Studio René Boer

René Boer (1986, he/him) works as a critic, curator and organizer in and beyond the fields of architecture, art, design and heritage. He is based between Amsterdam and Cairo and is a driving force behind the Failed Architecture platform. In recent years he developed a wide array of exhibitions, public programmes and research projects, often with a focus on spatial justice, urban imaginations and queer tactics. His current projects include Contemporary Commoning, an experimental exploration of the relation between art and (urban) commons; Terraforming Indonesia, a programme investigating and reimaginging large-scale land reclamations in collaboration with the ruangruapa collective; and Smooth City, a forthcoming publication on the obsession with perfection in cities worldwide.

selected projects
Architecture of Appropriation
Contemporary Commoning
Failed Architecture
Grounded Urban Practices
Misericordia
Post-Fossil City
Reimagining Cairo
Smooth City
Terraforming Indonesia
The Right to Build
Useful Life
Wallen2020

mail@reneboer.net
@rene_boer_

Useful Life

This series of dialogues, recorded as part of the WORK, BODY, LEISURE show at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, explores the multifaceted effects of automation processes on the organisation of work, the freedom of bodies and the nature of the spaces they inhabit.


Photo: Daria Scagliola.

One of the premises of the debates around the impact of automation is that these processes render (non)-human bodies and spaces obsolete. Yet automation may also revitalise those entities or simultaneoulsy create new ones. These mechanisms are the starting point of unscripted conversations with the show's exhibitors and guests.



Useful Life is a collaboration with Arif Kornweitz (JaJaJaNeeNeeNee), and features Mark Wigley, Hamed Khosravi, Taneha Bacchin, Simone Niquille, Liam Young, Giuditta Vendrame, Paolo Pattelli, Victor Muñoz Sanz, Maarten Kuipers, Gonzalo Herrero Delicado, Amal Alhaag, Marina Otero Verzier and Katia Truijen.