Portugal Pavilion at Expo Dubai shows “the world in a country” in audiovisual experience of 2 million euros – Observer
The audiovisual immersive of the Portugal Pavilion at Expo Dubai, the result of an investment of around two million euros, attracts visitors telling the story of the “world in a country”, written with traditional elements to show the Middle East.
The responsibility of making “Portugal feel” at Expo Dubai, through an immersive audiovisual experience, was given to the Porto company GEMA, which won the competition from the Agency for Investment and Foreign Trade of Portugal (AICEP) to develop the exhibition contents for 1,800 square meters (m2) of the Pavilhão de Portugal, under the motto “the world in a country”.
As explained to Lusa by the commercial director of GEMA, Francisco Portal, the company, which started making brand activations, for example, in music festivals, deployed a project team of around 60 people to develop this world-renowned project.
We presented our vision for the pavilion and, within what already existed in the public tender, there was a theme that was given to us, which is ‘the world in a country’, and then, from there we leaned forward and worked with our a specialized team for screenwriters and a script was prepared which was approved by the AICEP”, the person in charge began to clarify.
Thus, with an investment of around two million euros, the company was responsible for creating audiovisual content for the walls and ceiling of the pavilion., in a story that, according to Francisco Portal, begins with the construction of the tile, an element that unites Arab and Portuguese culture.
“[A experiência 360º] it has tiles, which are one of the references of Arab culture in Portugal, as a guiding thread, and the narrative begins with the construction of a 360-degree tile panel [graus]”, explained the person in charge.
When the tile panel is completed, he continued, the ‘journey to Portugal’ begins, which serves as the country’s visiting card at Expo Dubai.
According to Francisco Portal, the feedback they have is “excellent” and the company has already been contacted with requests for quotes and partnerships.
“The feedback we have had from people visiting the pavilions is that ours has really been one of the best, due to the spectacularity, emotion, transmission of values and the interest that people had in visiting Portugal”, congratulations up the Portal Francisco.
This is a work of great responsibility, because it was in our hands to show Portugal to the world, that is, the world in a country, but to translate this into images, concepts, experiences and something that would really stay in people’s memories”, he added.
One operation involves 15 tons of material transported to Dubai, 40 people working remotely to produce the content and 20 people working in the high temperatures of that emirate, for the production and installation of the scenography and audiovisual equipment.
According to the commercial director of GEMA, in addition to the high prices, the main challenges they have to overcome were the limited time they had to develop the project and the ship stranded in the Suez Canal (an important sea passage channel) in Egypt, which forced logistical changes due to the delays of several months it caused.
Expo Dubai was supposed to take place in 2020, but was postponed to between October 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.