| United
Nations National Day : October 24, 1988 Agreement to Participate : 4 September 1988 Commissioner - General : Mr Gilberto Rizzo Pavilion : 552 square metres |
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The façade of the United Nations Pavilion at World Expo '88 is partially visible in this colour photograph
Image Kind Courtesy of the Damian McGreevy Collection of Foundation Expo '88
| The United Nations Pavilion,
near the Melbourne Street entrance of the Exposition
and just behind the Australian and Queensland Pavilions, was
one of the more bright expo pavilions, with a huge
30m x 10m mural of children from all over the world by internationally
reknowned Australian designer/artist Ken Done
adorning the pavilion outside wall.
Visit Ken Done's web-site
Inside, profits from the
Pavilion shop benefited UNICEF, and guests were
taken on a trip around the world on a multi-visual presentation
entitled "Island in Space" narrated by Sir Peter
Ustinov, with music composed by Michael Conway Baker (note below).
A multi-screen audio-visual 'Worldwatch 2020' - a
fantasy view of Earth from an alien perspective
also featured.
MUSIC FOR THE UNITED
NATIONS PAVILION AT
EXPO '86, VANCOUVER, B.C., CANADA WORLD EXPO '88, BRISBANE,
AUSTRALIA
By Michael Conway Baker,
O.B.C. Order of British Columbia
As is typical of film
music, I was asked to write and produce the score
for the U.N. pavilion at the 1986 World Exposition
in Vancouver, B.C. about
two weeks before the opening. Needless to
say, I had to get a "handle" on what the music was to characterize in a
very short time. There was a good deal of
talking and debating about the music mainly
because the visuals had not been set.
The narrative, by Peter Ustinov, had already
been done, but not edited. The budget for
the music was very low and had
to be performed on MIDI (synthesizers) by myself.
There was one defining moment that came, just before we were
all going to take a lunch break, when I suddenly
knew what was needed musically. I jumped up and said I was going
home to write down a major portion of the score
and that I would return in a couple of hours.
When I returned and played
my musical "solution", everyone applauded and
agreed that, yes, this was the way to go. The whole music track was
completed the next day. The pictures and narrative
were then edited to the music, something rarely done in film
making. The producer explained that the music was
the "spine" of the whole show and that, up until the moment the music was
completed, he had been uncertain about how to edit
the pictures and narrative. The whole procedure was a revelation
to me. This same score and audio-visual was used
for the U.N. Pavilion at Brisbane's World Expo '88.
Michael Conway Baker later
was asked to compose the music for the Canada
Pavilion at Taejon Expo '93 (South Korea.)
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