Post
Region: Africa
Lodged | From | Messages |
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Montagnes de or | The d'Orian pavilion centres on an area designed to evoke a street market. Musicians, acrobats and other performers mingle with the crowd, while at various "stalls" chefs serve up bowls full of traditional d'Orian food - fried and salted fish, seafood stews, beef soups, balls of cassava dough to be dipped in fiery chili pastes, candied fruits and fermented milk beer. The market gives access to 3 further areas representing the countryside, the sea and the mountains. In the countryside area are demonstrations of traditional weaving, basket craft and leather working while screens loop film of the country's varied wildlife. The sea area features several replica boats that visitors can board and explore, including a fishing vessel and a French galleon from past centuries. The mountain area is themed around mining, with visitors invited to pass through narrow tunnels that depict the experiences of gold miners in colonial times in order to reach a display of working models of contemporary mining machinery by which a choir belts out an interpretation of traditional miners' working songs. When everything has been seen the visitor exits via a corridor lined with displays on the life and works of prominent d'Orians from various spheres of public life both at home and overseas (predominantly in France). Back at home there is a degree of controversy that the pavilion is not the work of a d'Orian designer. Instead the job and an undisclosed but reputedly considerable fee has gone to a former assistant director of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. Zambique, Lower Nubia, and Free boers |