All you can eat at the Swiss towers at Expo Milano 2015
The issue of corporate sponsorship is no small matter at the world fair in Milan. The Swiss, for instance, have taken a few hits over their main sponsor, Nestlé. However, the pavilion's concept is striking.
Image: DW/Z. Abbany
How much is left?
It seems a strange question, but that's the Swiss Pavilion for you. Quanto ne rimane? How much is left? Aside from interactive zones and a darkened "water room," the pavilion's focal point is a set of ugly towers, each stacked with products: salt, beakers for water, coffee, and apple rings. Visitors are invited to take what they like. And then they're asked whether they've taken too much!
Image: DW/Z. Abbany
Well stocked
Four towers, 15 meters high - stacked to the rafters, at the start. As visitors remove the products, and the shelves of this virtual supermarket empty, the tower platforms move down in a live-visualization of depleting food stocks. Nestlé got 2.5 million Nescafé sticks into one tower. But the most popular in the first week were the apple rings. Visitors took 29,000 packets.
Image: DW/Z. Abbany
Give me water
Hot on the heels of the apple rings comes water. No surprises there. You're walking around the expo site for hours on end (the main drag is over a kilometer long), and you're tired and hungry - so getting something free to chew and swallow is going to be a treat. Plus, swiping one of the 350,000 plastic beakers will be a nice souvenir. The pavilion is hooked up to the local water supply.
Image: DW/Z. Abbany
Sodium chloride, anyone?
On the other hand, it's not surprising that salt has ranked as the least popular product at the Swiss pavilion. Okay, plenty of us eat too much salt - this writer included - but salt is important for life. The salt tower started out with 2 million packets. In the first month of the expo, visitors had removed only roughly seven percent. That's even less than that yucky instant coffee.
Image: DW/Z. Abbany
Food for thought
You know the saying: there's no such thing as a free lunch? Well, the Swiss, while offering up free goodies to expo visitors, also want people to think and learn about food and water supplies in the world. The expo theme is after all: "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life." But once you've glanced at the pretty little graphic, no one stops you from going to the next tower to grab some more.
Image: DW/Z. Abbany
Vanishing point
When all is said and eaten… the towers will be empty, and no doubt they will be empty long before the expo closes at the end of October. But that's the point. This Swiss experiment wouldn't have worked if the towers remained forever plentiful. The idea is that they should have time to stand as an empty statement on food sustainability. Oh, and Swiss engineering.
Image: DW/Z. Abbany
A bit of solace
During the first month of the expo, the Swiss Pavilion organizers say they had more than 180,000 visitors - at least 100,000 of whom entered in the towers. If you still plan to go to Expo Milano 2015, but find the towers empty, console yourself with a postcard such as seen here, or one of the many fabulous dishes (we're told) at the pavilion restaurant. Erm, but that's not free.
The Swiss Pavilion has been much criticized over its main sponsor, Nestlé. And yet the pavilion presents a fascinating idea. Its focal point is four towers, stocked with salt, apple rings, Nescafe coffee, and plastic beakers for water. Visitors are invited to take as much as the want, and when they leave, they are asked whether they feel they took too much. As the weeks and months go by, the towers will empty and the platforms, on which the products rest, will slowly move down. It is a live visualization of depleting food stocks - and as such, the Swiss contribution to the expo theme: Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.
