Expo 2020 Dubai: Spain Pavilion opens with a living, breathing artificial forest

Dubai: Spain Pavilion opened its doors to visitors at Expo 2020 Dubai today with a facade composed of conical structures in the Sustainability District.

The pavilion is easy to spot from afar — with 14 large orange and yellow cones covering what Carmen Bueno, Deputy Commissioner General and Director of the Spain Pavilion, calls an Arab souq. “[The plaza] is also an open space of encounter, an open space of activity — something common between our two cultures,” Bueno said during an interaction with Gulf News.

While Spain harkens back to its Arab roots, the exhibit within presents its “collective intelligence for life” through a seven-minute film titled the ‘August Moon’ by director Nacho Vigalondo. Shown on a panoramic theatre screen, the movie brings to focus people from various walks of life, changing the seasons and the sky with a strike to either a cymbal here or a metal scaffolding there. The next zone, a highlight not to be missed, is the ‘Forest of the Future’ that carries the same theme forward.

An olfactory delight, the dim-lit space is permeated with the scents of the Northern Spanish woodlands — Guillaume Audy of perfumery Iberchem says this is the magic of cedar sticks and eucalyptus leaves. Though an artificial forest, the micro algae here is in charge of absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing pure oxygen for visitors.

Up ahead, you are questioned by interactive screens on your consumption habits — if you often drink water from a plastic bottle, the ‘Tree of Balance’ will start to shed leaves and lose colour. Work with others in the room to keep the tree alive on this quest for sustainability and learn that your actions have a palpable impact on Nature.