21 May 2021

Equality in the digital age and the future of living in cities are central themes of the 'Platform Austria' exhibition in the Austrian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura in Venice (22 May until 21 November 2021)

We are living in a world where 'access' to social life is granted via digital platforms; an example: When visiting the first district of Vienna, it appears as if there never was a pandemic. People are sitting in cafés, bars, restaurants, outdoors in Schanigärten as well as indoors. Life is vibrating again! 35% of the Austrian population have received one dose, around 13% are fully vaccinated. For herd immunity, it's estimated that around 80% of the population must be immune; means ca. 80% must be vaccinated or recovered from a Covid-19 infection (article on statista). The people's run for getting a jab can be slowed by the amount of available doses and the vaccination strategies of each of the nine federal states of Austria. The country's capital Vienna is the largest city of Austria and has the problem of the shortage of doses. The website of the vaccination service in Vienna ('Impfservice.Wien') changes the definitions (age, profession, health status,...) for allowed registrations continuously on basis of the growing knowledge about calculated infections in specific groups and changing circumstances. The website is an important interactive platform; it's quality depends on the truth of information given by citizens and institutions. The data of the platform is linked with personal information the Austrian state administration has collected, respectively generated from diverse data about each citizen. It's the first time ever that the state's profile of a citizen such as a person's profession has direct effects on a person's health related will. Additionally to the protection against the virus, fully vaccinated people have many benefits such as the comfortable access to a coffee house or restaurant without testing.

Platforms and how digital networks are influencing our living together is the theme at the Austrian Pavilion at the Biennale Architettura 2021. The theme was developed before the pandemic for the exhibition in 2020 which had to be postponed to 2021. From 22 May until 21 November 2021, the 'Platform Austria' exhibition will present - with the additional knowledge collected during the last months, in seven chapters the world of platforms in urban environments for questioning if living in cities will become fairer through new technologies.

Image: The exhibition view shows the chapter 'Access Is The New Capital' which questions if there exists equality in the access to platforms or if it's the beginning of a new class society such as stated at the press release presented on occasion of the press conference about 'Platform Austria' on 20th May at the Austrian Pavilion, Biennale Architettura 2021 in Venice. This year's motto of the Biennale Architettura is 'How will we live together?'. The exhibition is open for visitors from 22 May until 21 November 2021. Photo: © Ugo Carmeni 2021.

The curators of the Austrian Pavilion Peter Mörtenböck (Professor of Visual Culture in the Architecture Faculty at the TU Wien and Research Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London) and Helge Mooshammer (works on urban and cultural research at the TU Wien und is also a Research Fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London) point out that through the pandemic the use of platforms was necessary for getting through life. "So, as a result, we've seen how platforms have completely changed the way we interact – the way we work, learn, shop, entertain ourselves and socialise. But the way we use platforms is not only having a massive impact on us as people. It is also transforming our cities."

For the ones who can't visit Venice, the Austrian Pavilion curators provide the accompanying exhibition 'Platform Austria' from 27 May until 29 August at MAK - Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.