Political isolation and economic recession marked the first half of the decade. Switzerland rejected the EEA agreement thus missing the boat as far as globalization was concerned. The images by Fischli Weiss show a country that had become peripheral in which time stood still. Although Switzerland had the status of a “permanent observer” in the UNO , it only joined the organization in 2002. But in certain niches and alternative spaces something new sprouted up. From the mid-1990s people in the New York art scene were talking about the “Swiss Wonder”. In the world of architecture, the competition system gave young offices access to the market. Herzog & de Meuron and Peter Zumthor produced star architecture, and Pipilotti Rist became the motor for a new national exhibition. The Eizenstat Report turned a spotlight on Switzerland’s role in the Second World War and demolished the myth of neutrality. From 2002 at the latest, when free of movement of persons between Switzerland and the EU became possible and in the context of economic growth that continues to the present day, Switzerland has awakened.