The Coffee Cluster opens today at Expo 2015. Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado and illycaffe’s Chairman and CEO Andrea Illy will inaugurate today the Coffee Cluster, the thematic pavilion dedicated to the dark brew that illy will be providing as Official Coffee Partner of the Universal Exposition of Milan.
The Coffee Cluster will be the home of ten coffee-producing countries, such as Burundi, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Ethiopia, who would otherwise be unable to officially exhibit at Expo Milano 2015 on their own.
The focus of the cluster will be sustainability and the role that coffee production plays in the world food supply.
Created in collaboration with the International Coffee Organization (ICO), this Cluster narrates the past, present, and future of coffee, focusing on three areas:
- the product and its journey from bean to cup
- the creativity, art and culture that have developed around the coffee-drinking ritual
- the stories and traditions of the countries of coffee farmers and consumers
Taking its inspiration from the vast coffee plantations located at the edges of the tropical forests of Africa and Central America, this cluster’s architecture evokes the highest branches of the trees in the shade which the coffee plants grow, with the pavilions serving as a metaphor for these tree trunks.
The Coffee Cluster is characterized by warm and natural colors that change according to the changing light that filters through the roof, giving visitors the illusion of being in a real forest.
Seven images by the Brazilian social documentary photographer will introduce visitors to the pavilion, illustrating how coffee is cultivated.
The coffee cluster marks the first time Burundi has shown at a world fair. The other participating countries are the Dominican Republic, East Timor, Guatemala, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Yemen.
The wonderful life of coffee
illy’s University of Coffee offers an emotional and ”sensory route”, between past and future, nature, history and science, in the Coffee Cluster,
Every day, from 11.30 am to 7.30 pm and during the whole Expo 2015, in a 1,250 square metre area, visitors can discover The wonderful life of coffee walking among coffee plants, artistic photos and among the aromas and flavours of the most consumed beverage in the world, after water.
This area will also host events on weekends from May to October, two per month, to show the places where coffee is cultivated, and those who produce it, in accordance with different traditions and rituals.
Milan Expo 2015 runs May to October and is titled Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.
