Material for thought

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.

It is interesting to notice that the Chinese organisers decided to put Iran and North Korea next to each other, in a rather less attractive part of the Expo.

See my other posts on the Shanghai World Expo.

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.

In this second post of a series about my visit to the Shanghai World Expo, I’m going to describe some of the stories presented in the national pavilions. The goal is to sell industrial services and manufactured goods, not to really imagine a better city, better life. But because it is the official theme of the Expo, each country tries to argument a connection between its own interests and the noble cause. The result is in many cases pathetic. It didn’t stop me enjoying the pavilions and the great architectures and multi-media installations; it was just not making any sense.