It started with an idea by Pipilotti Rist for the Arteplage Yverdon: Getting married for 24 hours. A year before the expo.02 was opened, the idea was turned into a tangible story and form by scenographers of the “aggregat” group. It is a sequence of six rooms; the order of content is like a ritual. The location is the military runway on the jetty between the river Thielle and the bay, and the architects were contracted to produce a shell around the six rooms. The inadequately tendered commission for this exceptional location enticed the architects to propose a forest of 151 nine-metre tall, irregularly positioned glowing coloured columns supporting a 150 m long and 6 m wide roof. The floor, ceiling, parapet and the lattice apron in the water are radiant white, as is the slim, flanking pavilion. Fabric covers three sides, while the harbour side is clad in roofing felt. A large window creates a rich dialogue between the inside and outside. The ensemble should have a light, festive character. The forest of columns becomes part of the scenography and completes the ritual providing a way there and a way back, and is varied with alternating densities. Moreover, a public space is created that is accessible for all visitors to the Arteplage and is open for a variety of uses, a place without exhibits that transforms into a “Baroque setting” in combination with the mist of the cloud (“le Nuage”). Last but not least, the forest of columns also achieves what the official Expo icons successfully manage, namely staging landscapes. Looking upon the lake, it is unspectacular and not over-imposing. However, its expansive breadth is uninterrupted by any mountain, thereby often allowing the lake and the sky to merge and stretch into the infinite distance.

Ships appear on the horizon, the lake becomes a sea and beyond it, one can sense another continent. The clouds above reflect the same expanse.