March 30th, 2010
Sexpo 67: Paradise Islands? Sexualized space at the International and Universal Exposition in Montreal.
Fig. 1: Marion Phelan at a cocktail party on a Habitat 67 terrace.
ARCH 355 – Architectural History IV Professor Annmarie Adams TA: Olivier Vallerand Thomas Evans - 260138586 Offensive as it may seem: sex sells. It is no surprise then that Expo 67 attracted over fifty million visitors in the span of six months during the summer of 1967. From the edgy graphic design, to the gracious hostesses and the avant-garde pavilions placed strategically on two fantasy islands in the middle of the Fleuve Saint-Laurent, every aspect of Expo was sexy. Commissioner general Pierre Dupuy and Les Durs, the team in charge of designing, building and managing Expo, had created a bombshell for the entire world to observe and covet. In a short period of time, they built a symbol that would forever embody the zeitgeist of the mid- to late-1960s. The optimism and romantic ideals of ‘Man and his World’ were infectious among the slew of young and old who made the pilgrimage to Montreal that summer. The metropolis of the future, as it was coined, was the place to be in order to catch a glimpse of what the planet was to become in the following decades. The world’s fair in 1967 was unlike anything anyone had seen before. It featured a spectacular collection of exciting new technologies, fine art, sculpture, food, avant-garde architecture, fashion trends, and fascinating people from around the world, which resulted in a transnational mosaic composed of sixty-two nations and a sensorial surge experienced by each visitor and employee. Furthermore, the event and its world-class city flourished in the spotlight.
The power of visual culture was felt immediately as images and footage of Expo propagated rapidly around the globe, allowing the fair to be shared by each nation.
That year, the international community was looking-in on Montréal’s libido (or ‘joie-de- vivre’), and taking notes. An enthusiastic international press expressed their amazement and admiration: ‘Expo 67 isn’t just a World Fair: it has glitter, sex appeal, and it’s given impact and meaning to a word that had none: Canada’.1
1 David Anderson & Viviane Gosselin, “Private and public memories of Expo 67: a case study of recollections of Montreal’s World’s Fair, 40 years after the event,” (Vancouver), March 2008. 10.
2 The Expo 67 world’s fair offered teenagers and adults alike an opportunity to experience an unprecedented sense of freedom without any physical barriers. They could, many for the first time, do anything they wanted without anyone watching.
According to Montreal Gazette columnist Peggy Curran, for teenagers and 20- somethings who worked there and spent every waking hour there, it was nirvana.2 This paper will exhibit the significance of space in the constellation of other familiar suspects we usually associate with the sexual liberation movement such as music, drugs, and fashion of the late 1960s. The candid photograph of hostess Marion Phelan at a cocktail party contains several of the salient features that led to the sexualization of Expo 67. (Fig. 1) First, the avant-garde architectural space at Safdie’s Habitat 67 provided a stimulating context for cavorting with guests and colleagues. Second, the rooftop terrace featured breathtaking views of the Expo 67 site, skyline of metropolitan
Montreal, and the Fleuve St-Laurent, where the freedom to smoke cigarettes and consume beverages created a desirable ambience. Finally, from her smile and casual demeanor, we can assume that Marion Phelan is enjoying herself in a comfortable environment and in an upbeat psychological state. Therefore, this image is the perfect representation of how the psychological, architectural, and public spaces were active elements in expressing a heightened sense of sexuality at Expo 67. With people from around the world in Montreal’s backyard and the remainder watching from home, the
International and Universal Exposition and its constituents were the manifestation of a collective sexual fantasy of sorts on an architectural, urban planning, and international scale.
2Peggy Curran, “Expo 67 and the sexual revolution.”
