The museum focuses on issues related to global interdependencies. These interdependencies become especially evident when tracing the history of valuable trade goods and their transport routes. Products such as coffee, cocoa, petroleum, opium, sugar, silk, watches and diamonds have had a hand in shaping countries, cultures and societies. The current exhibition discusses the major world exhibitions in London, Paris, Vienna and Chicago in the nineteenth century and their aspirations to subject the world according to Western standards. The stereotypes that grew out of these structures have lives of their own, which continue to resonate to this day. World Exhibition is an attempt to capture these forms through the means of art.
