The narrative of Salvatores on Lazio for Expo Dubai

Along with other regions involved in the project, the Lazio Region begins its path towards this year’s great global event. “Beauty Unites People” is the title of the narrative by an Oscar-winning director on the beauty of the areas attending the Universal Exhibition beginning on 1 October

The Oscar-winning Director Gabriele Salvatores will be entrusted with the story to share with visitors at the Italy Pavilion of Expo 2020 Dubai on behalf of Lazio Region. The path towards this year’s great global event begins, with all regions involved.

Via a press conference on the Foreign Press digital platform, the Commissariat in charge of Italy’s attendance has revealed a project which portrays our local dimension as the main feature of the exhibition path at the Pavilion of the upcoming Universal Exhibition set to begin on 1 October.

Salvatores – chosen by a commission guided by Sandro Veronesi – is entrusted with the task of narrating the beauty of our country evoked in the very title of Italy’s contribution: “Beauty Uniting People”. This is our interpretation of Expo Dubai’s motto “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”.

In the next few weeks the eye of the Oscar-winning director along with the contribution of Indiana Productions will cross the regions which have joined the project. The footage will be edited and then shown for the entire semester of the exhibition to all those visiting the Italy Pavilion.

The entire story of the Pavilion was interpreted as the journey of a gaze. At the beginning visitors will admire the landscape of the exhibition itinerary and then enter into a journey of narrative architectures made of content expressing the very best of Italian ability and beauty: cinema, theatre, landscape, innovative enterprises, cutting-edge technology and sustainability.

The story built by the director along with participating regions entails highly impressive and impactful content. This begins from the Belvedere area, where beauty is showcased. A circular window on the areas of our country with an all-round view of the most evocative Italian landscapes, signifying also the need to safeguard and care for this invaluable asset which our country represents for the entire world.

The journey continues with the Know-How film, shown on a 100 square metre screen and able to show visitors the best of craftsmanship, agri-food, mechanics, design and the use of the most sophisticated technologies. Then on to Short Stories, temporary exhibitions with a more in-depth set of themes on our culture and art as well as current innovation in the fields of healthcare, medicine, aerospace and design.

The Italian Pavilion at Expo Dubai will therefore be a veritable “Garden of Stories”. It is a garden in the sense of a metaphorical synthesis of many different elements which together create a language of balance and harmony, the projection of the order of the universe. And the stories which come about from our lands often represent unique skills the world over: those of the ability to innovate, as has often happened over the centuries and still happens today. The ability to change the course of the history of humanity thanks to the vision and the awareness of living in a land of inestimable natural, landscape and cultural value.

I believe that beauty and art and perhaps the pleasure of life which Italy is able to produce and export may truly contribute to changing the world, states Gabriele Salvatores.

The beauty of Italy that Gabriele Salvatores will narrate with mastery is that beauty founded on the diversity of terroir and knowledge. In this way and for the first time in a Universal Exhibition our regions will be artistic partners of the Italy Pavilion, producing content for the entire Expo duration, says Paolo Glisenti, Commissioner General for the attendance of Italy at Expo 2020 Dubai. We need to re-launch tourism – beginning with its experiential dimension – and attract international capital towards enterprise value-chains ranging from crafts to full-scale industry, not forgetting flows of human capital towards scientific and technology centres of excellence so as to generate sustainability for the future, adds Glisenti.

“All the landscapes of our country, excluding natural ones, are the result of the direct expression of Italian know-how. I am very happy that an auteur such as Gabriele Salvatores is going to use his ingenuity to narrate and interpret all this”, says Davide Rampello, Artistic Director of the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

“Gabriele Salvatores is a true master of Italian cinema among the most appreciated both at home and abroad. It is great news therefore, and it fills us with pride that he will tell the story of how beautiful and dynamic our land is at Expo 2020 Dubai”, states the Regional Minister for Economic Development, Commerce and Crafts, Research, Start-ups and Innovation of Lazio Paolo Orneli. “With his great talent he will certainly be able to highlight the points of strength of our region: its enormous artistic and landscape beauty of course, which are unique in the world; but also the human richness, the attitude towards work and creativity of its people who, both in the past and today are its beating heart and engine”.

Gabriele Salvatores was born in Naples and then moved to Milan. He is among the founders of Teatro dell’Elfo where also directed the rock-musical A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which became his debut film. After this came Kamikazen, Marrakech Express, Turné and Mediterraneo which was awarded an Oscar. From then on success continues through a series of very different genres including documentaries and opera.