The best pavilion that I visited in the Shanghai World Expo is the UK one (see my other reviews of the Expo). It is a success both in terms of artistic expression and engagement of the audience.
The building is beautiful and unique. And I don’t only speak about the main ‘Seed Cathedral’, but also about the way in and the way out. The Expo counts some nice gardens but you will not see many Chinese people visiting them. The UK pavilion succeeds to make the tired Chinese visitor notice nature and question its role in the future. The fossilised seeds, the artificial plants, the grey grass interrogate the relation between nature and industry, in a universal language that breaks cultural barriers.
This is a pure product of the British establishment though, with BP among its sponsors. The conceptual approach of the pavilion is in a sense insidious because it might influence more successfully an audience than a more explicit and clearly inconsistent discourse. On the other hand, it provides more freedom for personal interpretations and feelings, which might contradict the intended message of the sponsors.
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