The bookExpo 58 | Entre utopie et réalité
This book wants to re-immerse the reader into the context of this spectacular event in order to open up a window on the history of Belgium during the Fifties while focussing on the numerous participants of the Expo – nations, private and public enterprises, churches and visitors, among others.
By offering a historical assessment of this fabulous adventure of Expo 58, the book also intends to decipher to which extent this political, economic, social and cultural event, this immense undertaking, is a witness of its times. As the mirror of a changing society, Expo 58 reflects the economic, technologic and urban modernity that announces the prosperity of the Golden Sixties as well as the continuity of traditional social patterns with regards to the relationships between people of different gender, between the colonisers and the colonised, and between different generations. In a subtle or a bluntly obvious manner, Expo 58 also makes people sense that the spirit of the Sixties is indeed already present during this end of decade. One can in fact vaguely perceive the incipiencies of a harsh shift of mentalities that will, a few years later, smash the still vivid certainties and conventions of this Belgium of 1958 that celebrates its glory and the end of the privations caused by the war.
This editorial project initiated by Anne Vandenbulcke and Karel Velle (Brussels City Archives and State Archives in Belgium) constitutes the official catalogue of the exhibition Expo 58. Between Utopia and Reality held from April 17th until October 19th 2008 in the Atomium.
The authors
Written under the direction of Gonzague Pluvinage in collaboration with Arnaud Bozzini, René Brion, Gita Deneckere, Mil De Kooning, Chloé Deligne, Thierry Demey, Rika Devos, Diane Hennebert, Jean Houssiau, Serge Jaumain, Janine Lambotte, Jean-Louis Moreau, Valérie Piette, Thérèse Symons, Nathalie Tousignant and Tom Verschaffel.
| Official catalogue of the exhibition Expo 58. Between Utopia and Reality 208 pages | 21 x 28 cm ISBN French version 978-2-87386-537-5 April 2008 | 29.95 € |
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