Bowerbird is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization that shares music, dance, film, and related art forms with audiences across the region. In partnership with Nightletter, Bowerbird will host a film screening on the 1958 Brussels Exposition at the University Lutheran Church in Philadelphia, PA.

Held in the spring and summer of 1958, the Brussels Exposition was the apogee of World’s Fairs. With its slogan “evaluation of the world for a more humane world” celebrating a new postwar optimism about technology and progress. The Brussels fair served as the premiere of some of the most important and radical artistic works of the second half of the 20th century, previewing currents that continue to this day.

The Le Corbusier designed Phillips Pavilion was a masterpiece of modernist architecture where new works in the emerging idioms of electronic music and musique concrète by Edgard Varèse and Iannis Xenakis were first presented. Brussels was also the first major meeting place of the international film community following the second World War where not only did critics and filmmakers from dozens of countries vote on a list of the greatest films of all time, but more than 100 novel experimental works from around the world were presented as a radical change in this young art form. “Expo ‘58: A More Humane Art” will survey the breadth of this incredible exposition drawing from all of these currents and celebrating the Brussels festival as the debutante ball of numerous cinematic forms.

Wednesday December 7, 7:00pm
University Lutheran
Philadelphia, PA
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