AVL Suisse, 2002

AVL Suisse hits the seas for the exhibition Expo ’02, a modern-day ‘country’ fair that took place in Switzerland in 2002. Many Swiss companies and organizations represented their identity in a cultural way; renowned international architects built the pavilions to present ideas about products as culture; the Swiss Army made a theatre play about safety and peace instead of presenting guns and canons. Since art was clearly being utilized to lubricate a wealthy society, AVL decided to go against the flow and set up a Free State on a raft. After docking the AVL Suisse, AVL invited architecture students from Berlin to add their own structures. In addition to these makeshift houses, the raft sported a conspicuous ‘For Sale’ sign, alongside two inflatable sex dolls. Nothing was designed, unless it was designed in bad taste.