Magazine

Expo for Children

Design a mascot that will represent the Czech Republic at the 2005 World Exposition! This competition was announced by the Dreyer Agency together with the magazine ABC in May 2004. ABC published the rules, which were also sent directly to all primary schools, art schools and eight-year gymnasiums in the country. All children between the ages of seven and fifteen were eligible to enter the contest via ABC or their schools.

A total of 940 children entered this contest to design the Czech Republic's mascot for Expo 2005 by the deadline at the end of May. Forty-two finalists (three from each of the Czech Republic's 14 regions) were selected and invited to the Toskánský Palace at Prague Castle for the announcement of the winner.

The designs of the 42 finalists were full of fantasy and originality. They came in a whole range of artistic genres ranging from crayon and pencil drawings to collages, statues and stuffed animals. Each of the contestants imagined the mascot in a unique way - some saw it as a ladybug, others as the Golem, a forest man or a hare in the national colors. The jury was greatly impressed and pleased by all the submissions. The overall level of the competition was quite high thanks to the great interest of children from primary schools and eight-year gymnasiums.

The victorious mascot was Honzík the Snail, designed by eight-year-old Sára Soukupová from the western Bohemian city of Plzeň. Sára entered the contest through the primary school located on Prague's Letohradská Street, where she goes for exams. Otherwise, she is home-schooled by her mother. As Sára explains, Honzík the Snail is on a skateboard so that he can be the first to get to Expo.

With her victory, Sára won 10,000 crowns for her school, a crystal trophy for herself, a number of other prizes and a trip to Expo 2005 in the Japanese prefecture of Aichi, which she will make with her father.

Sára made Honzík the Snail out of paper, but that was just the beginning of his life. Sára's idea was given to a team of professionals who produced the final version. He will soon be seen in television advertisements and on posters for the exposition. His final home will of course be the Czech Pavilion at Expo 2005.

The Birth of Expo

World Expositions developed slowly out of national expositions held by various European countries in the min-nineteenth century. The main concept behind them - states competing against one another without weapons - was only developed after the Second World War in Belgium.

But because of the complicated global political situation, a world exposition based on this idea was only held in 1958. It was held in Brussels, Belgium and was officially known as the "Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles," but unofficially as Expo '58. This expo's main theme was: "A world view - A new humanism."

Miroslava Volfová

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