EXPO 2025, Osaka, Japan

Text and photos: Pál Lővei

Asia’s first World Expo was held in Osaka in 1970, followed by others: this top-tier show, now in its sixth year in Japan. The new World Expo, which will open in 2025 on the artificial island of Osaka Bay, will be designed by Sou Fujimoto, who also designed the House of Music in the City League. The ‘Great Ring’, with a circumference of around 2 km and a 30-metre-wide walkway at the top, is intended to be the symbol of the exhibition, which has the theme ‘Building the Society of the Future’. Outside the ring are the official Japanese pavilions and the exhibits of major companies. The World Expo is imbued with an unheard-of optimism for knowledge and humanity. Mesmerised by futuristic images and films of a perfect future, visitors to the Expo, briefly jolted out of reality, may be witnessing humanity’s last happy moment.