excerpt
Art Exposed to the Exhibited Worlds
Franck Gautherot
(excerpt, p. 65-68)
Of the first “World's” Fair held in London in 1851 (the Great Exhibition), what
remains in the collective memory is its packaging, its container: the Crystal
Palace.
Drawn up by Joseph Paxton, landscape architect and head gardener to the
Duke of Devonshire, inventor of greenhouses with metallic frameworks, the
Crystal Palace was the attraction of the exhibition.
It knew both success and relocation only to go up in smoke in 1936.
This
appears to be the usual fate of these temporary constructions commissioned
for such international manifestations – e. g.
the New-York replica of 1853-58,
which burnt in 25 minutes, or again the Glaspalast of Munich (1853) which
went up in smoke in 1931…
The Paris Convention signed on 22 November 1928 between thirty one
countries set out the rules and regulations governing World's fairs: the
International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) guarantees their implementation.
They can be divided into first category exhibitions and those of second
category, described today as universal and taking place at least every five
years, or specialized, organized in-between two universal exhibitions.
83 of these events have already taken place in Europe, in North America, in
Oceania, but never for the time being in Africa.
Other than speaking of aesthetic, spectacular and commercial glorification
and triumphal industrialization, what does this road opening up tell us : this
is the program the exhibitions boast of – the industrious talent of man (white,
male!) before proudly turning colonial.
Indeed, ever since the Paris exhibition of 1855, 25 states and their colonies
have participated, however the 1867 edition, again located in Paris gave the
lion's share to the colonies of the French Empire: Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria
exhibited in the central pavilion.
The machines, the colonies, the splendor displayed, the shared exoticism
drew in the crowds.
A quick look at attendance figures shows a constant progression since the
Great Exhibition of London, which had brought 6 million intrigued visitors to
pay the admission fee.
The different editions in Paris show figures that would make contemporary
accountants go crazy for admissions to similar manifestations:
1855: 5,1 million (paying entries); 1867: 11 million; 1878: 16 million; 1889:
32, 3 million, the apotheosis of the 1900 exhibition with its 50.8 million visitors
marks the absolute climax.
One can observe that the results registered for New York (1853) -1,1 million,
simply represent the transmission of this same quest of the spectacular in
the New World.
One had to wait till 1964 for the Parisian record of 1900 and its 50 millions
visitors to fall, with the New York edition which registered around 51 million
paid entries.
Expo'70 in Osaka made 64 million, holding the world record for the XXth
century.
In 2010 Shanghai announced 73 million: probably a record which will last,
as the race for such an attendance can only happen in a country undergoing
an aggressive, authoritarian economic boom.
Art enters the stage side by side with industry
The industrious man has his double in the creative one, serving art on the
thousand universal exhibition stages.
Since 1855, the arts have been on the menu of universal celebrations,
following selected procedures that bring to mind the annual Salons with their
stream of the refused, the censored…
Although London outstripped Paris for the staging of the first World's Fair,
France in 1855 was the first nation to supply a large international
contemporary art exhibition, painting, engraving, lithography, sculpture,
medals and architecture.
In the organization committee we find the names
of Delacroix, Ingres and Prosper Mérimée.
28 nations, 4979 works of art and 2176 artists, of which 1072 French and an
exhibition attracting 1 million visitors.
Courbet, present with 11 works, had his Atelier banned from the exhibition.
He then decided to construct a wood and brick structure Le pavillon du
réalisme where the Atelier du peintre, l'Enterrement à Ornans and around
forty other works were proudly shown.
The off was invented.
(...)
