“International expos are great big virility contests between nations, only peaceful and trade-related, rather than involving armies and missiles. They always have a vaguely portentous theme and a silly mascot (a sort of Smurf with a quiff this time). The whole shebang, organised by an international body, rather like the Olympics and taking place every few years, is not really for the benefit of the general public, although millions of visitors are needed to cover the costs. It’s all to do with governments having the most photogenic pavilion for transmission around the world. The latest such expo, which opened yesterday, is in Shanghai. So the world’s nations are all jostling to snuggle up to the new superpower.
“From time to time, the UK stirs itself and makes a big effort. After all, we invented this genre with the Great Exhibition of 1851, staged in the Crystal Palace, in Hyde Park. What’s inside the pavilions these days seldom matters much; indeed, at the 1992 Expo in Seville, where our pavilion was an architectural waterfall designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, there was practically nothing inside it at all. The medium was the message, and the message was early high-tech environmentalism…”
Pingback: Tweets that mention Seed cathederal | -- Topsy.com