Great Exhibitions in the Margins, 1851 – 1938

Research has for a long time focused on world fairs, great exhibitions or expositions universelles in the capitals of Europe and in the large cities of the USA. Their crucial role in communicating ideas about the identities of the exhibiting nations (and their relation to other cultures) and in showcasing contemporary art and design has been examined in detail. In the heyday of these spectacular events, smaller cities and regional centres worldwide, staged their own “great exhibitions” modelled on those held in the national (or imperial) centres. Their goals, although executed on a more modest scale, were often the same and involved the promotion and sale of goods but also communication of ideas, ideologies and identities. These smaller shows usually had large ambitions and tried to engage not only the local population but also national and international audiences and exhibitors. This symposium turns attention to the exhibitions of arts and industries in the regions outside the capitals and to the ideas that lay behind them.

Programme

26 April 2012

9.30-10.00 Registration

10.00 Opening

10.05-10.15 Welcome from Dr. Bryony Conway, Dean of School of Art and Design

10.15-11.15 Keynote speech: Prof. John R. Davis, Kingston University, Exhibitions and the Nation-State: the All-German Exhibition at Berlin, 1844

11.15-11.30 Coffee break

11.30-13.00 Session 1: The colonial experience

Rebecca Rice, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand: A ‘Ramble’ through art at the 1865 New Zealand Exhibition

Giovanni Arena, The Second University of Naples, Italy: A fair for an empire. Politics of imagery in the colonial exhibitions of the 20th century organized by the Italian government

Laurence Gourievdis, Blaise Pascal University, France: An Clachan, the Gaelic village at Glasgow’s 1911 Scottish Exhibition of National History, Art and Industry

13.00-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.30 Session 2 Constructing spaces, constructing places

Taina Syrjämaa, University of Turku, Finland: Interconnected exhibitions: constructing and experiencing the condensed world in Helsinki in 1876

Jeffer Daykin, Portland Community College, USA: International ambitions of exhibitions at the margins: The relationship of the Osaka (1903) and Portland (1905) expositions

Anne Neale, University of Tasmania, Australia: International exhibitions and urban aspirations: Launceston, Tasmania in the 19th century

15.30-15.45 Coffee break

15.45-17.15 Session 3 The state and the nation I.

Livia Lazzaro Rezende, College of Industrial Design of Rio de Janeiro: The artifice of nature and the naturalisation of the state at the 1922. The Rio International Exhibition

Denise Gonyo, University of Brighton: The development of the modern nation at the Indian National Congress Exhibitions, 1901-1906

Miklós Székely, Ludwig Museum – Museum of Contemporary Art, Hungary: A capital on the margins, the case of Budapest between 1867-1917

27 April 2012

9.30-10.00 Registration

10.00-11.30 Session 4 The state and the nation II.

Samuel D. Albert: The nation for itself: The Budapest 1896 Millennial Exhibition and the Bucharest 1906 National General Exhibition

Tomáš Okurka, Unviersity of J. E. Purkyn, Czech Republic: In search of a centre. Exhibitions in the German-speaking areas of Bohemia before the First World War

Sezgi Durgun, Marmara University, Turkey: From the “Culture Park” to the “International Expo”: The Izmir Fair

11.30-11.45 Coffee break

11.45-13.15 Session 5 Cities with great ambitions I.

Marta Filipová, University of Wolverhampton: Displaying the Black Country. Wolverhampton’s great exhibitions of 1869 and 1902

Marina Muñoz, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain: The 1888 Barcelona’s World Exhibition: an atypical case of a great exhibition

Wilson Smith, University of Edinburgh: Old London, Old Edinburgh: constructing historic cities

13.15-14.15 Lunch

14.15-15.30 Session 6 Cities with great ambitions II.

Claire O’Mahony, University of Oxford: Frontiers, friends and foes: The International Exhibition of Eastern France 1909

Davy Delepchin, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium: The Ghent World’s Fair (1913): Reconciling historicism and modernity with exoticism

15.30-16.00 Closing remarks

For booking information and directions, please visit greatexhibitions.blogspot.com or contact Marta Filipová at Marta.Filipovawlv.ac.uk.