3 Mental space: Embedded sexual behavior as a result of 1960s social phenomena.
The psychological mind-set of the visitors to Expo 67 will be the first form of sexualized space discussed in this paper. A person’s mental state has an enormous effect on their perception of the places they visit and the sights they see. This statement cannot be emphasized enough when discussing the visitor’s psychological state when crossing the gates of Expo and the resulting experience at the world’s fair. Among the well-documented mind-altering matter such as rock ‘n’ roll, fashion, and the self- indulgent drug culture of the 1960s, a combination of other social practices and cultural phenomena also had a direct effect on the subjective perception of the sexually heightened, care-free ambience that Expo exuded.
In order to fully comprehend the zeitgeist of Expo 67, it is vital to understand the era that preceded it and the dramatic shift that occurred in the post-war decades leading up to the late 1960s. During the Duplessis era (1936-1939 & 1944-1959),
Québec was characterized as a traditional and hyper-conservative place, one that rejected the values and lifestyles of contemporary society. Yet, as the planning of Expo
67 got underway, it became apparent that light at the end of the dark tunnel could be seen. This decade marked the coming-of-age of the metropolis of Montreal, but more importantly of the baby-boom generation. This parallel development had powerful consequences for the world’s fair in 1967. For the purpose of this paper, it can be argued that the gates of Expo may have marked the threshold between Québec’s rigid, post-war Catholic psyche and the forward-thinking, can-do mentality that resulted from the planning and realization of the world’s fair in Montreal. According to a study performed by Anderson and Gosselin, “Expo 67 was identified as a catalyst,
4 a key event that helped Quebec to ‘wake up’. Several Francophone participants associated Expo 67 with ‘Quebec’s Quiet Revolution’, a period of rapid social, political and cultural change when the pervasive influence of the Roman Catholic
Church began to decline.”3 For a province that had vehemently opposed any change before the ‘60s, it had finally opened itself to the world and spearheaded a national movement in both Quebec and Canada. It is apparent then, that a major psychological enlightenment occurred during this period and allowed repressed societal ideals to find a way to flourish out of the cracks in the pavement.
A similar phenomenon such as the one described above can be noted at Coney
Island in New York as well as at the Midway Plaisance at the World’s Columbian
Exposition in Chicago. According to Genevieve Petty, Coney Island was a place where people came to experience a release from the social repressions of the Victorian era.
This example demonstrates that “…the tenser any society is, the more essential releases are. The longer the Victorian Age continued, the tighter the elite made their reins, the more Coney Island gained in popularity.”4 People went to this ‘faux-pas’ haven in order to laugh, have fun, interact with strangers without formal introductions, as well as mingle with gamblers and prostitutes who managed to elude the city’s authorities. Even young women cavorted without chaperones. Yet, the most important aspect to note with regards to this paper is that Coney Island represented a facilitator for the uninhibited behaviour exhibited by its patrons. The escape from the rigid norms of conservative, Victorian society provided the platform for overt sexuality, including lewd conduct in semi-public places such as the amusement park rides, and even
3 Anderson and Gosselin, 11. 4Genevieve Petty, “The Significance of Coney Island.”
5 "seeing the elephant," a popular phrase which actually meant a rendez-vous for illicit sex in reference to the Elephant Hotel. Nothing was considered to be taboo at Coney
Island, a quality that resonated well with its clients and provided a release from the stringent late-19th century societal norms. Perhaps the sexuality of Expo 67 was not as explicitly stated as it was at Coney Island, yet it is apparent that the psychological
‘space’ of each visitor may have affected his or her perception of Montreal’s world fair.
It was a place that made people feel good and thus opened them up to new experiences and adventures.
Another concurrent, globalizing milestone that provided the backdrop for the six months of Expo 67 was the Summer of Love social phenomenon, in San Francisco, which propagated sexual liberation and uninhibited acts of freedom throughout North
America. The Summer of Love became a defining moment of the decade, as the hippie counterculture movement gained public awareness and the propagation of sexual freedom spread worldwide. Social reform such as this meant that young people were no longer afraid to fight for what the believed in or speak up with confidence.
