Roundup: Milan Expo's "My Wall" donated to Shanghai's World Expo Museum

A 25-meter-long wall from the Expo Milano 2015, on which participants pinned a rich diversity of materials, was donated on Thursday to the Shanghai-based World Expo Museum, official museum of Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).

The World Expo Museum, first museum dedicated to Expos, covers a construction area of roughly 46,000 square meters and will open to the public in 2016, the museum Director Liu Xiuhua told Xinhua in an interview on the sidelines of the donation ceremony held here at the expo site.

Jointly developed with the BIE, the museum has an international character and will present the meaning and philosophy of world expositions, showcase their history and future development, Liu said. The project was first started at the end of the Shanghai Expo 2010, while construction works began in 2013.

Thus the museum will become the world's knowledge base for expo culture and innovation, acting as an exhibition, education center, training and documentation center for expo-related cultural exchanges.

Liu highlighted that the museum was designed to be as open and interactive as possible, and welcoming for all. "We feel a responsibility and a duty to help world expos maintain their value as platforms where everybody can discover the cultures of other countries," she said.

The director noted that My Wall, donated to the museum by Expo Sole Commissioner of the Italian Government Giuseppe Sala in person on Thursday, has recorded the collective story of those who work and live everyday at the expo site, or more than 1,000 items.

In particular, she added, the World Expo Museum made its own contribution by pinning a series of documentation themed "the Ongoing History: from Shanghai to Milano," presenting highlights of architectures and exhibitions of both Expo 2010 and Expo 2015.

Liu said one of the most successful elements of the nutrition-themed Milan Expo was "the construction techniques and artistic creativity of participants' pavilions, some of which managed to create outstanding buildings with meaningful contents despite the small size of their investment."

My Wall was also made possible thanks to the work of the Milan Expo's so called "social-media team," composed of 18 people including professionals and students who used the social media channels to create a virtual bridge between the Expo concept and international visitors.

"During these six months, all national pavilions, expo workers, volunteers and visitors have contributed to the growth of My Wall," Carolina Giacco, a marketing management student who was part of the social media team, told Xinhua.

Giacco said she was proud of working at a project that will fly to Shanghai where it will become a precious legacy of the Milan Expo and a symbol of all future world expositions.

The Milan Expo will close on Saturday. Located in the northwestern part of the Italian business capital of Milan, the expo hosts more than 140 countries and organizations, of which a record number of 54 have self-built pavilions.

With a national self-built pavilion, the second largest foreign pavilion next to Germany's, and two by corporates, China is the biggest international investor at the Italian event. Endit