Launch of Ireland's Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai

Ireland announced its participation at Expo 2025 Osaka today at a launch event in Osaka, Japan. Ireland will be one of 160 countries participating in Expo 2025, which will be held in Osaka, Japan, from 13 April to 13 October 2025.

Expo will be a key platform for delivering on the Government’s ‘Global Ireland’ ambition to build Ireland’s presence in the world, and will see a strongly integrated ‘Team Ireland’ approach. The theme for Ireland at Expo is ‘Creativity Connects People’ and will involve collaboration between multiple Government Departments and State Agencies, as well as National Cultural Institutions, business organisations, academia, artists and makers, and social innovators.

World Expos provide important meeting opportunities for the global community and a platform to connect businesses, governments, international partners, as well as millions of visitors from around the world, while showcasing innovation across science, culture and society. The city of Osaka will be hosting a World Expo for the second time, 55 years after it first did so. The core theme for Osaka 2025 is ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives’ with three sub-themes: Saving Lives, Empowering Lives and Connecting Lives.

Ireland’s core message at Expo 2025 Osaka will be one of optimism – that the solutions to the problems of today are to be found in the imaginative, creative potential of every human being and every community. The challenge is to develop mechanisms for the power of human imagination to be fully realised, and a world in which schools, homes, universities, workplaces and communities encourage creativity, imagination and future thinking, and so expand our horizon of possibility.

The Tánaiste, Micheál Martin TD, commented on the launch:

“When I visited Japan as Taoiseach in 2022, I was greatly encouraged by the enormous potential in growing economic and cultural ties between our nations and I signed a comprehensive Joint Leaders statement with Prime Minister Kishida of Japan. Ireland’s Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, is an opportunity to expand on that commitment and the potential to deepen the important relationship between Ireland and Japan.”

Speaking at the launch of Ireland’s participation in Expo 2025 in Osaka, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman TD said:

“Ireland’s theme for Osaka is ‘Creativity Connects People’. This links naturally to the human-centric overarching Expo theme of Designing Future Societies. Ireland will focus on the power of creative imagining and creative action to open up shared ground for social innovation, connection between people everywhere, and inclusion.’

Ireland’s Commissioner General for Expo 2025 Osaka, Mr Brian O’Brien, said:

“Ireland will engage deeply with all of the Expo programming, which is organised around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. We would like visitors to Expo 2025 Osaka to experience Ireland as we are today: a dynamic, creative society and economy, and a country that has undergone and adapted to transformative change – while adhering to core values of community and human connection.”

Ireland’s pavilion for Expo Osaka has been designed by the architects at the Office of Public Works (OPW) – and is the first national Pavilion to commence construction. A harmonious relationship between built and natural environment is central to the design. The building consists of three overlapping ellipses, echoing the traditional Celtic Triskele motifs and is located at a strategically important entrance point to the overall Expo site.

Sustainability has been a critical design principle. The structural frame with an external envelope of vertical timber louvres has been designed to allow ease of dismantling and recycling or re-use of materials.

The building will use sustainable Irish timber supplied by Ireland’s Forestry Agency, Coillte. Internally, dark stained timber will evoke the richness of Irish bog oak. The external timber louvres sawn from Irish Douglas Fir will create depth and texture on the curved walls, accentuate the intersecting forms and create shadows to animate the facade as the sun moves across the sky.

The use of timber evokes a connection between Irish and Japanese craft and will have an immediate visual relationship with the curved timber structure of the grand roof.

The centrepiece of Ireland’s Pavilion will be a commissioned, multimedia work that will include sound, vision and ‘created’ objects that reveal an invite engagement with the creative processes of Japanese and Irish makers – merging cultural differences into a unified creation that speaks equally to both cultures.

The full programme for Ireland at Expo 2025 Osaka will be launched in Summer 2024 and will reflect priorities for Ireland at Expo:

Life Sciences - the strategic importance for Ireland of creativity, innovation and investment in pharma, biotechnology, medical devices and diagnostic operations;
Music & Dance - as the most recognised Irish art forms in Japan – which will be presented in traditional formats as well collaborations with Japanese and/or other music makers;
Research - with a particular emphasis on the Science Foundation Ireland Centres as multi-institutional and multidisciplinary collaborations where academia engages in deeply collaborative research partnerships with industry and also engages with civil society and community groups, connecting the sciences and the humanities;
Making: craft and design as cultural expression with deep roots in history, tradition and identity.

ENDS

Press Office

19 March 2024