According to Curran, all around the world, an astonishing liberation movement was simmering, one which would reshape prevailing opinions about sex, women, blacks, aboriginal peoples, gays, war and the planet itself. In cities across the continent, students began occupying administration buildings and civil rights activists marched to protest against the Vietnam War and question authority.5 This shift in perception meant that most young people visiting or working at Expo had the ideals of this social
5Peggy Curran, “Hazy days of summer ‘67.”
6 reform in the foreground of their psyche. Their experience at the world’s fair must have been further sensualized by the awareness of the concomitant social revolution.
Yet, an emerging, local trend emphasizes the power of this statement even further. The phenomenon of ‘girl watching’ in Montreal was in full bloom by the time
Expo had opened its gates. According to Aurora Wallace, two significant modern forms arrived in 1962: the miniskirt via London designers and the modern skyscraper via I.M. Pei’s Place Ville Marie. At the intersection of these two forms was a phenomenon known as girl watching, a partly tongue-in-cheek leisure activity for men articulated through the popular culture of the day. Girl watching was so organized that it had its own society, theme songs, membership cards, lapel pins, and official handbook. As a result, architecture and the city as a whole conspired to promote the watching of women through their privileging and documentation of the visual.6 Through this activity, a quintessentially 1960s mode of behavior, both men and women situated themselves in physical space: observation in context. In other words, girl watching made the everyday person aware of their place in the city and the architecture that framed their favorite pastime. This trend was further magnified when the site of Expo
67 opened to the public:
The fairgrounds were a Disneyland of unfettered watching, where large crowds, sunglasses, cameras, and indiscriminate gazing provided ideal girl-watching conditions. As a site of tourist consumption, Expo became one of the most photographed spaces of Montreal, a microcosmic city-as-spectacle where vistas and views were comprehensively engineered for the best photo opportunities, and visitors became actors on the stage of the event—ready at any moment to appear on camera. With tourists from all over the world coming to look, girl watching achieved the
6 Aurora Wallace, “The Geography of Girl Watching in Postwar Montreal,” Space and Culture. Sage Publications, 2007. 350.
7 professional status that many of its advocates had been seeking.7
Sexuality was in the air. It was on the mind of all who had a heart beat. Everywhere you looked, sex was represented in one form or another. (Fig. 2) Furthermore, due to the isolated, yet accessible site of the world’s fair, visitors were transported, passport and all, by futuristic and efficient transport to the terra incognita of Ile Ste-Helene and
Ile Notre-Dame. The utopic nature of the islands meant that the rules enforced by the norms of urban society were left behind on the island of Montreal. According to the
Expo 67 Memorial Album:
The metro journey to Île Sainte-Hélène was associated with a mental transition: “As soon as the visitor sets foot on the magic islands, he discovers a whole new world. There and then he accepts a set of values at once quite new and yet basically familiar. In this world, so different from the one he has just left, he escapes the stress of congested, run-down streets, the smell and noise of automobiles, the anonymity and harsh realities of everyday life.8
For the millions of transnational visitors and employees, Expo was an idyllic place relative to anything they had ever known – many leaving home for the first time seeking employment and adventure. The official Expo 67 guidebook refers to the atmosphere at the world’s fair as: “…way out, because you’re in! And when you play the game, the fellow next to you is not a stranger anymore, because he has come a long way to do the same, and to meet you.”9 (Fig. 3) Foreign nationalities, once perceived as exotic and extraordinary, were distorted by context and became tacitly erotic. It is important to state here that Expo, as a result of the context described above, was inherently sexual. Furthermore, the metaphysical space idealized by each visitor
7 Wallace, 357. 8 André Jansson & Amanda Lagerkvist, “The Future Gaze: City Panoramas as Politico-Emotive Geographies,” Journal of Visual Culture. Sage Publications, 2009. 38. 9 Therese Bernard, Expo 67 Guide Book, (Montreal: Maclean-Hunter Publishing, 1967), 247.
