WE LIKE – OPENING

OPENING OF THE AUSTRIAN PAVILION AT THE BIENNALE ARCHITETTURA 2021: 20 MAY 2021, 2PM

WE LIKE – PLATFORM AUSTRIA, curated by Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer, addresses the fundamental yet often overlooked impact of digital technology platforms on contemporary architecture and urban development. It provides a forum for dozens of contributors from around the world to analyse the emerging typologies of platform urbanism by way of written texts, drawings, photographs, videos, podcasts and live debates. By turning the pavilion itself into a platform, the exhibition seeks to challenge the global monopoly exercised by platform companies over the imagination of our future habitats.

Together, participants and visitors give voice to new collective demands for a future architecture that WE LIKE.

WE LIKE – PLATFORM AUSTRIA brings together the multiple strands of exchange between participants and visitors which took place throughout the duration of the Biennale Architettura 2021.

In the Austrian Pavilion, blog contributions and photographs from more than fifty experts from around the world form part of two major installation pieces that highlight the interaction of economic and social forces in platform environments: ACCESS IS THE NEW CAPITAL – THE PLATFORM IS MY BOYFRIEND.

Together with the invited experts the curators sketch the new world of platform urbanism in seven chapters. With SASKIA SASSEN, for example, they explore how technology firms are drastically changing life in global cities; with EDGAR PIETERSE, the director of the African Centre for Cities, they track the advance of digital platforms into African cities; with the urban researcher VYJAYANTHI V. RAO they study the self-initiated public platforms that support social life in the undersupplied areas of Mumbai; with the architecture studio run by TEDDY CRUZ and FONNA FORMAN they try out educational platforms in the American-Mexican border region; and together with their many further guests they shed light on a wide range of facets of the convergence of platform technologies and urban development.

VIRTUAL OPENING
Austrian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2021
20 May 2021, 6pm

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE OPENING EVENT
Lucia Babina
Into the Black Box
Bernadette Krejs
Peter Lang
Heidi Pretterhofer

ON-SITE CONVERSATIONS WITH SELECTED GUESTS

28 October 2021, 2pm
Intersectional Solidarity in Housing and Public Space
Ying-Tzu Lin (Slutty Urbanism), Gabu Heindl and Milagros Hurtig (Urban Femina) in conversation with Carmen Hines
Venue: Garden of the Austrian Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale, Venice

6 November 2021, 5pm
The City as PlatformInto the Black Box in conversation with Benj Gerdes and Giacomo-Maria Salerno, in collaboration with the Giudecca Art District
Venue: Giudecca Art District, One Contemporary Art, Giudecca, Venice

20 November 2021, 2pm
Speculations of the City: Reflections on Platform Urbanism
Vyjayanthi Rao and Pedro Gadanho in conversation with Peter Mörtenböck and Helge MooshammerVenue: Garden of the Austrian Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale, Venice