Poland’s preparation for EXPO 2010
Poland is smiling

11.02.2010

During the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, Poland will show a young and dynamic face without excessive folklore, Old Polish bread, or the Bialowieża Forests. The country will present itself as a modern and open European state and a potential economic partner. This year the Polish Expo Section decided to focus on similarities between Polish and Chinese history and philosophy. The exhibition, which is to be held from May 1st to October 31st, 2010 is estimated to be visited by up to 70 million people.

Poland is the gateway to Europe - a reliable business partner and a modern country of bright people who are the strength and value of the state. These are the strong points which the organizers chose in order to best promote Poland during the exhibition in Shanghai. In fact, one of the major mottos displayed in the Polish pavilion, which was created by Boris Kudlička, an outstanding opera production designer, Natalia Paszkowska and Marcin Mostafa from WWA Architects, reads "Poland is smiling”.

The theme of Expo 2010 "Better City, Better Life" expresses the common wish of the whole humankind for a better life in future urban environments. Poland will show that Polish cities were constructed by people who underwent tough times but managed to rebuild their reality, create an improved environment for a good urban life and not only maintain respect for tradition and past but also effectively combine it with challenges posed by the present and the future. Poland will focus on the presentation and interpenetration of culture interaction processes in cities and between urban and rural areas. It is the motto "People create the city" which served as an inspiration for the Polish exhibition that helped creators stress the importance of people - energetic, enterprising and creative - who constitute the greatest asset of the country.

Poland sees the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai as a top priority and fully recognizes that the event opens up a great opportunities to start a long-term promotion of the country in the whole of China. This is not to say that Polish presence in Shanghai will start with the opening of the exhibition. Appropriate measures - political and economic missions - which effectively introduce Poles in the country and let the Chinese learn more about Poland and its potential, have been taken since April 15th, 2009. They are all the more important because China has recently started to treat Expo 2010 as a kind of a password. Due to the fact that the event enjoys an aura of an extraordinary prestige Expo-connected initiatives open many doors which would normally stay closed.

National pavilions will be opened in Shanghai till midnight and, if there are more visitors, even a round-the-clock. The Polish Section prepared numerous multimedia presentations - among them an animated story about the history of the Polish state by the Oscar-nominated director of "The Cathedral", Tomasz Bagiński. The film was prepared under the supervision of the eminent historian, professor Henryk Samsonowicz.

Moreover, visitors will be able to see a documentary film by Miroslaw Chojecki "China saves Poland" which was realized under the supervision of professor Jan Rowiński. The film reveals an unknown part of the contemporary Polish history. In turn, Andrzej Fidyk’s film "Polish migration - Polish dreams” tells a story of fulfilled dreams and the quest for a better life, symbolized by the film's characters and their migration from the countryside to the city. The protagonists are well-known personalities from the world of film and music (e.g. Urszula Dudziak, Ilona Felicjańska), and their individual stories shown on separate screens take the viewer on a journey that has a common origin and a common end.

The World Exhibition Expo 2010 will be opened on May 1st, 2010. The Polish Day will be held on May 22nd, 2010.
(Source: Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency)
More information:
Krystyna Olesińska, PR Division, Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency,
Tel. 00 48 22 334 98 23, 00 48 600 400 874, krystyna.olesinska@paiz.gov.pl