(By Emily Backus).
Sudan this week confirmed its
presence at Milan Expo 2015, becoming the 143rd official
participant in the food-themed world fair next year.
While Sudan will be exhibiting food practices with other
countries in an arid-zone themed cluster, another desert
country, oil-rich Kuwait, on Thursday unveiled in Milan plans
for its own pavilion.
The Kuwaiti pavilion will immerse visitors in a drama of
harsh nature and human advances to make life bloom in a desert
with some of the highest recorded temperatures in the Middle
East.
The Kuwait pavilion will take visitors through the great
transitions, from parched earth to budding greenery, from day to
night and through the changing seasons along an exhibit that is
nearly 1.5 km long.
Enormous sails, shaped like those of a traditional Kuwaiti
sailing vessel will frame the entrance - homage to Kuwait's rich
maritime history and seafood-based cuisine - launching visitors
first on a path through the desert to understand the climatic
challenges of the land.
Then research and technological solutions will show
visitors how the terrain is being reshaped through water
desalination and reuse, and renewable energy to cultivate the
land and fishing resources.
The path finishes in a slice of Kuwaiti society and
culture, with a restaurant and a souk - or open market - where
visitors can buy regional Kuwaiti cuisine.
There will be two versions of the path - one for adults and
one for children. Special guides will be provided for kids, who
will encounter a live rainstorm and an aquarium, among other
attractions.
The building will be able to host 11,000 visitors per day
and will be located between the German and US pavilions. One
side will be entirely covered in hydroponic plants.
Emanuale Rossetti, the director of the general contractor
Nussli Italia, which is in charge of the pavilion, promised "a
fascinating experience".
"The theme proposed by Expo (Feeding the Planet, Energy for
Life) is perfectly suited to our country which has been involved
for some time in the development of best practices in the energy
field to apply unconventional solutions in food production and
bequeath to future generations a more fertile land," said Salah
Mansour Al-Mubaraki, Kuwait's Expo 2015 Commissioner General.
The pavilion itself also will be highly environmentally
sustainable, with rain water collection and reuse, and a film
treatment on glass windows to filter sunlight. After the Expo,
the Kuwaiti pavilion will be dismantled and 80-90% of the
materials recycled, said Rossetti.
Also unveiled this week, the name of Expo's Arcimboldo-like
cartoon mascot, with its banana lips, garlic nose, figgy beard
and pineapple topnot was announced - "Foody".
The Milan Expo 2015 jury chose the name among 8000 entries
submitted by children around Italy who participated in a contest
launched in December to give appellations to the mascot and its
11 single-food friends.
A tropical lady banana has been dubbed Josephine, the fig
is now Rodolfo, a pomegranate has been named Chicca and the
orange, Arabella. The watermelon is Gury, the mango Manghy, the
apple Pomina, the pear Piera, the radishes are the Rap Brothers,
while the blue corn is Max Mais.
Expo Milano 2015 Commissioner Giuseppe Sala admitted that
the garlic, named "Guaglio" - which means "guy" in a southern
Italian dialect - was controversial within the northern Italian
jury.
The main mascot Foody will appear on the Expo entrance
gates, on trams around the city, on merchandise - like t-shirts
and stuffed critters - on 20 million children's textbook covers
and on television and electronic screens.
"''From January, we'll be ready to start with the Disney
cartoon TV series and the series on the web," said Sala.
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