Material for thought

This post is the first one of a series about my visit to the Shanghai World Expo 2010. I will start with a description of the crowd present at the Expo, more than 300.000 people per day! The pavilions and their exhibitions are only one aspect of the Expo; it is also a meeting place, not only for business men, but for people from all over China and the world. No need to travel the many villages and cities of China to discover its people, they are all right here. This makes a rather eclectic and disorganised crowd, but that’s what makes it so interesting for a foreigner. Families come here with their meals and vegetables, students come in groups, very few westerners also join the crowd.

The Tour Eiffel from the World's Fair of 1900

I’ve read recently the excellent book from Jay Winter “Dreams of Peace and Freedom – Utopian Moments in the 20^th Century“. It is part of my curatorial homework for the exhibition “Living the Dream of Modernity” that I’m preparing to launch very soon. Here is a summary.