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Why didn’t SLEDB go with Moratuwa students’ winning concept for Dubai Expo 2020?
“One of the worst”: This is how some visitors to Expo 2020 Dubai described Sri Lanka’s pavilion at the mega event.
And the brouhaha over just how mediocre the stall looked was heightened by a group of students from the Moratuwa University Architecture Faculty’s Department of Integrated Design claiming to have conceptualised a pavilion so stunning that it won the organisers’ grand prize for it.
The controversy broke out after social media commentators started criticising the Sri Lankan offering at the event that was inaugurated on October 1. It was titled ‘Island of Ingenuity’ but many observers said it was anything but that. Some Facebook users who had visited called it “disappointing” and said, “So much more could have been done.”
Unimpressive: Sri Lanka stall at Dubai Expo 2020
The student team also expressed disgust that their plan was not adopted. They had shared their winnings, US$ 4,000 (Rs 805,588 at the prevailing exchange rate) among themselves. By securing the award, however, they also earned a bonus for the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (SLEDB)–the Dubai Expo organisers committed to construct their pavilion for free, as long as the winning design was adopted.
But it was not, and the students made this clear in public pronouncements. “Our concept was based on water,” said a 28-year-old team member who did not wish to be named. “We highlighted the ancient civilizations that started with water, and the ‘pinthaliya’ [a receptacle that holds water for people to access for free] and how we are moving forward with the new world with water, through projects like Port City.”
There were topics like marine biology, boat-making and how Sri Lanka was going to attract investments for them. “That is how our storyline was created,” said another 27-year-old team member, currently reading for his master’s in a foreign university. The concept included traditional craft materials like reed, bamboo and palm leaves and also incorporated ‘gal lalla’, to name a few.
The abstract took three to four months to produce. The students were curated and guided from the start. They wanted to go beyond tea, gems and elephants to “something really unique”.
“In our thought process, we always questioned what was special about Sri Lanka,” said the team member earlier quoted. “We are currently not the best tea-seller in the market. Elephants are advertised better in Africa with their safaris. When it comes to batik and other small-scale crafts, there are a lot of other South Asian countries doing really well with them.”
“So we wanted to highlight how we are a community that has always shared but also how we always take small things and turn them into big opportunities,” he explained. “That’s why we chose the theme of water.”
The furore was harsh enough for Kimarli Fernando, Sri Lanka Tourism Chair, to respond. In a press release, she said the previous Government had committed Rs 580mn to set up the pavilion but that it has been cut down to Rs 155.5mn on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s general instructions to optimise funds usage after the breakout of COVID-19.
She admitted the stall was constructed at no cost to Sri Lanka and that “certain design elements of the pavilion had to be changed from the original layout in accordance with the EXPO DUBAI 2020 HSE guidelines” owing to the pandemic.
The controversy, however, had been over the winning design not being implemented, and that the pavilion did not convey the experience that the students had wanted to deliver.
“We were not informed about the changes that were made,” the student said. “As a result, they missed the key point and key experience of our design. If they told us that changes needed to be made owing to COVID-19 regulations, we would have helped them and ensured that the experience of the concept was preserved.”
It should have been a collective effort, he pointed out. “When we won the competition, the SLEDB was in charge. I think the miscommunication happened when it was handed over to Sri Lanka Tourism.” They were invited for just one meeting in February 2019 at SLEDB and “till today, we haven’t been given a single call asking us how to implement our design”.
“We are not frustrated that they changed the design,” said another team member, who is now a creative director. “We are frustrated because it is a watered-down concept of what we worked so hard for.”
“If you’re going to represent a country, the best of the country should be portrayed,” she said. “If our design had been implemented at the Expo, it would have captured greater attention and would have represented the rich and complete Sri Lankan experience.”
Kumudu Abeyawardane, Chief Growth Officer at Next Campus, had viewed the Sri Lankan stall. “The first thing that hit me is how bare the stall was,” she told the Sunday Times. “There were some pictures that were decent but un-impactful and a couple of very small TV screens.”
“In comparison, the African stalls had no digital screens but they had used the space very effectively,” she elaborated. “The Sri Lankan Tea Board stall was the only exceptional one because they gave a good explanation about tea production.”
“It did not completely capture the essence of our country,” she concluded. “The USA stall had a queue and it was done entirely by young student ambassadors. While I was standing there, they came and spoke to me. And at the end, there was a survey. It was quite clear they were driving education whereas, when it came to Sri Lanka, that was not evident.”
“As someone from the education field, I know that students have far more drive and passion than someone who is paid to do the job,” she said.