Looking Ahead – From Exhibition Construction to Its Next Use

Once a fair or installation ends, dismantling begins. And with it, the way we look at many of the things that, only hours earlier, formed part of a booth, an artwork or a space begins to change. Components are dismantled, carpets removed and plants taken away. Some materials can be used again for the same purpose. Others cannot.

Passing materials on is not the first step in this process. MCH Group events, working together with our Live Marketing Solutions teams, already reuse a large proportion of structural exhibition components within their own or partners’ reuse systems. Materials therefore only become available for external projects when they fall outside these existing cycles or can no longer be used within them. This approach is aligned with “Rethink”, one of the focus areas of the MCH Group’s strategic sustainability framework DARE, which addresses topics including material efficiency and reusable processes.

The key question then becomes not only: What do we do with this material? But also: Who else might still find it valuable?

When a handover becomes a partnership

The collaboration with Atelier Pulfer + Aeberhard shows what can develop from this question.

It began in 2025 with materials from the exhibition construction for Art Basel. As a significant proportion of the larger components used were already being reused internally, the project focused specifically on timber panels that had become available outside these internal reuse cycles. The architecture studio used them to construct a temporary pavilion on the Höhematte in Interlaken. With the support of Kunsthaus Interlaken, the pavilion became the setting for the exhibition Glass is a Mixture.

The collaboration continued in 2026. Once again, materials from the fair context were made available for a new project, allowing them to remain in use for longer. This time, expomobilia was involved early on to identify which components should be specifically separated during dismantling. The documented materials include 79 timber beams, around 70 timber panels and strips, nine large fabric sheets, and approximately 180 kilograms of remaining paint.

What also matters in this project is its continuity: an initial material handover has developed into an ongoing collaboration. And with that continuity, the process itself is changing. If it is already known before dismantling which materials are to be passed on, they can be systematically identified, separated and prepared for collection.

Material handovers therefore become less of an ad-hoc solution at the end of a project and increasingly something that can be considered from an early stage.

When the question comes from the art world itself

Materials and the value attributed to them have long played a role in discussions within the art world. This theme was reflected in Art Basel's Host Partner Ruinart's nature-inspired timber installation, created by Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata as part of the Conversations with Nature artist residency. Following the exhibition, Kawamata expressed a desire to find a way to reuse the spruce timber from the installation. The Art Basel Team subsequently contacted OFFCUT and organized the handover. In total, the material reuse centre took over 1,020 kilograms of spruce timber, which is now available for new projects.

The example shifts the perspective: the question of what comes next for a material can begin with the very people who use it to create an installation in the first place.

A similar handover took place with artist Vincent Julmy. He specifically asked about materials that would no longer be required after Art Basel. Art Basel Operations and expomobilia subsequently coordinated the transfer of around 20 pedestals, as well as carpet and ceiling netting material.

Examples like these also highlight the importance of partnerships. Not every material needs to find its next use within the same organisation. Sometimes that use lies with artists, studios, cultural institutions or specialised reuse partners.

Several hundred plants and many possible new homes

The fact that this approach is not limited to timber, construction components or carpets was demonstrated by Green Screen by Hito Steyerl at Zero 10 during Art Basel in Basel 2026. Presented by Esther Schipper and Andrew Kreps Gallery, the work incorporated several hundred living plants.

When the installation ended, so did the plants’ original function within the artwork. The gallery and artist, however, wanted to ensure that the plants could find a new use elsewhere. MCH Group employees were therefore offered the opportunity to take plants home, while the remaining plants were collected by Pflanzebroggi Basel, which passes on second-hand plants to new owners.

Here, it is not only the location that changes, but the entire context: what was previously part of an art installation can become a plant in an office or a private home – finding value in a new, everyday setting.

From the fair environment to a new local setting

A material’s next use can also be found close to where it was originally used.

Former Eternit furniture and elements of a previous Baselworld pavilion were passed on to the YOKO Sunset Beach Bar & Eventlocation. At the Alte Ziegelei in Allschwil, they are now being used in a new event setting and contribute to enhancing the site for the local community.

What is no longer used within one exhibition concept can become part of a new setting somewhere else.

And sometimes the next use is even further removed from the original one. Surplus event carpets in Doha after Art Basel Qatar were donated to Fur Kids Sanctuary, where they are now used as soft flooring and resting areas for dogs. Outdated letterheads and writing pads in Basel, meanwhile, were no longer suitable for their original office purpose, but the paper itself remained fully usable: 32,500 letterheads and 880 writing pads were therefore donated to Kindertraumhüsli.

These smaller examples in particular show just how varied a meaningful next use can be. It does not have to resemble the material’s original purpose.

A straightforward handover starts with clarity

Not every material can be passed on, and passing materials on is not the right solution in every case. The documented projects do, however, point to a number of recurring requirements: identifying early what will no longer be needed, clarifying responsibilities, finding a recipient and keeping the handover as straightforward as possible.

None of the projects described required an additional project budget. The effort mainly involved coordination and organising the handovers. At the same time, materials could be kept out of disposal streams and the associated disposal costs reduced.

That may sound unspectacular – and that is precisely part of its value. Passing materials on does not have to begin with a major standalone initiative. It can start when teams, artists and partners recognise early enough that something no longer needed for one purpose may still be relevant for another.

Because a material’s original use may come to an end. Its value does not necessarily have to.