EXPO and the CR

Seville 1992

Preparations for Expo '92 were started by the State Committee for the Management of Exhibitions in what was then still socialist Czechoslovakia. Organisers reserved a plot of land measuring 60 by 40 metres on Palm Avenue, approximately in the centre of the exposition grounds, between the Swiss pavilion and the Palenque amusement pavilion.

The winner of the national public anonymous tender for the best libretto was one submitted by Jindřich Santar. In August 1989, a project of the basic architectural design of the pavilion by Jan Kozel, Karel Koutský and his wife Vladimíra Leníčková won a first prize and was selected. After the fall of the totalitarian regime, the Committee was dissolved and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was charged with preparations for the exhibition. In early 1990, the architectural community had demanded for the original projects to be cancelled. General Commissioner J. Honzal was fired and substituted by Miroslav Galuška.

In late March 1990, another public anonymous tender for overall solution of Czech participation was announced. On June 14, 1990, a project by architects Martin Němec and Ján Štempel and the philosopher Petr Rezek was selected. Their design resembled the pavilion designed by Jaromír Krejcar for World Expo in Paris in 1937. The most problematic part of the design was the script by Petr Rezek, based on an idea that several hundred names of the most prominent Czechs and Slovaks since the times of Columbus would appear on the interior walls. Their names would gradually be covered over by names of newborns which would have been gradually faxed from Czech and Slovak maternity hospitals. Fortunately, General Commissioner Galuška became aware of the improper character of such a presentation and commissioned the sculptor Vratislav Karel Novák to draw up a new scenario. Novák put together a group of glass designers led by Jaroslav Matouš, Vladimír Kopecký, and Marián Karel. The work of this team resulted in an approximately ten-minute show, nicknamed The Glass Křižík Fountain. Jiří Černý, the main technician, let moving glass artefacts be installed in the pavilion, which, together with light effects, aromas and thermal perceptions and the background music by Michal Pavlíček, artistically composed the course of one day.

Also the design of the pavilion was substantially changed. In the end it turned out to be a simple prism, the peripheral walls of which were covered by an oak timber grillage, covered in turn by a blue-coloured wire mesh. The resulting shape received a number of epithets, only a few of which were flattering (crematorium, glaziery storage, or a coffin). The interior layout of the pavilion was very simple. It was dominated by an elevated platform, surrounded by railing; visitors user escalators to get up and down the platform. Glued glass plates by Vladimír Kopecký were exhibited at the platform. There was much interest in the sculpture after the exhibition was over, but all attempts to remove it from the concrete floor were unsuccessful. Those unfamiliar with the situation were also surprised by the fast sale of our pavilion, which was especially long due to tough negotiations between its manager, Zdeněk Koudelka, and the AYESA company, led by architect José Louis Manzanares. The towns of Saragossa and Granada and the Art Faculty of the University of Seville showed interest in the internal exhibition.

The Day of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic was held on May 20. The Prague Tribute to the Seville project, organized by Mrs. Hana Havlová, within the framework of which a copy of the Holy Infant of Prague was made and on May 23, 1992 presented to Carlos Amigo Vallejo, Archbishop of Seville, for the de la Macarena basilica. The Praha restaurant ranked second in the official rating of the best national restaurants at the grounds, following the winning French pavilion restaurant. Both the press and visitors from the Czech Republic were very critical of the last common presentation by Czechs and Slovaks at the world exhibition; however, the majority of foreign visitors rated both our exposition and pavilion mostly positively.

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