With just one day to go until the opening of Expo Milan 2015 tomorrow, 1 May, 71% of the work needed to complete the site is still underway, according to figures available on the exhibition’s own website. Around 9,000 builders are reported to be working around the clock.
These numbers refer to the projects under direct Italian control and do not include the 54 national pavilions, which are being constructed by foreign countries.
The biggest disappointment is that the inauguration of the Expo’s two main avenues has been postponed by a month.
Several national pavilions may also open late. Three days ago the Expo commissioner Giuseppe Sala told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that the pavilions of Italy, Indonesia, Nepal, Turkey and Russia were not yet finished. He added, however, that he expected them all to be ready by the opening.
Sala has previously denied reports that organisers would be forced to hide unfinished sections of the Expo site with camouflage panels although on 13 March the Expo put out a tender worth €1.1m for companies specialising in the installation of such panels.
Meanwhile the veteran film production designer Dante Ferretti, who is a long-time collaborator of Martin Scorsese and a three-time Oscar winner, threatened the Expo with legal action earlier this month over the delays to the completion of his street design.
Ferretti, who is responsible for the main avenues of the exhibition, told the Italian wire service Ansa on 7 April that “not a single stone had yet been laid” describing himself as “dismayed and angry.” “It is my name and my reputation [on the line]”, he added, explaining that the project to construct these thoroughfares had only just been put out to tender. A few days later Ferretti reported that the dispute had been resolved and that his avenues would be completed by 2 June, one month after the opening of the Expo.
It is not immediately clear how visitors will be able to navigate the exhibition while work on these two avenues continues. The Decumano crosses the whole site from east to west and is the main access point for all the national pavilions. The Cardo connects the site from north to south and hosts numerous Italian displays.
More than 140 countries will present ideas on the theme of Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life at the Expo Milan which is expected to attract more than 20 million visitors in its six-month run. Ten million advance tickets have already been sold.
The Art Newspaper was unable to reach a spokesperson for comment.