Expo.02 was the 6th Swiss national exposition, which was held from 15 May to 20 October 2002. The exposition took place around the lakes of

Neuchâtel Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a list of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital (political), capital of the cantons of Switzerland, Swiss canton of Neuchâtel (canton), Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel ...

, Bienne/Biel and Morat/Murten. It was divided into five sites, which were called ''Arteplages'', due to the proximity of the water (some sites were actually partially or totally built on the water). The five ''arteplages'' were located in

Yverdon-les-Bains Yverdon-les-Bains () (called Eburodunum and Ebredunum during the Ancient Rome, Roman era) is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Jura-North Vaudois District, Jura-Nord vaudois of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It ...

, Morat/Murten,

Biel/Bienne Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...

and on a mobile barge traveling from one site to another. The barge represented the

canton of Jura The Republic and Canton of Jura (officially in ), less formally the Canton of Jura or Canton Jura ( ; ), is the newest (founded in 1979) of the 26 Swiss cantons, located in the northwestern part of Switzerland. The capital is Delémont. It shar ...

, which does not have access to any one of the three lakes. Expo.02 was the subject of controversy in Switzerland due to the many financial problems it encountered. It was first scheduled to take place in 2001 (under the name of ''Expo.01''), but the catastrophic organization and lack of funding threatened to put an end to the project, which was saved at the last minute by the Swiss Federal Government, which put in a large amount of public money to save the exhibition. Expo.02 cost 1.6 billion Swiss francs. Most of it came from major Swiss companies which sponsored the different exhibitions on the ''Arteplages''. According to the organisers, more than 10 million admissions were counted, and the exhibition succeeded in achieving its sole and only goal: the public's pleasure. Each ''arteplage'' was dedicated to a different theme. There was ''"Nature and Artifice"'' in Neuchâtel, ''"I and the Universe"'' in Yverdon-les-Bains, ''"Instants and Eternity"'' in Murten/Morat, ''"Power and Freedom"'' in Biel/Bienne and ''"Sense and Movement"'' on the mobile platform.

Images

Image:SwissExpo02-Neuchatel.png, Neuchâtel Image:Tuerme auf der Arteplage Biel der Expo.02.jpg, The towers in Bienne Image:Monolith by nouvel small.jpg, The monolith of Jean Nouvel in Morat

References

External links

Expo-archive.ch (via archive.org)
{{Authority control Culture of Switzerland 2002 in Switzerland

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Floating architecture National exhibitions