DUBAI: Award-winning British artist and designer Es Devlin will design the United Kingdom’s pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
The pavilion will showcase an innovative and creative design highlighting the UK’s expertise in artificial intelligence and space sector.
Details of the pavilion were unveiled on Thursday in the latest project announced for the global trade show.
Devlin is known for creating stunning large-scale performance sculptures for artists like Kanye West and Beyonce that fuse technology and poetry. Devlin has also created installations including the interactive Fifth Lion sculpture installed in London’s Trafalgar Square.
Inspired by Stephen Hawking, the Expo 2020 platform will be an illuminated sculptural message, aiming to offer the Expo’s anticipated 25 million visitors a unique experience.
“The idea draws directly on one of Stephen Hawking’s final projects, ‘Breakthrough Message’, a global competition that Hawking and his colleagues conceived in 2015 inviting people worldwide to consider what message we would communicate to express ourselves as a planet, should we one day encounter other advanced civilizations in Space,” Devlin said.
The United Kingdom reveals the design of its pavilion at @expo2020dubai - highlighting the UK's expertise in artificial intelligence and the space sector. Award-winning British artist Es Devlin OBE is set to design the UK Pavilion. #Dubai pic.twitter.com/SRIKNCQXu9
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) September 27, 2018
Each visitor will be invited to contribute to the sculptural message, she added.
“What if the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 became a place where visitors from all over the world chose to take part in a collective global project that showcases British expertise in A.I. technologies and poetry while transcending national identities?”
Britain’s International Trade Secretary Dr. Liam Fox MP said: “The quality of design proposals we received for the UK pavilion were testament to the UK’s world leading creative talent and I’m confident that Es Devlin OBE and the team will help us take advantage of this unique opportunity to showcase the very best of British to a truly global audience.”
The World Expo in Dubai is set to start from 20 Oct. 2020 to 10 April 2021.
Najeeb Mohammed Al-Ali, Executive Director at Dubai Expo 2020 Bureau, said their focus is on empowering individuals and communities to create opportunities that help shape a better future.
“The UK Pavilion will be an intriguing platform for people to learn, have fun and work together to discover innovations and explore new frontiers in areas including space and Artificial Intelligence – echoing Expo 2020’s theme of ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,’” he said.
