Brussels International Exposition (1897)
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The Brussels International Exposition (french: Exposition Internationale de Bruxelles, nl, Wereldtentoonstelling te Brussel) of 1897 was a
world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...
held in
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, Belgium, from 10 May 1897 through 8 November 1897. There were 27 participating countries, and an estimated attendance of 7.8 million people. The main venues of the fair were the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark, as well as a colonial section in the suburb of
Tervuren Tervuren () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636. The total a ...
, showcasing
King Leopold II * german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father = Leopold I of Belgium , mother = Louise of Orléans , birth_date = , birth_place = Brussels, Belgium , death_date = ...
's personal property; the Congo Free State. The two exposition sites were linked by a purpose-built tramway.


Location

The exhibition took place on two different sites comprising 14 sections. The first was located in the Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark in the easternmost part of the City of Brussels and constituted the main grounds of the fair, and the second in the
Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...
suburb of
Tervuren Tervuren () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636. The total a ...
, consisted of a colonial section devoted to the Congo Free State, the personal property of
King Leopold II * german: link=no, Leopold Ludwig Philipp Maria Viktor , house = Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , father = Leopold I of Belgium , mother = Louise of Orléans , birth_date = , birth_place = Brussels, Belgium , death_date = ...
. The two sites were linked by a new tramway line and by the Avenue de Tervueren/Tervurenlaan; an grand alley also laid out for this purpose. File:Postcard of Expo 1897.jpg, Postcard of the Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark section of the 1897 Brussels International Exposition File:Jubelpark 1897.jpg, View of the Cinquantenaire during the 1897 International Exposition


Colonial exhibit

The
Tervuren Tervuren () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636. The total a ...
section was hosted in the . The building was designed by the French architect
Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe (7 February 1834 – 29 October 1895) was a French architect. Biography Born in Paris, he worked on the Great Exhibitions held in the city in 1855 and 1867. As the architect of the Consistory of Paris, in 1867 he began ...
and the classical gardens by the French landscape architect Elie Lainé. In the main hall, known as the Hall of the Great Cultures (french: Salon des Grandes Cultures, link=no), the architect and decorator designed a distinctive wooden Art Nouveau structure to evoke a Congolese forest, using Bilinga wood, an African tree. The exhibition displayed
ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
objects, stuffed animals and Congolese export products (e.g. coffee, cacao and tobacco). In the park, a temporary "
human zoo Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were public displays of people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. These displays sometimes emphasized the sup ...
"—a copy of an African village—was built, in which 60 Congolese people lived for the duration of the exhibition. Seven of them, however, did not survive their forced stay in Belgium. This exhibition's success led to the permanent establishment of the Museum of the Congo (today's
Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa or RMCA ( nl, Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika or KMMA; french: Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale or MRAC; german: Königliches Museum für Zentralafrika or KMZA), also officially known as the AfricaMuse ...
) in 1898. File:Affiche exposition coloniale Tervuren.jpg, Poster for the colonial section of the 1897 International Exposition File:Plan de lexposition coloniale 1897 a Tervuren.jpg, Plan of the colonial section of the 1897 World's Fair in
Tervuren Tervuren () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in Flanders, Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren, Vossem and Moorsel. On January 1, 2006, Tervuren had a total population of 20,636. The total a ...
File:Tervuren 1897 salon des grandes cultures.jpg, Wooden structure by in the Hall of the Great Cultures during the exhibition File:Village congolais - Exposition Tervuren 1897 (album Alphonse Gautier).jpg, The 'Congolese Village'
human zoo Human zoos, also known as ethnological expositions, were public displays of people, usually in a so-called "natural" or "primitive" state. They were most prominent during the 19th and 20th centuries. These displays sometimes emphasized the sup ...
during the exhibition