8 to Expo 67 was entrenched with sexual imagery and emotion before they had even set foot on the site of the world’s fair itself. Although the psychological state of the visitor plays a major role in the inherent sexual nature of Expo 67, it does not suffice to validate the argument presented in this paper. A platform – or physical space – is required for these urges to manifest themselves in reality.
Fig. 2: Expo 67 cheerleaders. Fig. 3: Expo hostess relaxing.
Architectural space: Concrete, steel and skin.
Broadly speaking, built environments are inherently sexual. They are structures we erect to create sensorialized spaces that we penetrate, experience, and which transport us to outer-body adventures. These spaces are the backdrop to every fantasy imaginable, sexual or not, but they must be understood as active elements in regulating our behaviour and sexuality. According to Gerard Lico: “Architecture transcends the neutrality of geometrically determined and physically defined structure and enclosure to become a site of lived life, where cultural processes, gender
9 transactions, and modus of sexual desire are continually enacted.”10 The built environment – bounding surfaces, enclosures, walls and physical matter - manipulates our corporal existence. Interior spaces can monitor the flow and distribution of people throughout by controlling sensorial variables such as light levels, surface texture, and acoustical properties. Whether these spaces facilitate or deny intimate encounters, it must be understood that our built environment plays a significant role in controlling our basic, animal instincts.
Much has already been said about the incredible architecture at Expo 67 and the effect that the buildings had on the experience at the fair, but one would be remiss not to mention it in the discourse of space and site-induced excitement. Due to the public, and exceedingly visited, nature of the interiors of the pavilions, explicit sexual behaviour within the structures themselves will not be discussed. Rather, the form, content and illusionary qualities of the pavilions will be analyzed and interpreted for the purpose of this paper.
In the context of the 1960s, the architectural expression of Expo 67 was perceived as intrinsically sexualized in contrast with the post-war suburban architecture most visitors were accustomed to. The site was saturated with depictions and realizations of futurity. The forms were innovative and exotic, while experiments with exterior envelopes, chromatics and avant-garde structures generated a slew of characteristically stimulating architecture. Furthermore, exoticism and innovation at
Expo 67 was perceived in context as erotic. According to Wallace:
10 Gerard Lico, “Architecture and Sexuality: The Politics of Gendered Space,” (Humanities Diliman, January – June 2001), 30.
10 Areas and populations which represent failures of or challenges to aspects of the dominant order (e.g., slums; gentrified areas) tend to be coded in both dominant and alternative cultures as erotic (i.e., both dangerous and potentially libratory), while those seen as less problematic tend either to be desexualized or to stress more functional approaches to sexuality.11
Thus it follows that standardized, suburban boxes were perceived as desexualized objects that prescribed behavioural patterns, while Expo’s exotic architectural forms and highly specified spaces became sexually charged and uninhibited.
At Expo the walls slanted. Doors and windows were, quite often, not rectangular. Floors frequently weren't horizontal. The right angle and the straight line no longer ruled the world - there were hexagons, pentagons, and truncated tetrahedrons. Not everything was made of steel and glass: there were plastics, too, and plywoods, and almost any other material you could imagine. There was so much that was fresh and different and even daring that it seemed a new world of architectural design was opening up; and some of us imagined that we might even be in at the beginning of a revolution.12
The stage was set for fantasies to be played out in pavilions such as Arthur Erikson’s
Man in the Community, at Moshe Safdie’s Habitat 67 (Fig.1 ), as well as in the dark cinemas throughout the exposition’s site. The sensual nature of the exhibition spaces and pavilions stimulated each visitor with a plethora of visual, auditory, tactile and olfactory lures.
