Belgrade artist Andrej Josifovski Pianist he refused the invitation to participate in the project of decorating the Somalia pavilion at Expo 2027. He expressed his attitude with an artistic intervention: he stuck a cucumber on the facade of the Expo 2027 headquarters with adhesive tape and called the work "Impossible Cooperation".
In a letter to the Expo Commissioner of Somalia, he explained that he could not participate in the exhibition, which he associated with corruption, non-transparent spending of public money and arranging jobs for companies close to the authorities.
Andrej Josifovski Pianista thus, perhaps unplanned, joined a much longer global tradition of artistic and civil resistance to world exhibitions.
Almost every Expo exhibition organized in an even democratic society, here, of course, we do not count Dubai and Kazakhstan, had its "No Expo" side: artists, architects, students, activists and cultural collectives who questioned its meaning, costs, relationship to the city, workers and public space. Sometimes they were demonstrations, sometimes alternative festivals, and sometimes artistic interventions that were remembered almost as much as the exhibition itself.
Milan: when "No Expo" became a movement
The most famous contemporary example is certainly Milan 2015.
The "No Expo" movement was created practically parallel to Milan's candidacy and developed for almost eight years. It gathered not only classic political activists, but a whole network of student, cultural, urban and social collectives. Their topics were very similar to those that can be heard in Serbia today: the cost of the project, the way public money is used, large construction investments, private interests and the question of who this big event actually serves.
The cultural scene was an important part of that ecosystem. Publications, debates, exhibitions and performances were created, and certain collectives used the Expo as material for criticism of spectacle, consumerism and the way the city uses culture as an instrument of its own branding.
The peak of the protests occurred on May 1, 2015, the opening day of the Expo, when tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Milan. The peaceful part of the protest was overshadowed by the violence of the demonstrators and clashes with the police, which ultimately significantly weakened the movement itself.
But "No Expo" remained a part of Milan's political and cultural history.
Photo: Private archiveA pianist in front of the EXPO headquarters
Osaka: The protest against the Expo is older than half a century
An even more interesting example comes from Japan.
During Expo 1970 in Osaka, Hanpaku - Anti-Expo, a kind of counter-manifestation in Osaka Castle Park, was created. More than 200 organizations participated in the five-day program that combined political debates, exhibitions, theater and folk music. According to the materials of the city museum in Suita, more than 60.000 people passed through Hanpaku.
The most dramatic performance, however, took place on the very symbol of the Expo.
On April 26, 1970, twenty-five-year-old Hideo Sato climbed into the "eye" of the monumental Tower of the Sun by artist Taro Okamoto. Wearing a red helmet and anti-Expo messages, he stayed there for almost a week. One of the most recognizable art objects of the manifestation was thus temporarily turned into a stage of protest against the exhibition itself.
The reaction of the author of the Tower, the legendary avant-garde artist Taro Okamoto, is particularly interesting. Instead of experiencing the protest only as vandalism of his work, according to later testimonies, he welcomed the fact that his tower took on a new, unexpected meaning and practically invited the protester to be even more visible.
Half a century later, ahead of Expo 2025, Osaka has again received anti-Expo movements. Civic initiatives demanded the suspension of the project due to rising costs, public funding, working conditions and the connection of the development of Yumeshima Island with the future casino-resort. Official prefecture documents also record formal requests to cancel the Expo.
In other words: even Osaka got its Expo counterculture twice, 55 years apart.
Vancouver: Punks vs. Expo 86
Expo 86 in Vancouver opened up a different question - what does a big event do to the people who already live in the space that the city wants to "beautify".
In the run-up to the exhibition, there was an eviction of residents of cheap hotels and lodgings in the Downtown Eastside. Academic analyzes estimate that between 500 and 850 people were directly or indirectly displaced.
The answer also came from culture.
The Canadian punk band DOA participated in a project to support evicted residents, and a large benefit concert was organized where, among others, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie performed. Part of the local cultural scene openly debated whether artists should participate in the Expo at all, with ideas of a cultural boycott and organizing a "counter-fair".
Hanover: An artist enters the Expo to criticize it
Even the German Expo 2000 in Hanover did not pass without strong resistance.
Opponents described it as a global advertising show of the corporate vision of the future, and opposition to the project was so serious that Hannover organized a public hearing in 1992. The result was an almost divided city: 51,5 percent for the Expo, 48,5 percent against.
British artist Jeremy Deller chose a different method. His work Has the World Changed, or Have I Changed? was created by sending a man dressed as a clown to wander through the futuristic Expo 2000. The photographs of the absurd character among grandiose visions of the future became an artistic commentary on the spectacle itself.
Expo as a magnet for its own criticism
Artists ask what is behind the spectacle. Activists ask how much the spectacle costs. Architects ask what is left of the city when the spotlights are turned off. Citizens ask who makes decisions and who pays for them.
From Osaka 1970, through Vancouver 1986, Hanover 2000 and Milan 2015, to Osaka 2025 – the questions remain the same, only the scenery changes.
And Belgrade, it seems, has caught a backdrop in the shape of a cucumber.
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