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Magazine
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Quarterly Magazine on the Czech Section - Expo 2005 Aichi, No.7 January 2005EditorialDear Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen, Together with the seventh issue of our quarterly magazine, we have entered the year 2005 when the gates of Expo 2005 in the Japanese prefecture of Aichi will open; this will mark thirty-five years since the Czech Republic last participated in a world's fair held in Japan. As we have emphasized a number of times already, our main goal is not only to follow on in the footsteps of our earlier successes, but to further enhance the good name of the Czech Republic among the Japanese public. moreNewsNew Address The Office of the General Commissioner for Czech Participation in Expo 2005 has moved. As of December, our new address is Skokanská 3, 169 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic; telephone: +420 222 466 605, fax: +420 222 466 409 moreNature's Wisdom: Garden of Fantasy and MusicIn developing the plans for the exposition in the Czech Pavilion, its creators based their ideas on the main theme of Expo 2005 in Aichi, "Nature's Wisdom," and the sub-theme "The Art of Life." As the members of the creative team themselves note: "To be quite honest, it's a really broad theme and almost anything could be included within it. But we do associate certain values with the wisdom of nature and the art of living: nature, purity, constant change, transience and ephemerality, harmony, the cycle of life and an awareness of death, humility. We're confident that with a sense for poetry we'll do well in Japan." moreThe Czech Regions - South Moravia, The Region of Zlín, The Moravian - Silesian regionThe Region of South Moravia is located in the sunny, southeastern part of the country along the borders with Austria and Slovakia. Its capital is Brno, the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the trade fair center of Central Europe and the home of many important institutions including a number of diplomatic missions. The region is an important economic area, with is fruit orchards, vineyards and wine production maintaining high European standards. More than 96% of all the vineyards in the Czech Republic are concentrated in South Moravia. Numerous firms involved in the processing of grapes and wine production are also located here. Traditional rural folklore makes up a valuable and interesting part of the region's cultural heritage. Folklore includes music, dance, dialects, folk costumes, arts and crafts and trades. moreA History of World Expositions - Part VII Hanover 2000The idea of holding a world exposition in the capital city of Lower Saxony was first proposed "at the bottom" - by the board of directors of Deutsche Messe. It reached the state government level supported by the city of Hanover and despite a lack of support by other major German trade fair cities (Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Munich and Düsseldorf) it finally broke through at the federal level in Bonn in early 1988. Information about the submission of an application to the International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) was made public at the opening of the CeBIT Trade Fair in March 1988. The original plan was to hold the expo in 1998 (the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany). But in 1989, the BIE decided that world expositions would be held on a five-year cycle, with the beginning of this new system set for the year 2000. Toronto, Canada and Venice, Italy had also applied to hold a world exposition in this most magical of years marking the end of the old and beginning of the new millennia. moreCzechoslovaks at World Expositions - Part VII Expo '58 in BrusselsOn October 26, 1955, the government decided that the Czech- oslovak Republic would take part in the Exposition Universelle et International de Bruxelles, to be held in Belgium in 1958. Our republic was awarded an exhibition plot of 12,500 m2 near the Porte des Nations. In the summer of 1956, closed competitions were held to choose a program and to choose an architectural design for the pavilion and the entire exhibition. Eight teams of architects and individuals were invited to participate in the competition: František Cubr-Josef Hrubý-Zdeněk Pokorný, Š. Svetko-E. Vician-S. Ďurkovič, Vojtěch Vilhan-Ferdinand Milučký, G. Paul, Bohuslav Fuchs, František Maria Černý, Jaroslav Fragner and, finally, J. Hipman. The winning proposal was the work of the trio Cubr, Hrubý and Pokorný from the State Planning Institute in Prague. The pavilion in the shape of the letter "L" consisted of three cubes with opaque exterior walls (suspended concrete panels covered in mosaics of beige-colored glass) at both ends and in the middle; these were linked by glass-enclosed galleries. The laminated plastic roof was light in weight and allowed sunlight to enter the pavilion. A two-story semi-circular restaurant was located in the courtyard. The area between it and the pavilion was used for an exhibition of spas. The program was developed by Jindřich Santar with contributions from J. Jasanský, J. Novotný and Alexej Pludek. In their proposal they emphasized the goal of showing "one day in Czechoslovakia by looking at work, relaxation and culture." moreThe Czech Exposition has its Premiere in PragueThe firm Film Dekor has been preparing the exhibits that will represent the Czech Republic at Expo 2005 since this past October in a hall belonging to the Prague company Kolbenka. Up to thirty people have been working a full sixteen hours a day making precise laminated molds, polishing, painting and finally assembling the individual elements of the Garden of Fantasy and Music. Some of the smaller items are made by their creators elsewhere and are brought into the studios to be tested. These tests ran from December 15 to January 15. Much has already been written about what the exhibition as a whole will look like, so let's take a look at how