Switzerland somewhere between tradition and modernity

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The flags of the country's 3,089 communes float over the Swiss Path Keystone

Designed by Geneva architect Jean Duret, the monorail slowly carried around six million visitors across the exhibition landscape. Keystone

The mesoscaph was designed by Jacques Piccard, son of the engineer Auguste and father of the adventurer Bertrand. The world's first tourist submarine only began operating in July, taking visitors to the depths of Lake Geneva. Keystone

Gulliver questioned visitors about Swiss values. The game was designed to help complete a sociological study using computer tools. The questionnaire was watered down 13 times before being submitted to visitors because it was considered too "intrusive" by the authorities. Keystone

Eurêka, an allegory of an industrial and consumerist society, was one of the first of Jean Tinguely's machines shown in public. It has been on show in Zurich since 1967. Keystone

The futuristic Nestlé garden Keystone

The spiky army pavillion, with its motto, We can defend ourselves, was aimed at showing Switzerland could resist a foreign invasion. Keystone

The Expo hostesses all wore a red and white uniform that was suppposed to not make them look like flight attendants and be practical, elegant and appropriate for all seasons for most women. RDB

The Symphonie des Echanges by Rolf Liebermann was a four-part composition played by 156 electronically controlled typewriters. Keystone

This woman in a living room was part of the second pavillion, the Art of Life, which touched upon the environment, lifestyle or satisfying spiritual needs. Keystone

The starting and finishing point of the Expo, the Swiss Path invitied visitors to think about history, the political system, cultural values, as well as their concerns and hopes for the future. Keystone

The 101-metre-high Spiral tower allowed 60 passengers to get a bird's eye view of the Expo through its glass walls. Keystone

The Vidy Theatre bar imagined by artist Max Bill Keystone

More than 3,000 workers helped build this section of the Geneva-Lausanne motorway opened in time for the Expo. The car park is on the right. Keystone

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In 1964, the Second World War was well into the past for ordinary citizens, but the Cold War was being played out. Switzerland needed to show a united and defiant front to foreign threats, but also wanted to be open and modern. Expo 64 was the child of these contradictory aspirations.

From April to October 1964, the national exhibition attracted more than 12 million visitors to Lausanne. Before that, there were exhibitions in Zurich in 1883, Geneva in 1896, Bern in 1914 and Zurich again in 1939. The last national exhibition was held in the Three-Lakes region in 2002.

Getting the 1964 exhibition up and running was a protracted process, almost a remake of the quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns. Expo 64 was a sign of the times: faster modernisation, infrastructure development, but also a changing society, new identities and fresh desires.

Seen as an invitation to think about the state of the nation, the so-called “Swiss Path” was the backbone connecting the eight sections of the exhibition. These included five short films about daily life and the game “Gulliver”, which asked the Swiss about their lives and democracy.

But the pavilions turned over to labour, agriculture, transport or education were also a giant mirror of Swiss society, unified but diverse at the same time. Expo 64 was also a major launch pad for artists such as Jean Tinguely and his mad machines or the painter Hans Erni.

(Photos: Keystone, RDB. Original French text: Isabelle Eichenberger)