Delays, scandals, controversy. Yet the Expo Milano 2015 worksite progresses, and as in the best Italian tradition, it will be ready for the opening on May 1st.

Interni narrates its evolution in black and white photographs by Matteo Cirenei and Marco Menghi.

Signature shots that remind us that photography not only has the power to document, but also and above all to evoke. To suggest emotions. Through a “slow gaze” (as Gabriele Basilico put it) that carefully examines the most important event of the year for our country.

The Expo Site

About one million square meters for a project organized around two perpendicular axes, like the Cardo and Decumanus of Roman cities, enhanced by green spaces surrounded by water.

The Expo Milano 2015 site develops the theme of the event Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life. The experience begins as soon as you cross the threshold.

The Cardo and Decumanus are the two axes around which the structure of the site is organized, based on the model of the Roman castrum. The pavilions of the participating countries face these two main streets.

Italy displays excellence, culture and tradition in Padiglione Italia, composed of exhibition spaces arranged along the Cardo, and Palazzo Italia, the building representing the Italian State and Government.

The countries

Every country can participate with its own exhibition space. Over 150,000 square meters of the Expo Milano 2015 site are set aside for countries that have chosen to build their own exhibition spaces independently, inside lots of different sizes, from 500 to 5000 square meters, facing the Decumanus, also known as World Avenue.

The arrangement offers a position of great visibility. Futuristic works of architecture, reflecting glass, greenery reflected on facades. Along World Avenue, the longest street in the Expo area, the skyline of the self-built pavilions forms an original landscape.

The corporate pavilions

Expo Milano 2015 provides corporations participating in the event with dedicated areas to the northeast of the site, to present their own projects and contribute to the development of the theme.

Inside the corporate area companies have their own individual spaces, inside pavilions built for the purpose by Expo Milano 2015, or in self-built corporate pavilions.

These pavilions make it possible to create exhibition spaces of great impact and areas of different types, based on the sector and the specificities of the displays. In all cases, the design strives to reduce environmental impact and to coordinate the buildings with systems that produce renewable energy.

The Clusters

Rice, Cacao and Chocolate, Coffee, Fruit and Legumes, Spices, Cereals and Tubers, Bio-Mediterranean, Islands Sea Food, Arid Zones: the Clusters are a new development at Expo Milano 2015. Countries are not grouped in pavilions based on geographical criteria, but on thematic identities and food production chains.

The theme Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life is approached in a wide context, in spaces created for concrete sharing, dialogue and interaction.

The Clusters have common areas organized with functional spaces (markets, exhibitions, events, tastings). Each country has its individual exhibition space, in which to develop its own interpretation of the theme of Expo Milano 2015.

The food chains are: Rice – Abundance and security , Coffee – The energy of ideas, Cacao – The food of the gods, Cereals and tubers – Old and new crops, Fruit and legumes, The world of spices

The theme identities are: Agriculture and nutrition in arid zones, Islands Sea and Food, Bio-Mediterranean – Health, beauty and harmony

The countries
The Expo Site
The Clusters