Expo 64

Expo 64 logo

Expo site Lausanne-Ouchy

The " exposition nationale suisse de 1964 ", known as Expo 64 , was the Swiss national exhibition from 1964, which took place from April 30 to October 25, 1964 in Lausanne . According to the guidelines of the Bureau International des Expositions, it was considered a “national” exhibition. It offered a forum for modern architecture , art and technology and attempted to present Switzerland and its peculiarities in a global context.

Goal of the exhibition

The national exhibition wanted to present Switzerland as it really is. The general part with the Swiss Path sector should serve this purpose. What should be shown here is what defines the essence of the country and its rich structure, as well as its eventful history and its idiosyncratic inhabitants. In view of the rapid development in the world, the individual and the community should be able to use the exhibition to reflect on what we are and want to be, where we are and where we want to go.

The charter of the state exhibition embedded in the floor of the square of the cantons and communes read:

“To be a mirror of home on land and at sea. Merge the twenty-five stands in the joint plant. Reminding people of the meaning of their existence. Revealing the outline of the future in today. Pointing the way to the new Europe. Working for a solidary world. Give Switzerland a new incentive to recognize and create. "

Sectors

Path of Switzerland - municipal flags

The Swiss Path formed the backbone of the exhibition and at the same time a synthesis of what was discussed in detail in all other sectors:

The Swiss Path consisted of the six sub-sections Nature and People , Freedoms and Rights , a Small State and the World , a Day in Switzerland , Switzerland in the Mirror and Tasks for Tomorrow . At the end of Switzerland's path, all of Switzerland's municipal flags fluttered on the square of the cantons and municipalities.
"L'art de vivre"
traffic
Industry and commerce
"Les échanges" by Florian Vischer
"Terre et forêt"
"Le port"
Well-fortified Switzerland

Attractions

Mésoscaphe

Among the main attractions included forward-looking transportation such as the monorail "Monorail", the model railway "Le P'tit Train", the rotating platform "télécanapé" by Willy Habegger and that of Jacques Piccard designed tourist submarine " Mésoscaphe " Auguste Piccard (PX 8) , which is now in the Swiss Museum of Transport .

Alongside the Swiss Path , the observation towers and works of art such as the symphony “Les échanges”, a composition for 156 machines by Rolf Liebermann , the 101-meter-high “ Spiral ” tower and the sculpture “ Heureka ” today by the Zürichhorn , by Jean Tinguely much visited.

Gulliver asked if you could be a good Swiss if you didn't get up at 9 o'clock.

600,000 people answered questions from "foreigner" Gulliver about their "being Swiss". Thanks to the use of an IBM computer, the questionnaire was immediately evaluated and provided the participants with information on where their answers compared with their fellow citizens. An overall evaluation was not wanted by the bourgeois politicians and was forbidden by the state government , although the questionnaire had to be revised no less than thirteen times at the behest of the government. All data should be destroyed, only a preliminary evaluation of the first 134,000 questionnaires survived.

The Federal Costume Festival 1964 took place on August 29th and 30th at Expo 64 .

Preserved works

In Lausanne , the “Le P'tit Train”, the Théâtre de Vidy and a small elevation (“Pyramid”), all in Vidy , as well as the “Pyramiden” in Dorigny near the lake, as well as the concrete dome in the Vallée de la Jeunesse, have been preserved on the lakeshore . In Kloten Airport there is a bell by the chapel (prayer room) with the inscription Expo 1964 Lausanne, H. Rüetschi Aarau, “Ut omnes sint unum” . In Oberkirch LU , the Sursee scout home was built from structural parts of the Swiss Path. In Flüelen there is the "Rütli oath", the eleven meter high iron sculpture "Oath hands" by Werner Witschi.