In 2008 Brussels celebrated the 50th anniversary of the World Exposition ’58 which gave it the amazing atomium just as in 1989 it gave Paris the Eiffel tower. At the time I didn’t walk this earth yet (my parents barely did for that matter) but it definitely left its mark on the city and Belgian culture in general. For one the first color television was introduced at the American Pavilion after which it soon became thé must-have for every culturally developed citizen (has this been reversed by now seeing many artistically minded people in Brussels shun television for its ‘popular’ character?). Also, many Belgians drank Coca-Cola for the first time. And what about the Russians having a duplicate model of the Sputnik III in their pavilion!
The Expo brought a wave of amazing design both in architecture as in the marketing campaign surrounding it. You can easily find tons of pictures of all the pavilions that were built around the atomium especially for this fair. One of the reasons I started looking into this topic is because I’ll be getting married in the church which was built for the exposition. It was later moved just outside of Brussels but still in use and beautiful.
Harder to find are the amazing prints that were produced. Here’s a selection of prints which I think capture great the vibe of innovation and ‘a new era’ people must have experienced in Europe those days.
PS: also, have a look at this great website which digitalized the Viewmaster sets which were made of the Expo.
