A digitally projected version of a tapestry based on Pablo Picasso's masterpiece "Guernica" will be among the main exhibits in the United Nations pavilion at the 2005 Aichi World Exposition, a U.N. official said Tuesday.
"This is a rare opportunity to put a human face on the United Nations," Helene-Marie Gosselin, the U.N. coordinator and commissioner general designate for Expo 2005, said of the world body's participation in the expo.
The U.N. announced last month it will participate in the expo, adopting the theme "Celebrating Diversity."
The U.N. pavilion will feature high-tech presentations of problems confronting the world today, such as population growth and poverty, as well as a visual presentation of UNESCO World Heritage sites. It will be joined by such U.N. organizations as UNESCO, UNICEF, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Food Program, as well as the World Bank, which will be taking part in a world expo for the first time.
Its primary budget of 250 million will be funded entirely by sponsors, including the Japan Arteriosclerosis Prevention Fund and corporations. The U.N. is banned from using its own budget for such events.
Picasso painted the original "Guernica" in reaction to the Spanish Civil War and a massacre resulting from the world's first air raids on civilians, for the Paris World Expo in 1937.