Mexico will have a prominent presence at this Expo from November 8 to 14.
“It is a perfect opportunity to attract investment and tourism,” says Martha Delgado Peralta, undersecretary of the Foreign Secretariat SRE.
The government of Mexico will present in a few days the ambitious and varied cultural agenda that it will develop at Expo Dubai 2020, in which all the artistic expressions of the country will be present, said Martha Delgado Peralta, undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE).
Just over two weeks after the opening of the expo in the emirate of Dubai, the undersecretary, who attended the cutting of the ribbon at the head of the Mexican delegation, highlights the financial and creative effort involved in having a decent pavilion in times of health crisis and austerity.
“It took a lot of work in budgetary terms to have a pavilion at Expo Dubai, due to the austerity issue. We didn’t have the money to do a project from scratch. We negotiated with the Emirati government to rent a three-story building and set up our pavilion there, and a very interesting creative task was done to be able to give it an identity and make it a pavilion worthy of the country, ”says Delgado.
Coordinated by the plastic artist Betsabée Romero, more than 100 weavers from the municipality of Etzatlán, Jalisco, manufactured a multicolored raffia crochet fabric with which the entire facade of the pavilion was upholstered, “which is the only handmade one in the entire expo ”.
Culture, heritage and business opportunity
“The event should bring many opportunities to the country not only for the dissemination of our cultural and natural heritage but also an opportunity to boost the economy that can attract investment and tourism,” the undersecretary confides.
The Mexican pavilion at Expo Dubai 2020 is divided into three floors (900 m²); In the first, there is an area of introduction to the country to present it as a cultural power, a video that projects tourist images of the states, the work of the weavers who made the facade of the pavilion, and some immersive experiences about the Mayan culture, the heritage prehispanic and natural sanctuaries in Mexico. “Everything is very fast, music and images, there is no formal exhibition because people have a very limited time, and then what we tried was that they could get a general idea of what Mexico and its culture is; there is also a handicraft shop ”, says the undersecretary.
On the first floor, the immersive installation “Mystika” stands out, a cube of mirrors where images of the Mexican landscape photographer Pepe Soho are projected, depicting the three Mexican sanctuaries of biodiversity: that of the monarch butterfly, in Michoacán and the State of Mexico; that of fireflies, in Tlaxcala, and that of the gray whale, in Baja California.
“It is interesting, because our pavilion is in the Mobility Petal of Expo Dubai (there are three: Opportunity, Sustainability and Mobility), so we put the sanctuary of the monarch butterfly that is a symbol of migration par excellence”, says Delgado
On the second floor of the pavilion is the entire business area where companies can make contacts, meet with suppliers, present their products, have exchanges. “The intention is also to generate export and investment opportunities for the country,” she says.
“We from the Undersecretariat are supporting all the companies and the cameras that attend the expo to develop a commercial agenda, not only with the Arab Emirates but with all the countries (192) that have a pavilion like ours; so that if there is a company that wants to export to the United States, Europe, Australia or Africa, there it has an enclave to be able to contact its peers and offer its product ”, she points out.
On the third floor there is a Mexican restaurant where in addition to offering the experience of our gastronomy, daily presentations of Mexican products are made, such as avocado, tequila, mezcal, tortilla, etc.
35 cultural events
Mexico will also present 35 cultural events in the different scenarios that Expo Dubai has, where speakers, actors, painters, dancers, singers will participate … The official reveals that this week will present the complete cultural program together with the Ministry of Culture, but announced that they will be Present on the poster are the Folkloric Ballet of Amalia Hernández, the dancers Elisa Carrillo and Isaac Hernández, the opera singer Javier Camarena, the singer Lila Downs, the Sonora Santanera, among others.
From November 8 to 14, it will be the week with a greater presence of Mexico at the fair, said the undersecretary. On the 8th, the Cuauhtémoc School Ship, of the Mexican Navy, will arrive at the Port of Rashid. The 10th will be the day dedicated to Mexico in the protocol agenda of Expo Dubai. Very early the flags will be raised and the national anthems of both countries (Mexico and United Arab Emirates UAE) will be sung, a representative for each delegation will deliver a speech, for Mexico Martha Delgado will do it, and then the Folkloric Ballet of Amalia Hernánd will be presented.
Source: El Economista
