the dogma of human happiness, postulating in a test-tube world from which one can return to reality without regret."

Source: Werner Hofmann, Emblematische Architektur der Weltausstellungen. In: Das Werk, Jg. 45, 1958, H. 10, S.351.


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The Brussels World Exposition 1958
 
Year: 1958City: BrusselsCountry: Belgium
Duration: 17th April - 19 October 1958

 

 

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