About the Park
Champ de Mars is one of the city's most green and beautiful places. The Champ de Mars, the bigger park in the 7th district of Paris, has a very special use - it's a field for parades and training of the École Militaire (military school), named after the Mars Field in Rome. In the past popular holidays and some exhibitions were held here. The park is located between the Seine River and the Ecole Militaire Military School Complex. At the western end of the park is the Eiffel Tower. The park is 780 meters long and 200 meters wide.
Many of the most important and significant events in French history took place there: On July 14, 1790, the "Pieter de la Pedersion" events took place there during the French Revolution, and on July 17, 1791 a massacre was carried out there against French monarchs who called for the overthrow of the King , Louis 16th.
The park hosted many renowned exhibits, such as: the Paris World Exposition in 1867, the Paris World Exposition in 1889, the Paris World Exposition in 1937 and the colonial exhibitions designed to present the colonies of the French colonial empire.
It's quite amazing that under the nose of one of the world's most famous places, the Eiffel Tower, there are 780 meters of quiet green gardens that allow you to stretch out on their lawns in total peace. The place is used by the Parisians to rest on sunny days and allows tourists to see the tower's strength in the background. Buy yourselves baguettes and croissants, doesn't matter from where, then just lie back on the grass and enjoy the moment.
The Paris World Exposition
The "Champ de Mars" park you are standing in at this moment has hosted several important expositions in Paris. One of the largest and most important exposition is the Paris World Exposition which took place in 1889. This exposition still servers as a turning point in Parisian history, because the Eiffel Tower was built in its honor.
The exhibition was held in honour of the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution and was visited by more than 6.3 million visitors. Half of them were French.
The exhibit featured a number of fields to a large audience for the first time: plastic art, music from South America and the Far East. It has revealed modern trends in art such as symbolism and post-impressionism. This exhibition also presented African natives imprisoned in a human zoo, an artistic performance which purpose is to raise awareness of the differences between people. In addition, the "Machinery Gallery" building was established, which presents inventions and innovations in the field of technology.
The Eiffel Tower served as the exhibitions gate, but since its construction was not over, the visitors were only allowed to climb up to the second floor.
The exhibitions area was about 1 square kilometer and spread across the Champs de Mars, the Trocadéro, the banks of the Seine and the Invalides. In order to travel around the exhibition, the visitors used a small train on a 3 km track, which was set up for transportation.
Art in the Form of a Human Zoo
In one the most important exhibitions held in this place, the Paris World Exposition in 1889, an interesting, perhaps even slightly disturbing, artistic performance was presented.
African kids imprisoned in a human zoo were presented to a wide audience. The human zoos displayed human children (ethnic groups defined as natural and primal populations in a particular place). Most of the children were African, Native American, Inuit and Asian. The purpose of the displays was to emphasize the "inferior" nature of the natives and the difference between them and the Europeans from Western culture. Ethnographic zoos were generally based on scientific racism and social Darwinism.
One of the main attractions of the Paris World Exposition was the "Negro Village", which was the human zoo that displayed 400 children in a grand show, presenting their authentic lives to the public. The attraction was visited by 28 million people.
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