2010Expo - Miniature Sheet

Stamp motif: the map of the Old town of Dubrovnik Souvenir sheet motif: the map of the Shanghai Underground The better the town, the better the life in it – is the main theme of the EXPO 2010 and the Croatian participation at this exhibition taking place in Shanghai will run under the motto «Croatia - diversity of cities, diversity of life». The town is a dense conglomeration of human life and working space. That density inevitably looks for the common, and the common in a town builds common spaces which in the end materialise also the identity of the town itself. If we watch, remember or talk about a town or towns in some areas, the talk is always about the life in the town’s outer, common spaces. They create the identity but also the quality of life. Croatian Participation in creating a healthy and sustainable urban life can hardly be in the field of new technology or experience in controlling today’s carcinogenic development of megastructures, which almost can not be called towns any more. However, the participation with a story of sometimes fabulous examples of a harmony of a town, its spaces, its nature and life could be inspiring in today’s search for the role and function of common spaces and their contribution to the quality of life in a town and also effective in the promotion of Croatian identity and pragmatic tourism. By a simplified and to recession adjusted concept of their emersion, and by using existing image material within a given space - which in Croatia is provided by the organiser, the Croatian towns and spaces are presented in a flash journey. Ten projectors dynamically project photographs and short movie clips (10 seconds) onto the walls of the space - the pictures and events of an everyday life of Croatian towns in their characteristic urban situations, follow one another. The presentations of the diversity of life in numerous continental and costal, new and historic Croatian towns, interchange. Each interchange is followed by a photographic flash and the name of the town appears bellow or at the top of the slide. The presentation is accompanied by a sound of authentic rumours of urban life and by music inspired by Croatian town spaces. It lasts four to five minutes and is continuously repeated. Branko Silađin