A biopolitical satire Hans Hollein’s atmospheres at the XIV Triennale di Milano.

Abstract

After the proliferation of pneumatic paradises during the sixties of the twentieth century, the end of this decade was a critical time for architects pursuing social utopias. The dream was over: the new economy for mass-consumption and the ecological crisis were driving the new social concerns. Also, the biopolitical, as studied by authors like Michel Foucault, was increasingly present. The psychological impact of the environment on human behavior was intensely studied: radical conductism or behavior control were key topics influencing art production and the creation of spaces that played with human behaviour. The Austriennale pavilion by Hans Hollein, built for the XIV Triennale di Milano, not only embraced its major topic, “The big number,” but was specially influenced by the aforementioned ‘behavioral turn’. In a satiric and playful way, the project embraced the times of crisis, turning them into a space for social criticism. Hollein’s project is analyzed in terms of an architectural satire, a biopolitical machine designed to create a serialized experience based on a mass-produced gratification. Simultaneously Fordist, Kafkaesque and Freudian, its organization of movement, crowd control, stimulus-reward protocols and specialized performative atmospheres are organized in an architectural work.