For example, Arthur Erikson’s Man in the Community pavilion achieved a high level of sensuality. (Fig. 4) The theme expressed in this structure was a commentary on our urbanized society and the desensitization associated with metropolitan life. The spire, or rocket-like, structure exudes the power and stability of a pyramid or skyscraper, yet the gentle curvature renders it alluring and effeminate. The sensual
11 Wallace, 353. 12 Robert Fulford, This was Expo. (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1968), 35.
11 nature of the experience is described in the official guidebook for Expo: “When it rains, the drops falls through the open roof into a pond in the center of pavilion. A garden extends beyond the pavilion’s outer walls, round the pond and between the exhibit halls.”13 The subtle exposure to the elements, especially on rainy days, reminds the visitor that our built environment is just that – fabricated. Yet it is also an indicator of how architecture sets the stage for our lives. After all, the pavilion’s theme, explicitly stated, was that we were at once the freest and the most fettered people of all time.
For the purpose of this paper, it can be argued that we are free beings, where the possibilities of the future are limitless, yet we are burdened by its expectations and the physical limitations of our existence.
Fig. 4: Man in the Community
13 Bernard, 39.
12 Sensuality, in the context of the 1960s, was often manifested as sexual expressions in the built environment. To an unprecedented extent, Montreal’s world’s fair was a highly visual exhibition. As the literary critic Hugh Kenner put it: "Expo 67, avoiding, where it can, words altogether, has funneled more energy into systematized non-verbal communication than any enterprise in the previous history of the world."14 It can thus be argued that the architecture of Expo 67 was one of the many languages spoken at the fair, and certainly the most universal. Typical to architectural discourse, it must be noted that several of the pavilions at Expo 67 were categorized as possessing feminine and masculine traits capable of generating subjective fantasies for each observer. According to Lico: “The metaphorical appropriation of the human body is a powerful force in the design of buildings and cities. Metaphors are a naturalizing ingredient in the transference of human qualities in buildings.”15 The formal analogical relationship between the body and architecture ensures that we project natural principles and proportions in the built environment to promote wellness and human comfort. Architectural vocabulary often incorporates bodily terms such as skin, skeleton, façade, feet, etc. More specifically, vertical architectural elements are usually associated with the celestial, divine, and the masculine, while horizontal elements are associated with the earth, sea, and the feminine. Other spatial and symbolic correspondence includes curve (female) and straight line (male).”16 The exotic structures found at Expo exhibit several of these characteristics. For example, the UK pavilion’s 200-foot tower, Erikson’s Man in the Community, the 312-foot La Spirale at
La Ronde, and the masts of the German pavilion are a few of the structures that can be
14 Fulford, 153. 15 Lico, 31. 16 Lico, 33.
13 categorized as masculine – exhibiting considerable phallic structures. Furthermore, the robust USSR and rough Japanese pavilion also convey similar virile intentions using different architectural vocabulary. Conversely, the inverted pyramid of the Canadian pavilion, also known as the Katimavik or ‘gathering place’, is a large-scale symbol of the universal receiver. (Fig. 5) This feminine, formal quality, often associated with the womb, is fitting because Canada was hosting the world. Similarly, the striking silhouette of the German pavilion’s skin, and Buckminster Fuller’s dome both exhibit sinuous, haven-like qualities. The feminine pavilions tend to be inward facing and exhibiting hospitable qualities, whereas the masculine structures are extraverted and obtrusive. The Expo 67 archives also include several pavilions or schemes that were never built (Fig. 6), some of which possessed explicit sexual qualities unmatched at the actual fair. Regardless of gender, these structures possessed the sexual nature inherent in all buildings. As a result, these qualities may have affected each visitor’s perception of the fair. In this instance, architecture as a system of representation is saturated with meanings and values, which contribute to our sense of self and our culturally constructed identity.17 After all, Expo’s chief architect, Edouard Fiset, intended the formal qualities of the fair to depart from rigid forms that the majority of people had grown accustomed to and to achieve a more 'humanized' expression in pavilion design.18 Typically, sexuality in architecture has been quantified by formal and chromatic qualities, yet the illusionary function of Expo’s buildings is greatly responsible for the sexualization of the world’s fair. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of exciting pavilions and architectural styles caused a great deal of emotional tension and transported each visitor on an enthralling voyage around the world. This
17 Lico, 31. 18 Fulford, 36.
14 illusionary capacity implicit in the buildings stimulated the subjective imagination and allowed people to feel a release from societal burdens.
