Austria has announced Koncesija / Konzession / Concession(e) as its contribution to the 20th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by architects Adna Babahmetović and Ajna Babahmetović together with curator Sebastian Höglinger, the project proposes temporarily granting the Austrian Pavilion to Bosnia and Herzegovina through a cooperative concession. Selected through Austria's open competition process, the pavilion examines questions of national representation, diplomacy, and architectural exchange by responding to the absence of a Bosnian national pavilion in the Giardini, where the Biennale's historic national pavilions are located.
Conceived as an evolving curatorial framework rather than a fixed exhibition, Koncesija / Konzession / Concession(e) explores the pavilion as a space of negotiation. The proposal investigates contemporary architectural production in Bosnia and Herzegovina alongside the historical, cultural, and economic ties connecting the country with Austria, including migration, postwar reconstruction, and longstanding diaspora communities. In this context, the notion of concession becomes both a symbolic gesture and a curatorial device through which different perspectives on architecture and territorial identity are brought into conversation.
The project is anchored by a reconstruction of the lobby of Sarajevo's Hotel Holiday Inn, designed by Ivan Štraus for the 1984 Winter Olympics. Reinterpreted inside the building designed by Josef Hoffmann and inaugurated in 1934, the lobby becomes the exhibition's principal gathering space, hosting discussions, screenings, public programs, and research activities throughout the Biennale. By referencing a building associated with both international cultural exchange and the Bosnian War, the installation situates contemporary architectural questions within broader political and historical narratives.
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The selected team brings together expertise across architecture, research, and cultural programming. Adna and Ajna Babahmetović are co-founders of the architecture practice Adna i Ajna, whose work investigates housing, migration, and spatial memory through architectural practice and academic research. Sebastian Höglinger is a curator and cultural programmer whose experience spans film festivals, exhibition making, and interdisciplinary cultural initiatives, including his previous role as artistic co-director of the Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film.
Koncesija / Konzession / Concession(e) will be presented as part of the 20th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu under the theme Do Architecture — For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality. The exhibition will run from May 8 to November 21, 2027. The announcement follows Austria's participation in the 2025 Architecture Biennale with Agency for Better Living, curated by Sabine Pollak, Michael Obrist, and Lorenzo Romito, which explored housing and everyday urban life through participatory research.
We invite you to check out ArchDaily's comprehensive coverage of the 2027 Venice Biennale.
