Work Ethic

Architectural Review, The, Sept, 2000 by Penny Mcguire

Though a combination of choreographed dance and mime and industrial structure, a vision of work in the future is conveyed in one of Expo's enormous themed halls.

The five enormous themed halls -- part of the Hanover Messe and permanent fixtures -- run in a line north-south between the west and east parts of the Expo site. Various shows and exhibitions have been staged inside the halls on the theme of 'humankind in harmony with nature'.

This has been translated in various ways -- some more successful than others -- by dramaturgy, choreographic imagination and/or high technology, into visions of the future. As usual with extrapolations of the present, the moral content is high and the focus impossibly broad -- health, knowledge, the environment, work, the twenty-first century, and so on. You wander from one show to another in alternating states: of delight at what can be achieved with high-tech these days, and of sensuous confusion. In places the didacticism is, to an adult, vaguely irritating. Just like at the London Dome.

Within the rectangular cavern of Hall 4, Jean Nouvel has devised crepuscular settings for three shows: the Future of Work, Mobility, and Knowledge, Information, Communication.

The Future of Work is the central section and here Nouvel has erected a scaffolded platform that stretches almost the entire length of the hall, which is considerable. You reach the platform by escalator or stairs at one end. The lighting is blue, underfoot the floor is black and the scaffolding glints in the twilight. In the centre of the platform is an enormous elliptical well, enclosed by semitransparent walls through which you can glimpse shadowy figures. Descending a ramp, you find yourself on a darkened stage, 80m long by 30m wide, surrounded by vertical scaffolded tiers. It is the inverse of an arena, for the stage is occupied by the spectators while performers on the tiered walkways (members of Frederic Flamand's dance theatre) enact the message accompanied by video art with light and sound effects.

The message that 'human beings are not passive receptacles, but must accept new challenges, make use of opportunities, and shape the future' is familiar stuff, an exhortation from the pulpit, but the staging is gutsy. The choreography involves simultaneous spectacles, so that in mute endorsement of the message spectators as well as dancers move around the place, all of them encompassed by the tough architectural language of industry.