Thousands of messages have accumulated on the wooden cubes of the Play Space exhibition at Greenopolis Pavilion in Shanghai, expressing appreciation for Romania and the visitors’ impressions of its Pavilion.
Developed by architect Adrian Neculai, together with the students of the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism in Bucharest, the exhibition’s concept is built around interactivity and play: every visitor that takes the tour of the Romanian Pavilion will reach the exhibition area and can leave a message on one of the wooden cubes.
Those present assemble the cubes and various geometrical shapes emerge. After they write their message, people can add their piece to an already existing construction and keep one cube with the message that they feel represents them best.
“So far we’ve seen over 15,000 cubes combined, in all kinds of geometric shapes. This is an outstanding intercultural experience. After watching the artistic performance and seeing the multimedia exhibition, visitors are invited to leave a message, an impression, on one of the cubes. It is very easy to join this interactive, intercultural game. People have fun, they write a message, and decoding the messages is like reading guestbook containing the Chinese visitors’ impressions about Greenopolis Pavilion,” said Ferdinand Nagy, Commissioner General of Romania's Exhibition in Shanghai.
Of the messages left there and translated from Chinese, most are wishes of good health and good fortune for dear ones, thoughts about friendship between Romania and China, appreciation for Romania's Pavilion and its cultural-artistic activities.
The idea of Good Fortune is a central element in Chinese culture. This holds four types of fortune: Prosperity, Longevity, Happiness and Wealth. Wishes on various occasions or presents given to friends can therefore symbolize career prosperity, long life, or wishes for a pleasant and safe journey.
Although the symbols used in Chinese culture are impressive in their significance and complexity, the ones used most often are about long life, health, success in one’s career, becoming rich and having children. Chinese ideograms carry a very complex symbolic system and one word or symbol can carry much more meaning than can be culturally decoded at a first glance.
Expo Shanghai 2010 is the biggest world exhibition ever and has so far been visited by over 62 million persons.
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