Expo in Brussels brought interest in new styles and leisure time

Prague - The beginning of interest in lifestyle and the environment, the massive rise of new media not only in fine arts, but especially the expansion of the phenomenon of leisure time was reflected in the groundbreaking world exhibition Expo 58 in Brussels. To mark the 50th anniversary of the event, which for the then Czechoslovakia also represented a certain transition from the tragic 1950s to the more relaxed 1960s, Czech historians prepared an exhibition.
  For the first time, it highlights the mentioned aspects of Expo 58. Starting today, part of it will be presented directly in Brussels for a month, in May the full version will begin in Prague, and it will be repeated in Brno in the fall.
  The form of the Czechoslovak exposition at Expo 58 caused a shock in the world. A country that had not yet recovered from Stalinist oppression presented a multitude of artistic and industrial products and ideas that smoothly connected with the high level of design in Masaryk's Czechoslovakia, says the curator of the exhibition Daniela Kramerová.
  The enormous success of the exhibition, including winning the main prize of the showcase, did not stem from individual products and artworks, but from the ingenious concept of the entire exposition, which also had numerous theatrical elements. The pavilion was also hugely popular among visitors.
  Although a certain design has commonly been referred to as the Brussels style, according to the exhibition's authors, it is purely a Czechoslovak specificity. It cannot be said that the Expo exhibition in Brussels brought something new that did not already exist in the world; the formal roots of this style lie in the international avant-garde, says the director of the Moravian Gallery Brno Marek Pokorný.
  The "Brussels" decorativism is based on asymmetric composition, geometry, and flat colors in contrast with lines and structure. It evokes a sense of lightness, but also spatial restlessness and movement, which were symbols of the era. This was further contributed to by a completely transformed color palette, with characteristic pastel shades of yellow, purple, pea green, sky blue, and dove gray emerging.
  For domestic development, this aesthetic is linked with Brussels by the fact that it reached Czechoslovakia, given the social situation, precisely in connection with the world exhibition in 1958.
  The lightness characteristic of it and which is also the cause of its present-day reminiscences is related to the lifestyle change of that time. Above all, the phenomenon of leisure time emerged. While shortly after World War II it was still a matter only for certain social classes, from the late 1950s it became something generally known and used, says Kramerová.
  A closely related issue that the Czechoslovak exposition also significantly reflected in its magic lantern and polyekran is the emergence of new media and technologies. These separated traditional media of fine arts from its newer expressive means. However, it is primarily the emergence of television that is related to leisure time and the search for ways to spend it.
  A feeling of necessity for a change in lifestyle, a longing for a new, youthful expression, was felt across the world at that time. It was accompanied by enormous interest in modern products of unusual shapes and a tumultuous development of modern chemical materials. The emerging trends in all areas of human life were then named by the Brussels exhibition.
  The elegance and vitality of the models of that time is evidenced not only by the current interest of world designers, some of whom reference the style of the 1950s and 1960s with their products, but also by the fact that today people seek authentic products from that era. These are increasingly appearing in antique shops or auctions, and people are using them in the arrangement of contemporary interiors.
  A completely specific phenomenon is what the authors of the exhibition refer to as "folk Brussels." The wave of DIY culture, closely related to it, has significantly subsided since 1989, yet its known expression includes fences and garden gates welded into typical shapes. These not only persist in their original form, but are also newly emerging in many places.