Multimedia Art Installation

Expo Dubai 2020
TRACES

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TRACES presents a poetic vision of an uncertain future and a reflection on our present. This art installation on the Canada Pavilion site at Expo 2020 Dubai challenges visitors and raises awareness about the growing threat to ecosystems caused by climate change.

Striking a chord

Embracing the gravity and hope needed to suggest a poetic path forward, the traveling installation TRACES reflects the collaboration necessary to rise to the occasion.

The project struck a chord with core values long embraced by KANVA, and the firm embarked on a mission to connect hearts, heads, and hands in pursuit of a brighter future that reinterprets relationships between inhabitants of the planet. In developing a concept that would be artistic and poetic, yet also touching and meaningful, they studied multiple aspects of global warming and habitat degradation before embracing a visual that captured the very essence of their message – a rising murmur of birds, swirling across the sky in a massive, collective movement.

Canada's pavilion cost $40 million. It was designed by Toronto-based Moriyama & Teshima Architects and built by EllisDon Construction. Its round shape is meant to signify unity. There were 411,000 visits, including repeat visits, in the first 10 days of Expo from 175 countries, according to officials, with one-third of those being tourists. With over 20 million visitors in total, Expo 2020 Dubai brought people together from around the globe in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to showcase world innovations and encourage international collaboration.