In an effort to mitigate the cacophony of themes, sensations and experiences that regularly marks the national pavilions section of the Venice Biennale, and to make that part of the world’s largest architecture exhibition consistent and truly significant, Rem Koolhaas, the artistic director of this year’s exhibition, asked from all national participants to address and adhere to the same theme, this time of a decisive historical and research character. Koolhaas defined it as Absorbing Modernity: 1914–2014, finding in this theme relevance for the issues of contemporaneity. He called upon the participating countries to examine the development of national architectures in the last hundred years and to assess the ways in which modernism has suppressed, replaced or eliminated national features in their respective architectures.