Exhibiting European integration at Expo 58 : the European Coal and Steel Community Pavilion

Abstract

In 1958, the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) participated in the first post-war world fair in Brussels. Expo 58 presented a unique opportunity to showcase the Community’s achievements and intentions, to recommend the European integration project to Europeans from the six Member States, and to consolidate the ECSC as a third-way model between the two Cold War superpowers. This chapter outlines the rationale for the ECSC officials to participate in Expo 58 and reconstructs the process of the pavilion’s preparation. The chapter shows how a European narrative was conveyed at Expo 58 through the ECSC pavilion’s architecture, its interior design, the exhibited artefacts, the displays, texts and brochures, and the movies that were shown there. The chapter traces the connections with the awakening European consciousness of the 1950s and highlights, at the same time, the special nature of the participation of an international organization in world fairs, a medium strongly marked by nationalist manifestations.