ACHTUNG!

Achtung! Wir ziehen um Digital collage, 2023 – Honys Torres

This work captures one of the most surreal moments in recent Swiss banking history: the emergency acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS in March 2023. The central figure—Giger’s iconic Alien dressed in a business suit—represents the new UBS: a mutant, elegant, monstrous bank toasting the takeover of its rival for a mere CHF 3 billion, a symbolic price in the face of collapse.

Beside him stands Heidi, parodying Banksy’s Girl with Balloon, pointing toward a hopscotch grid labeled PISE while letting the Credit Suisse balloon drift away. Heidi embodies the Swiss population, forced to relocate their trust, their history, and their financial identity. The phrase “Achtung! Wir ziehen um” (“Attention! We are moving”) signals not just a change of address, but a symbolic migration of institutional memory.

🧩 Timeline of the collapse and merger

• March 15, 2023: FINMA and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) issue market stability warnings

• March 19, 2023: UBS acquires Credit Suisse in a government-backed rescue deal

• CHF 104 billion in liquidity was provided by the SNB to support the merger

• July 1, 2024: Legal merger between Credit Suisse and UBS is finalized

The image is saturated with symbols: cupcakes, balloons, cartoon characters, stickers, and phrases like LOVE, WARUM?, TSCHÜSS, MONEY. It feels playful, but beneath the surface lies a sharp critique: Switzerland’s financial system has become a game of bets, and citizens are left watching as banks mutate into entities too big to fail—or too big to rescue.

Who will save the monster if it stumbles again? Where will Switzerland move next?