EXPO and the CR

Brussels 1935

The General Commisioner of Czechoslovakia's participation at the World Expo in Brussels in 1935 was Dr. Ladislav Turnovský. The pavilion was designed by Antonín Heythum and constructed by the company, Bedřich Sirotek, in 5 weeks. Exhibits were installed over the course of one week. Yet despite the massive effort, it was not possible to open the pavilion on time.

Tours of the pavilion were simplified for visitors by placing exhibits along one side of the pavilion, with their interest escalated by ingenious openings, allowing the visitor to devote their full attention to each exhibit, helped by backlighting display cases with natural light. Belgian architect, J. Hendricks highlighted "the lighting for exhibited items using direct, natural light, the idea of placing exhibits along one side of the gallery only and the use of dividing walls of crystal rods" saying that, "the Czechoslovakian pavilion had enriched exhibition techniques with the most interesting contribution." Orientation for visitors was also simplified by the fact that the exposition led them to the same staircase along which they entered the pavilion.

A Baby ČKD touring plane hung in the spacious entrance hall. Visitors were welcomed by a statue of President T. G. Masaryk by Jan Štursa. The hall was decorated in tricolour - a blue ceiling, white, pleated waxed canvas covering the left wall and red wallpaper on the right. The eye was drawn to the national flag, though small in size, distinct because of its movement. The fluttering flag in an otherwise motionless room was the work of a small ventilator built into the flagpole.

The walls of the entrance hall documented that Czechoslovakia was continuing the tradition of founding universities begun by Charles IV, by opening new universities in Brno and Bratislava.

Before leaving the entrance hall, visitors could see the entire depth of the pavilion through a wall of amethyst blue glass rods and a glass atrium. A narrow passage then led visitors to a concave, 7m wide photographic diorama of the High Tatra Mountain Range, hidden in a half circle of installed glass rods, creating the illusion of a lake with running water on the oval surface. The tour continued along a side track on the ground floor of the building. Here the highlight of the tour awaited- the installation by the Glassworks Institute in Hradec Králové under the leadership of V. Čtyřoký, the institute's director. The play of light and glass was crowned by Prof. J. Brychta's aquarium with its colourful undersea world made of blown Železný Brod glass and the work of Prof. Josef Drahoňovský.

In the automobile section, Aero, Škoda and Tatra exhibited one vehicle each, with the jury prize going to the Kopřivnice automobile factory.
After seeing the porcelain exhibition and the corner promoting tourism, visitors were offered refreshments in the restaurant leased by the Pilsner City Brewery. They then continued through Baťa's exhibition and the agricultural section with a presentation by the Kooperativa head office.
Glass boxes with views into the grassy atrium with its fountain and brook, exhibited examples of our modern interior design and musical instruments. As it had at several previous World Expos, A. Petrof celebrated another triumph with its pianos. The final part of the exposition was devoted to the textile industry.

More than 90 exhibitors took part. The international jury awarded Czechoslovakian exhibitors 26 Grand Prix.

Belgian King Leopold III visited our pavilion in July. Of the overall 19 million visitors to the World Expo, 3.5 million passed through the Czech pavilion. Apart from the national pavilion, we also took part in the international exhibition of modern art.

In the Czechoslovakian section of modern sculpture and painting, we presented a collection of 13 paintings and 6 sculptures. An architectural section was also added to the art exhibition, where we showed examples of the work of forty architects.

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