PROJECT DESCRIPTION The Italian Pavilion at Expo Astana 2017 has been conceived as a space giving the visitor an involving experience combining the values and notions of History, Ingenuity, Creativity and Natural Resources, as part of a long standing tradition of Italian primacy. The pavilion is also the physical container of an imaginary journey evoking and combining settings and major suggestions of the Italian "landscape": nature and society. Guests will be led to a perception experience in an alternating sequence of "virtual images" and "real objects". These physical and imaginary suggestions symbolically narrate the "Italian genius" applied to the themes of energy, preservation of natural resources and creative engineering. The Italian landscape, with large plains, high mountains, surrounded by the sea, offers a vast patrimony of energy sources: from wind power to hydro energy, from solar energy to fossil resources. All resources have always been exploited with ingenuity and respect for the environment, according to the cultural tradition of the country and its history. The pavilion is structured along a clear and at the same time complex exhibition path, with spatial references to the renaissance and baroque character of the Italian squares. Along the path, the visitor experiences a dynamic show of ever-changing messages, views and narrations through complex system of multimedia projection: a sort of “enhanced reality” in which objective and subliminal messages alternate with references to past and future, landscape, environment and engineering. The exhibition is organized on different levels. The winding visiting path begins with a slightly sloping ramp leading to an intermediate level from which it continues on a second ramp descending and, passing under the mezzanine floor. This articulated path opens to three main “squares”. Each square narrates a different aspect of the Italian history that is filled with creativity and research in the energy sector: from Volta to Pacinotti, from Fermi to Leonardo, from the researches in the hydroelectric energy field to the wealth of our natural resources. At the end of their visit, the guests reach “Piazza Leonardo”, dedicated to Italian creativity, in which encounters a crowd of multimedia totems. These interact directly with the visitors in order to transmit the sense of ingenuity in Italian culture. This oval square is an evoking dynamic space due to the multitude of video projections on the perimeter walls and ceiling. In “Piazza Leonardo” there is a small bar: the excellent expression of our urban culture.