One of the world’s grandest exhibition spectacles, developed at a projected cost of almost US$2bn, drew to a close in South Korea in August.
Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea is a three-month international exhibition in a similar vein to Shanghai’s 2010 World Expo.
The event, which spans 2.7 million sqm is themed ‘Living Ocean and Coast’, shining a spotlight on the global benefits of maintaining our oceans and in doing so fielding solutions for climate change, depletion of natural resources and the destruction of the ecosystem.
The site is situated 330km from Seoul (three hours by high-speed train), 160km from Busan and 100km from Gwangju with Yeosu airport 17km from town.
And while ostensibly a platform for political and economic campaigning, featuring related products and services, it’s largely a celebration of the natural world – in domestic terms driving the development of South Korea’s south coast and helping to accelerate the nation’s marine industry and technology.
The stir the expo has been creating is being felt far and wide, helped along by pavilions from 106 nations including China, Egypt, the UAE, Russia, Germany and the US, as well as 10 international organisations such as the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.
Being held in the south-west coastal city of Yeosu from 12 May to 12 August, the exhibition is on an immense scale with the organiser building the whole development from scratch. The exhibition pavilions are all temporary structures with most of the buildings already sold to national and international parties.
The expo is expected to deliver an economic impact of $5.3bn and generate 80,000 new jobs.
“Among the world’s three greatest festivals, the Olympics, FIFA World Cup and the World Expo, the one with the most outreaching impact is, by far, the expo,” says chairman of the organising committee for Yeosu Expo, Kang Dong-Suk. “With this theme, the exhibition is a monumental event where all related technologies and knowledge on the ocean come together.”
The exhibition is not South Korea’s first international fair on such a grand scale. The Daejeon Expo took place in 1993 themed: ‘The Challenge of a New Road of Development’. That exhibition too was built around themes of sustainable and green development, leaving behind a legacy in the form of the Expo Park, which still features the pivotal ‘Tower of Great Light’ from 1993, as well as rides, attractions and corporate exhibits.
The centrepiece of the 2012 site is the 40-metre high ‘Big-O’ structure, which comprises the world’s largest over-the-sea fountain. This, along with the Theme Pavilion, Sky Towers and Aquarium, will remain after the expo closes in August.
The Sky Towers, at 67m high, feature two organs played daily during the Yeosu Expo. These are listed as the loudest pipe organs in the world in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Aquarium is the largest in South Korea with 34,000 marine species in the 6.03-tonne tank.
Two major pavilions lead the way in terms of event space at the expo. The Theme Pavilion claims to be the first offshore pavilion in the world and is 3,000sqm in size. Following the event’s closure, it will be available for hire for a host of business and consumer events, a line of commercial activity the organisers expect will continue to recoup the cost of the event and retain Yeosu’s place on the global map for international events.
The International Pavilion consists of 105 participating nations and is three times the size of Korea’s largest exhibition space, Coex in Seoul. It is also 12 times the size of the Themed Pavilion.
The highlight of Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea’s exhibition, cultural and academic programmes, as we saw in Shanghai in 2010, is a platform for the country’s commitment to dealing with climate change and developing sustainable marine industries.
Seven of the country’s leading companies built the Corporate Pavilion to a distinctive brief, but their pavilion was not the only one with such collaboration. The Korean Shipowners Association and port authorities worked hard to build the Korea Shipping and Ports Pavilion, which provides another example of collaboration resulting in a beneficial and striking exhibition space.
Expanding horizons
It’s exhibition space such as the Marine Robot Pavilion, built by Daewoo Shipping and Marine Engineering, and the Expo Digital Gallery that lead the way in terms of hi-tech gratification. The latter of the two demonstrates several interactive technologies for visitors to embrace using smartphones or online. And for those who prefer to see their exhibits moving, films such as Legend of Shinjike Mermaid also flicker onscreen, conveying the exhibition’s core messages.
These are but two additions to a huge list of attractions that enrich each of the 93 days the 2012 exhibition is live. In total there will be 3,200 cultural and art events taking place for visitors to enjoy, each one as dynamic as the last.
The head of Expo 2012 Yeosu’s secretariat and commissioner for Australia, Kevin Nixon, sums the event up tidily when he describes it as “a big global festival” with genuine business and trade credentials.
“Our participation is aimed at building on a strong relationship with Korea in terms of tourism and trade,” he adds.
With the organisers of the 2015 World Expo in Milan no doubt already feeling the pressure from the record-breaking Shanghai World Expo in 2010, events like this oceanic festival will give them even more reason to up their game.
This was first published in Issue 3/2012 of EW. Written by Sarah O'Donnell and Antony Reeve-Crook. Any comments? Email exhibitionworld@mashmedia.net
