Material for thought

The Hermitage is a massive residential property under construction in Kowloon (Hong Kong). I was living just next to its location, so I could see the progress of its development and I was very intrigued by the inside. Few weeks ago, I was walking in the adjacent Olympian shopping mall and I discovered that The Hermitage opened its showroom to the public. It went beyond all my expectations and was by far the craziest thing I have seen during my stay in Hong Kong, The showroom is completely out of reality, immersing visitors into a manufactured ‘dream’-like experience.

Here are few pictures of Macau and its casinos. The place lost its appearance from the 19^th and even 20^th century. Found guilty: the massive arrival of new casinos, the construction of the airport and the merger of the Taipa and Coloane islands. You can still find very nicely preserved Portuguese buildings in Macau though, and not all casinos are tasteless. In fact, the distinction between the old and the fake is not always so clear here. Casinos are after all part of the history of Macau. So, I wonder, what is the most authentic? Macau or Las Vegas? I know that the question is pointless anyway because I don’t believe in the word ‘authentic’. But still, I had the feeling that Macau had more depth than Las Vegas, even though Las Vegas remains much more impressive.

I read about world fairs and utopias while I was curating the Dreams of Progress exhibition last year. A utopia, or a heterotopia such as the world expo, always features inconsistencies or misconceptions. If not, the utopia could be achieved and it would not be a utopia anymore. However, never the inconsistencies of today’s world appeared to me clearer than on the Shanghai World Expo.

As for all Expos, most of the pavilions will be destroyed at the end of the event. Only few will remain, here are some of them.

These buildings are huge and cold. Partly because they will need to accommodate a huge number of visitors, but still, I don’t think they incarnate the ‘better city, better life’ theme of the Expo at all. Except maybe few green credentials, which seem to me like drops of water compared to the massive use of electricity in the Expo, how would life be better in these massive buildings? The Chinese pavilion looks like it is overlooking the crowd outside. The Theme pavilion feels like an unfriendly fortress.

I visited the observation deck of the Shanghai World Financial centre while I was in Shanghai for the World Expo. I was not so impressed by the view from the 100^th floor, I have already seen many similar views in my life. I was much more interested by their lift. They built around the lift a kind of theme park queuing experience between the 2001 Space Odyssey and the Omni Company from Robocop.