Expo Pavilion, Chile 1875
The History of Chile and World Expos
Although some successful arts and industry fairs had been held in Chile previously, in 1875 the country organized its own International Expo. On that occasion, the “Expo Pavilion” was built in Santiago’s Quinta Normal park. The building later became the Museum of Natural History.
Twenty-eight countries and more than 3,000 exhibitors participated in that event.
History continues in Paris in 1889, the same year that the Eiffel Tower was built and France commemorated the centennial of its Revolution.
Chile’s participation in that expo included a pavilion that can still be visited in Santiago, as it is now the home of Museo Artequín, an art museum for children. After the famous expo in Paris, the Chilean pavilion was dismantled and brought by boat to Valparaiso. There, it was loaded onto a train and brought to Santiago. Today, this building is a National Monument.
Chile continued to participate in World Expos during the 20th century, but it was Chile’s participation in Seville in 1992 that most people will remember. On that occasion, Chile transported an iceberg from Antarctica to the torrid 42 degrees Celsius that is typical of summer in Seville.
Prominently featured in the headlines of numerous newspapers and an ongoing topic of conversation throughout the Expo, Chile’s pavilion became the “must-see” thanks to the iceberg and its beautiful architecture. Chile’s pavilion was one of the few to be acquired by the city of Seville and is still located today at the former Expo site.
Chile was invited to participate in the next World Expo in Shanghai 2010 by the International Bureau of Expositions, an organization based in Paris that oversees and manages these events. With a vision for the future and a sense of the opportunity that the Expo presents, the President of the Republic, Michelle Bachelet, accepted this invitation.
The President named Mr. Hernan Somerville as Chile’s Commissioner General. After inviting bids for the various services required to give body and life to our Pavilion, Mr. Somerville will lead the team chosen to build our presence in Shanghai in 2010, with its theme of “Better city, better life”.
Chile’s participation in Expo Shanghai 2010 is a wonderful opportunity to reflect, as a country, on our own dreams of what a city should be and the way in which we want to live our lives. We have already been reflecting upon this theme, to a certain extent, as the 200th anniversary of our independence approaches.
Likewise, Expo Shanghai 2010 is a splendid platform for communication, information and knowledge, in addition to offering the possibility of connecting two worlds: those of Chile and China, two countries on opposite sides of the planet and with diverse cultural systems, but which share the same desire to achieve sustainable, environmentally friendly development, improving the well-being of our people as much as possible.