THE VISITOR EXPERIENCE
The visitor's immersive experience is informed by the two great elements that make up the building: the sun and the ocean. The seemingly tranquil setting of the building's facade presents a reflected sun, a sunrise or sunset, the two parts of this sun symbolizing Spain and Japan (East and West), united in a single moment. This contact of the sun with the ocean and this apparent tranquility conceal a complex system of underwater currents beneath, which are the main driving force behind regulating the planet's balance.
The exhibition's discourse begins on the façade because it brings together all the essential ingredients of the message intended to be conveyed by the Pavilion and its graphic identity. The logo also draws on this architectural experience and content through three layers: the sun, the oceans, and the national image reflected in the red and yellow colors of the sun, combined with the blue of the oceans.
The overall experience, from the moment the visitor enters the façade until they reach the exit, is divided into four parts:
· Plaza del Sol: The waiting area represents the sun reflected in the water, a bright and warm space enlivened by audiovisual displays and live performances.
· Currents toward the Future: A dark space in which we sense a series of audiovisual currents that transport us to the depths of the sea, where we will discover content linked to the blue economy and our country's relationship with the sea.
· Greetings from Spain. Our journey concludes by taking us to Spain, with a festive and colorful immersive audiovisual space showcasing our customs, landscapes, and cuisine.
· A diverse Spain: a journey through the diversity of our autonomous communities.
1.- PLAZA DEL SOL: WAITING AREA AND QUEUES
The waiting area is designed as a space inspired by the Spanish concept of the square, as a place where traffic coexists with daily life, culture, and a sense of community where everyone is welcome. Two resources will be used:
A large LED screen showing original audiovisual pieces by artists committed to sustainability and the 2030 agenda, created especially for the occasion.
A stage that will host daily performances, a conceptual recreation of what can be found in a square anywhere in Spain, all under the theme of the sun, the true center of daily life in a country where it shines for more than 3,000 hours a year. The place will serve as an introduction to our pace of life, with a human scale that has made us one of the great tourist destinations.
2.- CURRENTS TOWARD THE FUTURE: EXHIBITION CONTENT AREA
We leave the sun behind and delve into the depths of the ocean.
The heart of the Pavilion's exhibition revolves around the idea of ocean currents, based on the Kuroshio current, which played a fundamental role in connecting Spain with Asia and America as a means of civilization and cultural and economic exchange. Ocean currents are one of the most powerful forces in the mechanism that makes the Earth work.
Currents of thought, artistic currents, social currents, currents of energy… Currents mark constant movement, permanent adaptation to change, and the search for new paths. They are synonymous with communication and the exchange of information, the transfer of data and knowledge.
All of this content is materialized through different audiovisual segments that envelop visitors and project messages highlighting the importance of the oceans for the balance of our planet in English, Japanese, and all our national languages.
· A look into the future: In reference to the area where the Spanish Pavilion is located, Connecting Lives, there will be a moment when the streams of messages transform into streams of people moving forward together; a moment of calm and reflection amidst the speed and sense of continuous change.
The streams of people embody the forward momentum, in a shared direction, a meeting point between communities, the fabric of energy and life that envelops the planet. A reflection of the society we want to build.
As visitors walk through the space wrapped in this system of streams, they will pass through nine capsules of content related to the Blue Economy, from different perspectives. Various technological resources, combining sensorial experience with educational and scientific information, will position Spain as a leader for a sustainable future.
· Currents that unite
The phrase "The Kuroshio current, a powerful invisible thread and creator of civilization, united Spain and Japan centuries ago" greets visitors, laying the groundwork for the entire tour.
· One World
A large LED sphere, suspended in space, reminds us of the importance of ocean currents in the balance of our planet, and more particularly in the climates of Japan and Spain, which thus appear integrated into the larger global framework.
· Kuroshio
This space is dedicated to the meeting that inaugurated relations between Spain and Japan, which originated in the rescue of the shipwrecked victims of the sinking of the Spanish galleon San Francisco off the coast of the village of Onjuku in 1609, rescued by traditional fisherwomen, the amas. This event paved the way for a Japanese embassy, the first official one in Europe, to visit the Spanish Court and the Vatican between 1613 and 1620. Through images, installations, and objects, we recall events that not only had historical significance but also left a mark on the popular imagination of both nations.
Surrounded by Water
Spain is the country with the largest number of Biosphere Reserves in the world. A multi-screen audiovisual installation will explore the most important marine ecosystems in Spain and their successful protection policies.
