The Austrian pavilion translates the central strategic idea, ‘Österreich schafft Spielraum’ – a word play that can mean both ‘Austria creates space to play’ or ‘Austria provides room to manoeuvre’ – into a spatial, theme-based experience. The starting point is the Danube river, which combines Austria and Serbia, shaping a shared cultural and economic region while also representing the free flow of people, knowledge, ideas and cooperations.

The narrative motif ‘Join the Flow’ leads visitors through the pavilion. A media-generated river visual joins up the individual exhibition areas, allowing Austria to be experienced from different perspectives at interactive stations. Here, Austria presents itself as a future-oriented centre of business, industry, innovation and culture that combines technological expertise with creativity, education, sustainability and a high quality of life.

Rather than focusing on showcasing Austrian achievements, the pavilion can be seen as an open platform for human interaction, dialogue and collaboration. It shows how new ideas can come about by bringing together different perspectives and how Austria and its partners are developing answers to economic, social and technological questions relating to the future. Throughout the expo, the flexible InnoLab provides space for alternating projects from business, industry, research and innovation. On selected days, it can also be used as a teaching, art or sustainability laboratory. In this way, Austrian companies, research institutions, educational institutions and creative artists have the chance to present their ideas in an international environment and to initiate new collaborations.

Background information on the Austrian Pavilion

The Austrian contribution to Expo 2027 in Belgrade is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics, Energy and Tourism and the Austrian Economic Chamber. The Expo Office of the Austrian Economic Chamber has been charged with the project management and overall coordination of the Austrian presentation. As general contractor, facts and fiction is responsible for designing, planning and implementing the pavilion. PLANET architects in Vienna will be in charge of the architectural design and also for planning and supervising construction. ZONE Media will be responsible for designing and producing media content, including programming, support and maintenance.