The Expo 2020 Dubai trade fair which opens in October, will be "the first major world event" after the COVID-19 pandemic, Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio, stated on Tuesday.
Italy's pavilion at the fair " is beginning to take shape and "will soon be ready", Maio posted to Facebook with a photo of his inauguration of the futuristic building, whose outside is now finished.
The project "best sums up Italian innovation," Di Maio wrote.
"It is not just shapes and colours, here there is a vision, there is the acumen, intelligence and foresight of our businesses, looking towards a new horizon where sustainability, digitization, technological and scientific innovation meet, according to a circular economy model."
The pavilion's roof made with the hulls of Italian ships, and the red, green and white paint made from food waste "offer a new idea of Italy" and "will bring new investors to Italy, relaunching our economy according to a vision of sustainable development," Di Maio argued.
Italy chose "beauty unites people" as its theme for Expo to highlight how beauty can be a tool to connect and to innovate, Di Maio explained.
"Beauty can also be a means of transmitting knowledge, and the ultimate example of this is the amazing digital copy of Michelangelo’s David," he wrote.
The spectacular 3D copy of Michelangelo’s David, one of the world’s most famous marble sculptures and a Renaissance masterpiece, was unveiled during Di Maio's inauguration of the Italian Pavilion.
The 450 kilogramme model, which stands on a 150 kilogramme podium, is considered the most accurate digital copy ever produced of the iconic statue and one of the cultural highlights of Expo 2020 Dubai.
