The exhibition about Expo 58 is accompanied by a catalog

Prague - A team of twelve authors has compiled a extensive catalog that accompanies the exhibition about Czechoslovak participation at the Expo 58 in Brussels. The book, which consists of four hundred pages with six hundred reproductions, and is considered by the publisher to be an important guide to the cultural history of the early 1960s, was presented to journalists today by the authors.
The exhibition "Brussels Dream" has been held since mid-May in the premises of the Gallery of the Capital City of Prague in the City Library building in Prague. It has already been seen by 12,000 people. The exhibition will last in the capital until September 21, after which it will move to the Moravian Gallery in Brno, where it will be available from November 21 to March 1, 2009.
Among the authors of the catalog are leading art historians and experts in contemporary architecture and design. The publication presents the exhibition itself at Expo 58 in Brussels, as well as the subsequent stylistic wave known in the Czechoslovak context as "brussel" or "brussels style". The book was published by Arbor vitae and costs 1,490 crowns.
The publication is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the broader context of Expo 58, outlining the situation in Europe and Czechoslovakia in the second half of the 1950s, the political climate, and the reality of everyday life. It generally presents the architecture at the Brussels Expo as well as the architectural design of the Czechoslovak pavilion. Subsequent sections describe the specifics of individual exhibits in the pavilion - textiles, glass, porcelain, and ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, and multimedia programs.
The second part of the publication focuses on the lifestyle of the early 1960s. It recalls general aspects that contributed to its transformation - the development of media, women's work emancipation, reduction of working hours, mass proliferation of household appliances, broader institutionalization of child care, and the associated leisure time activities.
The specialized articles in the second part focus on individual branches of applied arts and the impact of the success of the Czechoslovak exhibition at the Brussels Expo in practice. They present the program of official state support that the consumer industry received at the end of the 1950s. An important theme is the relationship between large-scale production and more flexible cooperative and communal production and innovative manufacturing programs.