Fig. 5: Universal receiver – Katimavik. Fig. 6: Proposed Canadian pavilion
The spaces between: How the public realm became a place for private behaviour.
Finally, the public spaces in between the pavilions, such as the line-ups, parks, terraces, walk-ways and the water’s edge also played an active role in heightening the sexual perception of the fair. The boundary-less space, combined with futuristic architecture, technology and transport at Expo 67 generated a utopic quality associated with the islands of Notre-Dame and Ste-Helene. Furthermore, the physical isolation of the site from the city of Montreal marked a threshold between reality and fantasy. As a result, Expo 67 can be categorized as a heterotopia. According to
Michel Foucault, these are spaces of otherness, which are neither here nor there, that are simultaneously physical and mental. Foucault uses the term heterotopia to describe spaces that have more layers of meaning or relationships to other places than immediately meet the eye. The sexual meanings of spaces are mutually produced through the physicality of the space themselves, the activities that occur within them,
15 and the imagery and material culture that co-occurs within the space.19 In other words, the public spaces of Expo were defined by context, which included the pavilions, the panoramic views and, most importantly, the people. During the six months of the fair, one North American city, Montreal, had a single large place designed for nothing less than the glorious purpose of making people happy to be there.20 This fabricated, hyper-real world, similar to Las Vegas or Disney World, actively stimulated the imagination of each visitor in situ.
The utopic perception of the fair was further reinforced by the fact that cars had been banished from the site. This allowed the space to be predominantly a pedestrian realm, (supported with other forms of public transport), empowering the visitors to claim the public space. Furthermore, the clean air and lower noise levels also contributed to a more pleasant atmosphere. In fact, visitors at Expo 67 became so comfortable with the site, that they began appropriating it as ‘theirs’. Fred Edge concluded in the Montreal Star, on 4 May 1967, that people’s attachment to Expo 67 could be compared to magic: “The funny thing about Expo is that it belongs to me. I mean me, personally. Many million words have been written about Expo, but none has captured the peculiar fact that Expo is mine.”21 The site of the world’s fair was public domain that had been appropriated by each individual. It can be argued that people are much more likely to open themselves up to new experiences in a place that makes them feel comfortable and one that they can call theirs. According to Fulford: “…at
Expo the space belonged to the people. You could hurry, or stroll, or stand still. You
19 Lynn Meskell, “Re-em(bed)ing Sex: Domesticity, Sexuality, and Ritual in New Kingdom Egypt.” Archeologies of Sexuality. (London: Routledge, 2000), 254. 20 Fulford, 70. Jansson & Lagerkvist, 35.
16 could eat your lunch in a space that was clean and quiet but still not far from the action. You could just sit down and look at the other people. (Who were, as it happened, one of the great unexpected sights of the fair. It was only when I returned to
Expo in drab October that I realized how important a part of the visual environment were those girls in their flashing miniskirts and orange pant suits, those boys in their brilliant shirts and jackets.22 In this instance, public collapses into private through the confession of private acts in public space. 23 This was a place for human beings to be themselves and express their fantasies. While hosting the world on an international stage, the site of Expo 67 possessed the spatial and atmospheric qualities of a private back yard by inducing behaviour implicit to human nature.
Whereas spatialized boundaries work to ward off threatening and forbidden desires,24 the barrier-less environment of Expo 67 signified to the visitors that they had the freedom to do whatever their heart desired. The lack of confinement allowed the visitors to remove their shoes and cool off tired feet at the water’s edge. (Fig. 7)
Imagine what might have happened in similar spaces throughout the site in the evening, when the normalizing gaze of the crowds faded. Furthermore, at night, Expo featured dazzling lights, fountains and reflecting pools with a view of the illuminated city of Montreal. (Fig. 8) This fantasy island setting was ideal for a date, and, for the adventurous, it was a prime location for intimate encounters. According to Pieter
Sijpkes, a 22-year old, Dutchman in 1967: “…there were lots of dark corners, if you knew how to find them, where young people could engage in illicit behaviour. We
22 Fulford, 70. 23 Lynne Breslin. “Confessions in a Public Space.” The Sex of Architecture. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 271. 24 Lico, 38.
