May 22–November 21, 2021
Giardini della Biennale
Venice
Italy
The focus of PLATFORM AUSTRIA is “platform urbanism.” Platform urbanism marks a highly significant upheaval in the design of our environment and its architecture. It concerns the changes that the rise of digital platforms is bringing to all spheres of our lives—from living, working and learning to health, recreation and culture.
“The pandemic we have been experiencing over the last months has clearly shown how heavily dependent we have become on platforms in our everyday lives and how much the use of platforms has changed our environment. The increasing diversity of data technologies and the increase of platform applications promising possibilities for the use of this data have fundamentally altered the goals of urban development. Urban life itself is now being recognised as a decisive mechanism of economic growth and asset accumulation. Large platform enterprises are accordingly expanding their business models and noticeably engaging in the development of cities in order to plan the infrastructure and services that are best able to supply them with data.”
―Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer
Critically addressing this transformation, the Austrian contribution to the 2021 Architecture Biennale by curators Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer showcases a series of installations designed to reclaim the right to co-determine the frameworks of urban development driven by platforms.
Exhibition
The exhibition in the Austrian pavilion opens in the Giardini della Biennale in Venice on May 20, 2021, 3pm CEST, and presents—in different media and formats—a comprehensive analysis of platform urbanism. The spectrum of works extends from theoretical positions and urbanist manifestos to studies of spatial typologies and fantastical collages. While the exterior space of the pavilion focuses on the visitors’ own participation in platforms, the interior space invites engagement with the theme guided by dozens of theorists, architects and artists from all over the world coming together as invited exhibitors in the Austrian pavilion.
International participants
Ross Exo Adams, Tom Avermaete, Lucia Babina, Jochen Becker, Daniel Cardoso Llach, Ofri Cnaani, Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman, Peggy Deamer, Fairwork Project, Pedro Gadanho, Benjamin Gerdes, Stephen Graham, Orit and Tal Halpern, Owen Hatherley, Gabu Heindl, Leo Hollis, Into the Black Box, Andreas Kofler, Bernadette Krejs and Andrea Börner, Maros Krivy, Peter Lang, Mona Mahall and Asli Serbest, Jonathan Massey, metroZones, Sandro Mezzadra, Louis Moreno, Gerald Nestler and Sylvia Eckermann, Edgar Pieterse, Heidi Pretterhofer, Vyjayanthi Rao, Scott Rogers and Susan Moore, João Prates Ruivo, Jathan Sadowski, Saskia Sassen, Manuel Shvartzberg Carrio, Slutty Urbanism, Douglas Spencer, Matthew Stewart, Ravi Sundaram, Tiziana Terranova, This Machine Kills, Ignacio Valero, Matias Viegener, Alan Wiig, and the Centre for Global Architecture.
Between September 2020 and March 2021 these contributors produced hundreds of blog posts from their homes and workplaces. Their texts can now be read online and form part of the multimedia installation in the Austrian pavilion in Venice.
PLATFORM AUSTRIA virtual opening
May 20, 2021, 7pm CEST, online
Accompanying publication
Platform Urbanism and Its Discontents, edited by Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer, nai010 publishers, 2021
MAK satellite
For visitors from Austria who, due to the current pandemic, are unable or do not wish to travel to Venice during the Architecture Biennale 2021, the curators have organised an accompanying exhibition in the MAK FORUM (Museum of Applied Arts) in Vienna. This exhibition can be viewed from May 27 to August 29, 2021.
Interactive digital image bank
The WE LIKE image bank provides the public with an opportunity to contribute to PLATFORM AUSTRIA by uploading photographs of architecture that we would like to see more of in the future.