World Expo Museum was cooperatively built by International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) and Shanghai Municipal Government and is the only official museum and documentation center of BIE.  
 
Expo Milano 2015 is the Expo which the World Expo Museum participated in as a stand-alone exhibitor for the first time. World Expo Museum, together with BIE and the operator of Expo Milano 2015 (Expo 2015 S.p.A.), jointly set up "World Expo Museum Pavilion". The pavilion is located at Bio-Mediterranean Cluster and is a stand-alone pavilion with two storeys, occupying an area of about 500 m2.

World Expo Museum Pavilion takes "Everything Begins with Expo--Expo X Expos Travelling Exhibition of BIE" as its main exhibition content. From the perspective of human civilization and the World Expo, the exhibition reflects the history starting from 1851 and reviews the role of the World Expo in advancing and integrating the human civilization.    

This exhibition is a platform of popularizing the World Expo knowledge and promulgating the World Expo concept, allowing the visitors to feel the extraordinary glamour of the World Expo vicariously, know more about the theme of the World Expo and think more about the future Expos by intuitively displaying the tremendous contribution that the World Expo has made to the improvement of the modern society and people's livelihood and multi-dimensionally reproducing the anecdotes behind the pavilions and exhibits of the previous Expos.          

Appearance of the pavilion
 
Layout plan of the pavilion
 
Aerial view of the pavilion

I. Introduction to the exhibition content   

Frame diagram of the thematic content of the exhibition
 
 
Exhibition theme: Everything Begins with Expo 

"Everything Begins with Expo" is a theme containing the profound understanding of the World Expo to the progress of human civilization in more than a century. The World Expo is not only the collector and exhibitor of the technological achievements, but also the carrier and impeller of the civilization evolution. This exhibition aims to comprehensively display the historical appearance of the World Expo, striving to present the complete picture of the World Expo from the perspectives of the development of the society and cities, transformation of the national status, industrial and technological development, function of arts, important Expos in history, etc.    
  
The exhibition content is divided into four parts, including:

1. Lobby: World Expo and the World. Convention Relating to International Exhibitions, logo of BIE, Expo spirit and exhibition theme are introduced.   

2. History of the World Expo. History of the World Expo's birth and development is comprehensively reviewed from the perspectives of "Historical Review", "Chronology of the World Expo", "Stage for All Countries to Congregate", "Path to Human Progress", "World Expo: World Voyage", "Birth of the New Order", "World Full of Challenges", etc.

3. World Expo Museum Overview of WEM, architectural form of WEM, WEM's inheritance and utilization of the Expo legacies, etc. are introduced.   

4. Future of the World Expo. Overviews of the future Expos in 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, etc. are introduced. 
The exhibition area themed by "Expo Food that Influences the World" is specially set up as the response to the theme of Expo Milano, aiming to introduce the stories of food in the history of the World Expo through the exhibits and exhibition items and enhance the interaction with the audience.

 
Historical wall of the World Expo

Exhibition hall of future Expos

II. Exhibition design and ways of display

Through the huge-scale remodeling of the scenes, panels of images and texts with strong visual effects, combination of exhibits in the style of window display and the diversified multimedia exhibition items, as well as the elegant illumination with museum effects and the uniform ocean blue logos of BIE, the exhibition creates an elegant, cosy, immersive environment for the visitors.  
        
This exhibition combines the multimedia technologies and traditional handcrafts. In the section of physical exhibits, there are installation artworks openly displayed, including more than 40 models and sculptures related to the history of the World Expo, such as models of Crystal Palace, Eiffel Tower, etc. and about 80 pieces of precious Expo manuscripts and documents opened to the public for the first time. In the section of the multimedia exhibition items, there are 3D films which can be viewed by the visitors with the 3D glasses provided and the short stories-styled videos (historical stories of the World Expo) scatteredly inlaid in the panels--these diversified multimedia create an audio-visual feast for the visitors.    

  
Expo-related exhibits
 
Expo gallery