17 would spend lots of time at the German beer gardens and then wander around Expo at night. Evenings were distinctive based on who you were walking around the site with.” After several days and evenings spent at the fair, one became familiar with the spaces and could freely roam around the parks and walkways after spilling out from the pubs, discothèques, and go-go dancing nightclubs. Visitors could be entertained at La Ronde until 2:30AM but the evenings never ended there. Andrew Hoffman,
Expo’s architect for the area, developed the plan after a one-year study, using consultants from Disneyland, Los Angeles, and the Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen. “In amusement parks,” says Mr. Hoffman, “you can get rid of inhibitions – just be silly for the sake of silliness. They are caricatures of ourselves and of architecture.25 After dark,
La Ronde and the spaces between pavilions on the site of Expo 67 were the ideal stage for sexuality to be expressed and manifested by the hoards of young, international people gathered, many for the first time, at a distance from the realities of metropolitan Montreal and far from home.
Fig. 7: Cooling off at water’s edge. Fig. 8: La Ronde at night.
25 “Expo 67; an experiment in the Development of Urban Space.” Architectural Record. (July 1966), 174.
18 Finally, several other salient features of Expo 67 contributed to the sexualization of the world’s fair such as the line-ups and the advent of the terrace.
As previously mentioned, this was a place where young people had much in common to talk about, where families spent summer days frolicking in the St-Laurent and touring the fair. Many visitors have retained the memory of the long cues. Both frustrating and wonderful at the same time, this was a good place to chat to a perfect stranger. According to Sijpkes, lines were the perfect place to meet young ladies from all kinds of countries while waiting to visit the exotic pavilions. Conversation was easy as a result of all the commonalities between visitors such as architecture, culture, fashion, travel, and even being young in an era where everything was questioned.
Here is a wonderful anecdote about the socializing power of the lines at Expo:
I was visiting the fair with two college girlfriends and we planned to see everything in 5 days. Of course, we were always on the hunt for souvenirs to bring back to Michigan. While walking to the British Pavilion, my friends and I stopped two young men and asked them to take our picture, so that all three of us were together. They, in turn, asked if they could join us in line and they spent the reminder of the day with us. The five of us met at the fair two more days and I invited the young men to visit us in Michigan. They were from Florida. We corresponded; they came to Michigan in December of '67 and one of them, Gene, asked me to marry him. Of course, I said yes. This December Gene and I (along with our two daughters, one son-in-law and two grandchildren) will celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary. (Ewa Harling from Michigan, USA)26
In addition to the lines, the advent of the terrace also proved revolutionary. Drinking alcohol outside in public was a novel concept in North America during this era. These spaces, such as the one depicted in Fig. 1 at Habitat 67 and at the Brewers pavilion, provided the platform for well-lubricated conversation. The terrace facilitated, amongst other social spaces, meeting foreigners and locals alike. According to Mieke Koppen,
26
19 who worked at the lively Bulldog Pub: “the whole of Montreal was definitely a sexy happening place, and '67 an erotic summer. We thought that life was boundless and the future ours. The optimism was palpable. We didn't realize at the time that that summer we had peaked (may I say climaxed?)...”27 Thus it can be argued that the spaces between pavilions at Expo 67 played a major role in the sexualization of the world’s fair in Montreal.
In conclusion, the psychological mind-set of the visitors, exotic architectural context and sites between the pavilions are spaces that had a profound effect on the sexualization of Expo 67 in Montreal. The utopic islands, in the middle of the Fleuve St-
Laurent, provided the ideal platform for the manifestation of individual fantasies and romantic encounters. It can be argued that space, at the world’s fair, acted as an agent for social change by relaxing pre-conceived notions of appropriate behaviour in public, especially displays of affection. The 1967 International and Universal
Exposition embodied the avant-garde mentality of the decade and the youth of a generation of baby-boomers. How would sexuality have expressed itself in communist
Russia had the world’s fair been held in Moscow as it had originally been scripted for the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution?
