MIDISSAGE OF THE NATIONAL PAVILIONS OF THE BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA 2021

The Midissage of the national pavilions of the Biennale Architettura was initiated and coordinated by the curators of the Austrian Pavilion in 2021, PETER MÖRTENBÖCK and HELGE MOSSHAMMER. It is intended to set an example of international cooperation and, with its diverse programme, demonstrate how the curators of more than 50 national pavilions, who have come together in a Curators Collective, envision a future of architecture based on mutual support.

“For us, it was important that the many national contributions to this unique Biennale, which is about the future of living together, should be able to enter into dialogue with one another. Especially in this time of confinement and isolation, we wanted to create a forum that brings together curators, experts and visitors to exchange with one another as if on a platform, both in Venice itself, and online.”
– PETER MÖRTENBÖCK

“While our initial idea of a weekly residency programme at the Austrian pavilion in Venice had to be adapted to a virtual setting due to the pandemic, with this Midissage, we now want to provide an opportunity for everyone involved in the project to engage in these conversations in person. The Midissage will create a platform for dialogue for the Austrian contribution as well as for the many other national pavilions, one that can open up new paths in architecture for us.”
– HELGE MOOSHAMMER

From Friday, 27 August to Sunday, 29 August 2021, a series of public events took place in Venice across a number of collaborating national pavilions of the Biennale Architettura 2021 to mark the midterm of one of the most important cultural events of the year. Austria was strongly represented within this Midissage: Thirty of the architects, artists, and researchers exhibited in the Austrian Pavilion that year met in Venice on Saturday, 28 August 2021 for a series of panel discussions to present their work, and to jointly address the topic of the Austrian contribution to the Biennale – platform urbanism.

A special highlight of the programme was the panel discussion “Labour in the Platform City”. In this discussion, four key experts in architecture and urbanism deliberated the phenomenon of platform urbanism: PEGGY DEAMER (Yale University and author of Architecture and Labor), SANDRO MEZZADRA (University of Bologna and co-author of The Politics of Operations: Excavating Contemporary Capitalism), SASKIA SASSEN (Columbia University and author of Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy) and RICHARD SENNETT (Centennial Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics).

MIDISSAGE AT THE AUSTRIAN PAVILION
Saturday, 28 August 2021

PANEL DISCUSSIONS ON PLATFORM URBANISM

11am-12pm
The Future is Public: Activism in the Age of Platform Capital
SLUTTY URBANISM, University of AmsterdamGERALD NESTLER and SYLVIA ECKERMANN, Vienna
INTO THE BLACK BOX, University of Bolognachaired by CARMEN LAEL HINES

12pm-1pm
City on demand? Questioning the Urbanisation of Technology Capital
DANIEL CARDOSO LLACH, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLEO HOLLIS, LondonJOCHEN BECKER, metroZones, Berlin
BERNADETTE KREJS, TU Wien
chaired by HELGE MOOSHAMMER

1pm-2pm
Access Is The New Capital: How Did We Get Here, and What’s Next?
TOM AVERMAETE, ETH ZurichMONA MAHALL, HCU Hamburg
ASLI SERBEST, HFK BremenPETER LANG, Romechaired by PETER MÖRTENBÖCK

2pm-3pm
Networked Practices: Curatorial Platforms and Collective Action
IRIT ROGOFF, Goldsmiths, University of LondonHAE-WON SHIN, curator of the Korean Pavilion
RAFAŁ ŚLIWA, curator of the Polish Pavilion
chaired by PETER MÖRTENBÖCK and HELGE MOOSHAMMER

3pm-4pm
The Platform Is My Boyfriend: Data Bodies and Infrastructures
BENJ GERDES, Royal Institute of Art, StockholmOFRI CNAANI, Goldsmiths, University of London
LUCIA BABINA, Bologna
GABU HEINDL, Viennachaired by CARMEN LAEL HINES

4pm-5pm
Labour in the Platform City
SASKIA SASSEN, Columbia UniversityRICHARD SENNETT, London School of EconomicsPEGGY DEAMER, Yale UniversitySANDRO MEZZADRA, University of Bolognachaired by PETER MÖRTENBÖCK and HELGE MOOSHAMMER

Other participants in the panel discussions included TOM AVERMAETE, PETER LANG, LEO HOLLIS, DANIEL CARDOSO LLACH, JOCHEN BECKER, BERNADETTE KREJS, MONA MAHALL & ASLI SERBEST, BENJ GERDES, GABU HEINDL, OFRI CNAANI, IRIT ROGOFF, HAE-WON SHIN, RAFAŁ ŚLIWA, LUCIA BABINA, GERALD NESTLER & SYLVIA ECKERMANN, as well as the collectives INTO THE BLACK BOX and SLUTTY URBANISM.

The invited experts are part of the blogger network initiated by PETER MÖRTENBÖCK and HELGE MOOSHAMMER at the Biennale Architettura 2021. From September 2020 to March 2021, hundreds of blog posts on platform urbanism were written, which can be read online, and could experienced as a multimedia installation in the Austrian pavilion.

TRANSNATIONAL MIDISSAGE ORGANISED BY THE CURATORS COLLECTIVE

For the first time in the history of the Biennale di Venezia, the curators of the various national pavilions came together in a transnational network – the Curators Collective (CC).

The Midissage events in the Austrian pavilion were embedded in a comprehensive programme orchestrated by the Curators Collective, which enabled an exchange between the various national pavilions.

MIDISSAGE SOCIAL GATHERING
Saturday, 28 August 2021
7pm-12am

Get-together at the Rialto fish market in the evening with music, food and drinks, hosted by the Austrian Pavilion – an opportunity to meet everyone involved in this Midissage initiative and to reflect on the Biennale thus far

Opening remarks by SASKIA SASSEN, RICHARD SENNETT, HAE-WON SHIN, WAEL AL AWAR, IPPOLITO PESTELLINI LAPARELLI, PETER MÖRTENBÖCK and HELGE MOOSHAMMER

Rialto Fish Market, Venice