Tom Sachs is an omnipresent artist right now. The New York native, who juggles the symbols, objects, and fetishes of contemporary comic culture like no one else, has designed a space-ready Nike sneaker for future Mars missions, shortly before launching a matching NASA chair. The latter is strictly and available solely on Sachs’ Instagram account, where he communicates virtually non-stop with his disciples. His film Paradox Bullets starring Ed Ruscha as its lead and the Swiss Passport Office he opened at a London gallery to distribute false red passports adorned with the white cross aimed to ‘break down borders and eliminate the concept of nationality’. 

Tom Sachs fascination for the wealthy, peaceful, and politically neutral country of Switzerland – or rather the utopic parallel universe that the grandmaster of bricolage has formed in his mind based on countless symbols of the Swiss brand – has now manifested itself on Swiss soil for the first time. Until 3 February, the Vito Schnabel Gallery in St. Moritz is showing the solo exhibition The Pack, featuring numerous remixed icons made in Switzerland such as the unavoidable white-cross-on-red-ground flag, a Swiss airliner on a canvas of Swiss army knives, and a line-up of motorcycles that form a Joseph Beuys-style reference for the Pontifical Swiss Guard. 

Photos: Vito Schnabel Gallery