27 Peggy Curran, “Expo 67 and the sexual revolution.”
20 Bibliography:
Anderson, David and Gosselin, Viviane. “Private and public memories of Expo 67: a case study of recollections of Montreal’s World’s Fair, 40 years after the event.” University of British Columbia: Museum and society, March 2008.
Bernard, Therese. Expo 67 Official Guide Book. Montreal: Maclean-Hunter Publishing, 1967.
Breslin, Lynne. “Confessions in a Public Space.” The Sex of Architecture. ed. Diana Agrest, Particia Conway, and Leslie Kanes Weisman. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.
Colomina, Beatriz. “Introduction.” Sexuality & Space. ed. Beatriz Colomina. New York: Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992.
Curran, Peggy. “Hazy days of summer ’67.”
Curran, Peggy. “Expo 67 and the sexual revolution.”
“Expo 67; an experiment in the Development of Urban Space.” Architectural Record. July 1966, 169-176.
Fulford, Robert. This was Expo. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited, 1968.
Hubbard, Phil. “Sex Zones: Intimacy, Citizenship and Public Space.” Sexualities. Sage Publications, 2001.
Jansson, André and Lagerkvist, Amanda. “The Future Gaze: City Panoramas as Politico-Emotive Geographies.” Journal of Visual Culture. Sage Publications, 2009.
Lico, Gerard. “Architecture and Sexuality: The Politics of Gendered Space.” Humanities Diliman, January – June 2001.
Meskell, Lynn. “Re-em(bed)ing Sex: Domesticity, Sexuality, and Ritual in New Kingdom Egypt.” Archeologies of Sexuality. ed. Robert A. Schmidt & Barbara L. Voss. London: Routledge, 2000.
21 Morris, Meaghan. “Great Moments in the Social Climbing: King Kong and the Human Fly.” Sexuality & Space. ed. Beatriz Colomina. New York: Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992.
Petty, Genevieve. “The Significance of Coney Island.”
Syed, Matthew. “Sex and the Olympic City.“ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4582421.ece March 27, 2010]
Wallace, Aurora. “The Geography of Girl Watching in Postwar Montreal.” Space and Culture. Sage Publications, 2007.
Image Sources:
Meredith Dixon slide collection - http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/expo-67/index.html
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22 Video Sources:
Revisitez Expo ’67 - 40th Anniversary DVD box set: Radio-Canada Télévision and imavision.com, 2007.
Les Hippies et Expo ’67. Go Go Dancing in Ontario Pavilion. U.S. Pavilion Hostess Raincoat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gQwvFFWMZs> [March 27, 2010] Expo hostesses and Canadian men. Interviews: Covo, David. McGill professor. [Aged 17 in 1967] Curran, Peggy. Montreal Gazette blogger and visitor to Expo 67. [Aged 10 in 1967] Sijpkes, Pieter. McGill Professor and Expo 67 fanatic. [Aged 22 in 1967] Upton, Walter. Director of Building Development & Construction, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. [College student who spent one week at Expo 67] Acknowledgements: For their time and candid anecdotes, I would like to thank David Covo, Pieter Sijpkes and Walter Upton. I would also like to express my gratitude to Peggy Curran who kindly wrote an article, on March 18, 2010, that speculated about this paper’s topic on her blog, University City, for the Montreal Gazette. Furthermore, I would be remiss not to mention reader Mieke Koppen and the others who commented on Mrs. Curran’s article and their memories from Expo 67. For providing invaluable guidance, I would like to express my appreciation to Professor Annmarie Adams. Finally, thank you to my editor and fiancée, Karen Bosnakyan, for patiently deciphering my sentences and making sense of them. 23