Russia has bid for the right to hold EXPO 2025 in Ekaterinburg, proposing the largest ever venue with the focus on innovation for a better life
Held for the first time in London in 1851, the World Expo has through its history become an unparalleled global event, which can be credited with the promotion of an enormous number of groundbreaking technologies including the telephone, the typewriter, and the phonograph. Since then, countries from around the world have been competing for the right to take part and to hold the Fair in their cities. Today, among those cities is Ekaterinburg, Russia, bringing an impressive proposal for hosting the event.
Although Dubai has already won the honour of holding the Expo in 2020, it is up to the BIE General Assembly to decide its venue for 2025.
Being a continuous participant in the Expo since its very inception, Russia has bid to host the biggest international fair next in its city of Ekaterinburg, which is located on the border between Europe and Asia and has been selected with a view towards accommodating delegates from all around the globe.
The Ekaterinburg Bid Committee has demonstrated a massive project for what could become one of the largest sites for the event yet: the proposed venue for the Expo will occupy an area of 555 hectares. The organizers expect around 14 million visitors and 147 participating countries. The Expo Park will be complete with highly developed infrastructure and a number of locations holding various business and technology-related, cultural and informal events. Ekaterinburg proposed holding the event between 2 May and 2 November to take advantage of the warmest season in the region. Visitors to the Expo will be granted visa-free entry into Russia, just like the visitors of the Football World Cup earlier this year. As a follow-up from last year's Expo in Astana, Kazakhstan, where a very special place was given to topics related to sustainability and renewables, the organizers of EXPO 2025 have announced that the event will be near-completely powered by renewable energy.
After the conclusion of the Fair, its venue called "Smart City" will be converted into a special economic zone, which will offer a number of advantages to its residents, including access to ready-made infrastructure. The "smart city" project also involves implementation of connected technologies to help monitor and manage a number of municipal processes such as water and energy supply, traffic and parking, pollution control.
As the theme for EXPO 2025, Russia has proposed a focus on 'Changing the World: Innovations and Better Life for Future Generations', addressing the challenges on the intersection of humanitarian, social, and technological advances with a practical and future-oriented approach; these are no doubt relevant topics worthy of discussion. The specific concepts proposed appear to center on bettering the Quality of Life for all, while encompassing a number of progressive and timely subjects, which are split into the humanitarian, digital, technological, and social sections of the event. The platform of the Expo would be used to promote dialogue and allow scientists and individuals, businesses and whole nations to engage in technological and cultural exchange.
These ideas are well represented by the easily recognizable symbol chosen by Russia for the event – the matryoshka, a traditional Russian stacking doll, which has been giving children a taste for the feeling of discovery for generations. The doll has already been used to represent Russia at the Expo starting in 1900, when the fair was held in Paris and then again in 1970 when a 72-piece doll was shown at the event in Tokyo.
To promote the Expo and its achievements Russia launched an art project with the doll at its core, producing 20 unique life-size matryoshkas. Half of these were created by Russian designers and placed in major cities across the globe, including Barcelona, Brussels, Cape Town, Shanghai, Berlin, Paris, and London, while designers from the receiving cities made the rest of the dolls.
Although many designs of these dolls proved very impressive and eye-catching, attracting attention was not the only role that the matryoshkas played. Thanks to modern-day AR technology, these objects managed to convey the idea behind them more clearly, prompting viewers to download an app dedicated to EXPO 2025 and to point their smartphone camera at the dolls. What the camera would then display are some of the most notable objects that have changed the world after being presented at the World Fair, as well as some artifacts that represent Russia's participation in the event: the IS class locomotive, the famous Worker and Kolkhoz Woman sculpture, the Trans-Siberian Railway Panorama and many others.
Two of these matryoshkas have visited Cape Town, one by a Russian primitive style artist Andrey Karpov, the other – by the local rising prodigy Claude Chandler. Both designs are unique in their own way. The Russian artist appeals to the viewers' emotions through a naïvely sweet depiction of the world, resembling a child made picture, stretched onto the shape of the matryoshka. The style of the local South African fine artist is distinctly different as it utilizes handmade foam stamps to cover the doll in words such as 'Expo', '2025', 'Russia' and a few others, which together form a fine gradient-like pattern.
All the dolls will gather in Paris soon, where they will await the announcement of the winning city, which will have the privilege of holding the event. It is astonishing to realize that with all the achievements represented by these dolls Russia has never once had the opportunity to be the host of the Expo, and never missing a chance to take part. Perhaps, this is what the matryoshkas are actually meant to imply – that one must look beyond the outer shell to discover something truly great. Hopefully, we will find out in 2025.
