April 8, 1998. Copyright, 1998, Graphic News. All rights reserved

CENTURYÕS LAST EXHIBITION EXPLORES OCEAN DEPTHS
by Oliver Burkeman

London, April 8, Graphic News- IT WILL be a fittingly grandiose finale: the centuryÕs last great World Exhibition, EXPO Õ98, which opens on May 22, will feature contributions from more than 140 countries on 60 hectares around LisbonÕs Olivais Dock, with 8.5m visitors expected before the event closes on September 30.

Or at least it will be if it is completed: for while the EXPO Õ98 logo is everywhere one turns in the Portuguese capital, many of the pavilions themselves remain a building site on a par with LondonÕs controversial Millennium Dome Ð and the Expo organisers have even less time before the deadline.

But if, as expected, the exhibition runs to schedule, visitors are unlikely to be disappointed Ð as long as they are sufficiently interested in the eventÕs theme, ÔOceans: A heritage for the futureÕ. Two thirds of the earthÕs surface is water, and, the organisers argue, it is the planetÕs life support system Ð and thus, they imply, worth the exhibitionÕs entry fee of 5,000 escudos (approximately £16) per day.

EuropeÕs largest oceanarium, designed by veteran architect Peter Chermayeff Ð responsible for BostonÕs oceanarium, among others Ð will be one of the centrepiece pavilions, recreating swathes of the worldÕs seas including the Antarctic Ocean and an Indian Ocean coral reef, and hosting 200 aquatic species. The content of the Utopia Pavilion remains more uncertain, and is described by the creators as Ôa place to free reality, with room for all dreams, visions, myths and legends with which the human imagination has filled the oceansÕ.

World Exhibitions, which trace their ancestry through the 1851 Great Exhibition in London and further back, now take place every six years, and the theme of EXPO Õ98 chimes with the United NationsÕ International Year of the Ocean, an event which Portugal pushed through the UNÕs General Assembly. But 1998 is also the 500th anniversary of Portuguese seafarer Vasco da GamaÕs discovery of a sea route to India from Europe.

More than 40 ships, which left Lisbon in January 1997, are circumnavigating the globe to spread news of the exhibition, and will return in time for the opening. Portugal has a vested interest in the news being spread: the government estimates that income from EXPO Õ98 will account for 0.3 percent of the nationÕs GDP.
/ENDS

Source:
EXPO Õ98
Tel: 00 351 1 831 98 98
Fax: 00 351 1 837 31 33
Internet: http://www.expo98.pt
e-mail: info@expo98.pt