As part of the artistic and architectural approach, the existing architecture of the two pavilions is an integrated part of the exhibition. The pipes running throughout the building and the water collection tanks outside are visible. In the pavilion’s large hall, floor-to-ceiling textiles add a contrast and tactility to the simple raw structures, while a recycled floor from a former gymnasium has been transformed into a giant floating platform. While exploring the various spaces of the exhibition, visitors can become part of the cyclic system by drinking a cup of tea brewed with leaves from the lemon verbena trees planted in the pavilion – trees which also absorb water from the extensive cyclic system.

The exhibition asks the question: How can we (re)create a new, meaningful relationship with the world as a place where we recognize the fundamental condition that we are connected – not just with each other, but with all living beings? The dependence between humans and Earth as the basis for a sustainable future for all is illustrated by linking the pavilion’s installation directly to the planet’s own cyclic system.

The exhibition experience arises in the encounter between the visitor, the building and the surroundings, where the power of water’s cyclic system continuously shapes the sensory experience. Water in the pavilion is collected on site, and climatic fluctuations will continuously shape the look and feel of the exhibition — for example, parts of the pavilion will be flooded to illustrate that water is at once life-giving, poetic, powerful and uncontrollable. The work comprises connected rooms where the water flows in, becomes part of the exhibition and sensory experience, and then leaves the pavilion again, through bodies, evaporation, photosynthesis, and absorption into the ground.