Art Nouveau

The primary designers of the fair were among the Belgian masters of Art Nouveau architecture at the height of the style:
Henry van de Velde Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium ...
,
Paul Hankar Paul Hankar (11 December 1859 – 17 January 1901) was a Belgian architect and furniture designer, and an innovator in the Art Nouveau style. Career Hankar was born at Frameries, in Hainaut, Belgium, the son of a stonemason. He studied at th ...
,
Gédéon Bordiau Gédéon-Nicolas-Joseph Bordiau (1832–1904) was a Belgian architect, active in the second half of the nineteenth century. His work includes the plans for the Cinquantenaire exhibition parc and buildings, the project for the North-Eastern ...
, and
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (1858–1910) was a Belgian architect and furniture designer. He is credited (along with Paul Hankar, Victor Horta and Henry van de Velde) with creating the Art Nouveau style, coined as a style in Paris by art dealer S ...
.
Henri Privat-Livemont Henri Privat-Livemont (1861–1936) was an artist born in Schaerbeek, Brussels, Belgium. He is best known for his Art Nouveau posters. From 1883 to 1889, he worked and studied in the studios of Lemaire, Lavastre & Duvignaud. He, with Lemair ...
produced posters for the exposition. There seems to be few physical remnants. The small neoclassical pavilion called the
Temple of Human Passions The Temple of Human Passions (french: Pavillon des passions humaines, nl, Tempel van de menselijke driften), also known as the Horta-Lambeaux Pavilion, is a neoclassical pavilion in the form of a Greek temple that was built by Victor Horta in ...
that
Victor Horta Victor Pierre Horta (; Victor, Baron Horta after 1932; 6 January 1861 – 8 September 1947) was a Belgian architect and designer, and one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. His Hôtel Tassel in Brussels, built in 1892–93, is often ...
designed to house a sculptural relief by
Jef Lambeaux Jef Lambeaux or Josef Lambeaux (14 January 18525 June 1908) was a Belgian sculptor. His best known work is '' Temple of Human Passions'', a colossal marble bas-relief. Early life and education Lambeaux was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on 14 January ...
was completed in time for the fair, but its opening was delayed by disputes until 1899.


''Vieux-Bruxelles''

A public favorite at the World's Fair was ''Vieux-Bruxelles'' (also called ''Bruxelles-Kermesse''), a miniature city and theme park evoking Brussels around 1830. Conceived by George Garnir, and designed by Jules Barbier (not to be confused with the Parisian author), Gombeaux and Ghyssels, with dioramas painted by
Albert Dubosq Albert Émile Clément Dubosq (often misspelled 'Duboscq'; 1863–1940) is one of the most prolific Belgian scenographers of the Belle Époque. Between 1890 and 1925 Dubosq decorated 446 theatrical entertainments of virtually every possible kind: ...
, Pierre Devis and Armand Lynen, the section occupied of the Parc du Cinquantenaire. Its construction begun on 19 October 1896 and its inauguration took place on 24 April 1897. Somewhat foreshadowing Main Street at
Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...
, ''Vieux-Bruxelles'' offered visitors nostalgic, smaller-size reproductions of historic buildings. As Charles Vogel put it,
''Bruxelles-Kermesse is the popular city with its numerous distractions, its casual pleasures, its elements of gaiety everywhere renewed.'' … ''The visitor is first struck by a set of various constructions: houses , monumental gates, towers, among which stands majestically that of the '' Chien-Vert '' restaurant. This is our old town with – reduced to a slightly reduced scale – its buildings of yesteryear, some of which still exist have been faithfully copied and give, thanks to the staff, the ''absolute'' illusion of reality. '' … ''The entrance to Brussels-Kermesse is the Porte du Rivage, then come the house of the Count of Egmont, the house of the ''Trois-Têtes'', the Auberge Saint-Laurent, adjoining at the Hôtel Ravenstein,'' – ''the house of the ''Cheval Marin'', the old Butter Market, the Hotel de Nassau, – which, with its superb pear-shaped spire tower, gives asylum to the restaurant estaminet of the ''Green Dog'' already named, – the old gate of Ghent or Flanders, of an astounding ''illusionism''; the fountain of Manneken-Piss'' ic''and that of the Three Pucelles'' … ''Should we talk about the Moulin Saint-Michel, the house of Barques, the door of the old Sainte-Catherine church?''''L’Éventail'', 25 April 1897.


Participating countries

Some 27 countries took part in the exhibition, most of them from Europe. For these countries, the pavilions were, as it were, a showcase of their power, wealth and technical skills. With the exception of Oceania, all continents were represented in the exposition. The participating countries were:


Commemoration

Stamp and Postmark from the Exposition Internationale de Bruxelles (1897).jpg, Postcard from the Exposition Internationale de Bruxelles (1897).jpg,


References


Notes


External links


Official website of the BIE

Brussels International Exposition pdf

BIE description (in French; pdf format)

photos of the Congo display
{{Authority control World's fairs in Brussels Colonial exhibitions Art Nouveau exhibitions 1897 in Belgium 19th century in Brussels Tervuren Festivals established in 1897