the individual items were made and what unseen inventiveness and hard work went into their creation. moreAn Interview with Vladimír DarjaninMr. General Commissioner, we are at the beginning of the year 2005 and the moment is fast approaching when the gates of Expo 2005 in Aichi will open. How would you summarize the state of preparations thus far? In terms of preparations, the past year has been a critical one. We signed contracts for the design, program and construction of our exposition and in September we began the actual building. A successful media campaign was launched in the autumn, which is enabling us to gradually build up something that has been missing here for many years: a strong "brand" association with Expo. Cooperation with various governmental institutions is also continuing quite successfully: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs led by Foreign Minister Svoboda, whose support we highly value, the Ministries of Culture and the Environment, and the government agencies CzechTourism, CzechTrade and CzechInvest. At the same time, we have established exceptionally close relations with the Japanese Embassy [in Prague] and the Ambassador of Japan, Mr. [Koichi] Takahashi, with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Japan and our ambassador, Mr. [Karel] Žebrakovský, and with representatives of the Japan Association for the 2005 World Exposition, led by the Commissioner General of the entire exposition Mr. [Taizo] Watanabe. I can confidently state that we have managed to meet all the goals we set out at the beginning, something that makes me quite happy. moreA Thousand-year TraditionAlthough the Czech Republic is not the largest of countries, it can boast a musical tradition that is more than a thousand years old. Musicians from Bohemia have strongly influenced the development of the European musical arts on at least two separate occasions, which can be considered a great success given the high level of international competition. It is not possible here to present the history of Czech music in detail, so what follows is a brief survey of the most important works and the most successful periods in this history. moreHow a Commercial was MadeA television commercial promoting the Czech Republic's participation in Expo 2005 in Aichi has been running on both of Czech Television's channels since the beginning of November. The release of this commercial represents the culmination of this advertising campaign our country. The campaign was developed by the Publicis Advertising Agency in cooperation with the Office of the General Commissioner. The selection of a firm to create the ideas for this campaign was not the subject of a public tender. What was important for the selection of Publicis was their successful work on similar projects in the past, including a very well received integrated advertising campaign for the exhibition "Ten Centuries of Architecture" that was held at Prague Castle. Publicis was also able to offer advertising and communications support in Japan itself because of its two strong partners there. One is their sister office, Publicis Japan and the other is Dentsu, the most successful communications group on the Asian market, with whom Publicis has an exclusive partnership. moreA Star That Still ShinesThe Czech gymnast Věra Čáslavská is one of those remarkable individuals who may be rightly viewed as a giant in the world of sports. In fact, her fame around the world has spread well beyond the boundaries of sport. She remains an important figure, visited by both domestic and foreign representatives of governments and international organizations. Her name has remained in the memories and thoughts of people long after her last Olympic victory in 1968 - even among those not particularly interested in sports. She has become a sports star of the first category not only because of her gymnastics championships but also because of her personal and moral values. She did not win an Olympic gold medal simply because of her indisputable talent for the sport, but also because she took this raw talent and developed it to the levels of an Olympic champion. moreEngineers, Builders and ArchitectsIt wouldn't occur to very many people that the Czech Republic and Japan have a lot in common in the world of architecture. It is only over the last decade that the work of the architect Jan Letzel (1885-1925) has finally begun to be discussed in our country. Letzel was a student of Jan Kotěra and is best known as the designer of the Industrial Palace in Hiroshima (today known as the A-bomb Dome). The fact that it is Letzel who was the architect behind this monumental building was only made clear in 1969 by Fumiko Fujita. The general public is much less well informed about the activities in Japan of Antonín Raymond (born Antonín Reinman, 1888-1976), who is considered to be the leading proponent Japanese Modernism. Very few Czechs will know the name Bedřich Feuerstein (1892-1936) and almost no one the builder Jan Josef Švagr (1885-1969), who left evidence in Yokahama - evidence, that speaks volumes - of his Czech background in the form of a window wall in a church with the motif of the Baby Jesus of Prague with a view of Prague Castle across Charles Bridge. This article will look at only four of the many Czechs who had a major impact on Japanese architecture in the first half of the twentieth century. moreTrade Fairs Brno to Participate in Expo 2005World expositions are by statute non-commercial in nature. The Japanese prefecture of Aichi was selected to host the first exposition of the new millennium: Expo 2005, which will mark the first of a new generation of world expositions. What is new? In addition to a different scale, the prime focus is on attempting to incorporate the concepts of participation, information, technology and craftsmanship within the framework of one main goal: the interactive integration of visitors into a game in which they will play the main role. moreLet Us PresentGeneral Commissioner's Advisory Board more |
