Buy Bye — Con Installation and Pop-Up at Jerusalem Design Week
During Jerusalem Design Week, Neil Cohen’s Con presented a provocative pop-up shop and installation titled Buy Bye. The concept frames Con as a fictional Middle Eastern corporate entity whose business is marketing, persuasion, and propaganda, disguised as everyday consumer goods. At Buy Bye, visitors encountered a curated set of objects - from cleaning supplies to fashion items - all framed as limited editions in preparation for an impending flood or migration, offering both survival gear and luxury goods.
The shop highlighted the tension between consumerism and crisis, questioning how design, marketing, and desire interplay in times of uncertainty. The pieces were playful but also unsettling, inviting visitors to ask whether their next purchase was a necessity or a façade.
Media coverage noted the irony and boldness of the project. Discussing how Con’s Buy Bye exercises “survival consumption,” offering a commentary on the sociopolitical climate, consumer culture, and national anxiety. Cultural writers saw the project as a mirror: design reflecting and amplifying the contradictions of our moment.
In Buy Bye, Neil Cohen used design as critique. Under the guise of a functioning shop, the installation disrupted expectations and asked what happens when the tools of branding and marketing are turned back on us.
