Nic Hess
Clandestine encounter
Nic Hess, a Zurich-based artist born in 1968 whose works have long featured in the Credit Suisse Collection, was asked to create a monumental work for the premises in Oerlikon. Hess is a master of the art of staging space, and the work he came up with, 'Clandestine encounter' (2012) – in which two different species of whale encounter each other – injects an element of dynamism into the glass-fronted customer service area. The 15-meter-long color print sandwiched between two panes of float glass is now an integral part of the structure supporting it, which is a protected historical monument. Starting in 2010, the 100-year-old building designed by the architect Josef Metzger for a prominent corner plot in the center of Oerlikon was given a complete overhaul to bring it into line with changed customer requirements.