A Pirate's Story
The historic ruling in 2012 by a US court that recognized Spanish ownership of the cargo of the frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes, sunk by the English in the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, and whose remains had been plundered by the treasure hunting company Oddisey, marked a global milestone in the protection of underwater heritage. Since then, it has been recognized for its cultural and historical value and, therefore, deserving of the highest protection. A path in which Spain is at the forefront.
This story inspired our National Comic Award winner, Paco Roca, and his cartoons will guide us through his own vision of what happened through a series of totems featuring a selection of his cartoons. At the same time, this fictional perspective will maintain a dialogue with the audiovisual translation created by Alejandro Amenábar in the series La Fortuna, as well as with the real images offered at the time by the media and the subsequent conservation and dissemination of this valuable material carried out by various institutions of the Spanish Government. This work has also sought to connect the Latin American countries involved in those long routes that united interconnected peoples and societies.
· The Cities of the Sea
Ports have historically been hubs of civilization and contact between different cultures. Today, they represent the main places through which goods circulate, allowing us to achieve levels of well-being and development never before seen in history. They are also places where strategies are being developed to reduce the impact of all this activity.
At this point in the tour, the visitor enters an installation that stops at the Port of the Bay of Algeciras, one of the most important maritime traffic hubs in the Mediterranean, and how Spain is working to reduce the carbon footprint of transport management in its ports.
· Boost for the Future
Spain has embraced the enormous potential that its territory, as well as its geographical location, offers for the development of renewable energies, essential both for achieving European energy independence and for reducing the use of other sources based on fossil fuels. This installation focuses on one of the lines of exploration for a sustainable energy source of the future: floating offshore wind power, in which Spain is present in Japan through a wind farm project off the coast of Akita. With a nod to the figure of Don Quixote, inextricably linked to windmills and enormously popular in the Land of the Rising Sun, various lines of work regarding this technology are presented, as well as a look at what its future scenarios may hold.
· Living Technology
The oceans are proving to be the place where it will be possible to find the resources that will allow us to gradually replace polluting materials that leave a large carbon footprint. In the life that inhabits them, we can find principles and strategies that will facilitate our shift toward a much more sustainable way of life and that will even open new avenues for the development of drugs and applications that will improve our quality of life.
An installation recreates the test tubes and containers of the Spanish Algae Bank in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a unique enclave in the world, where the conditions are met to maintain a large reserve of biomass from the sea, whose cultures are available to numerous researchers from all sectors.
Alongside it, a series of screens will report on the advances this is facilitating in five cutting-edge fields:
- Biofuels and energy (renewable and sustainable energy sources that can replace fossil fuels);
- Pharmacology (through access to bioactive compounds present in algae and other marine species, which can open up new and revolutionary avenues for addressing diseases that remain major challenges);
- Production of products for human consumption (to meet the nutritional needs of a constantly growing population and offset the necessary reduction in consumption of red meat and animal products (milk, etc.);
- Cosmetics (with environmentally friendly, non-polluting, and sustainable products with sun protection, anti-aging, antioxidant properties, etc.);
- Animal feed, which will lead to an end to the exploitation of large areas of rainforest and forests for the cultivation of soybeans and other livestock products.
· Emerge
The final piece escapes scientific intent to become a more artistic vision through an installation that transports us to that magical moment of rising to the surface, an underwater dance that is also a tribute to human diversity, and which serves as a transition to the festive atmosphere of the final part of the exhibition.
3.- GREETINGS FROM SPAIN: EXHIBITION CONTENT AREA
Our journey concludes by inviting visitors on a very special tour of our country, a vibrant, bright, creative, modern, friendly, and innovative place.
With a nod to postcards, which for a long time were the vehicle for travelers to share their experience with those far away, this installation plays with the idea of the selfie and everyday gestures so that visitors, in a joyful and fresh way, can explore art, music, and gastronomy, an enjoyable experience in which sunlight once again dominates everything, in a dialogue between postcards and audiovisual language.
4.- A DIVERSE SPAIN: AREAS FOR PUBLIC USE
After Greetings from Spain, visitors will symbolically arrive in Spain, in a large area that will direct them to the restaurant, the shop, and the activity rooms. This large space connecting the building's various public uses also serves as an alternative entrance to the exhibition and a connection to the Forest of Tranquility.
In this area, through which everyone will pass, a large LED screen is proposed, offering a more detailed look at the cultural, architectural, artistic, landscape, and gastronomic diversity of Spain's different autonomous communities.
