8h30                                COFFEE AND WELCOME
9h00                                INTRODUCTION: Jean-Pierre Greff, Director, HEAD – Genève and Anthony Masure, Head of Research, HEAD – Genève

SESSION 1                     DENIM EVERYTHING AS PROMPT
What does one do with a collection of denim objects? What do denim objects in the aggregate do for the concepts, practices and fields that ‘house’ the collection? How does one actually go about archiving a collection of this nature? From the collection’s origin to the possibilities it affords in thinking about contemporary phenomena, from questions it raises to the methods it calls for, this session will serve as an overview of the challenges and possible avenues of the Jeansdinge research project.

9h00                                INTRODUCTION : The Jeansdinge Collection by Katharina Hohmann, Artist, HEAD – Genève
9h30                                Opening the anarchive, Lorelei Regamey, Researcher, HEAD – Genève
9h45                                Du denimérique, Anthony Masure
10h00                             Q&A. Moderation: Aude Fellay, Researcher, HEAD – Genève

SESSION 2                     ALL OVER
Unauthored designs, for the most part mass-produced, united, if not elevated, by a fabric. What does denim afford the objects it covers? What is fabric’s lure? Probing the relationship between surface and content, this session will plumb the depths of fabric as material, text and image.

10h45                             Materiality : Nils Röller, Author and professor, ZHdK, Zürich
11h00                             Wrapped in textiles – Packaging, Denise Locher, Archivist, Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich
11h15                            The adhesiveness of denim, Rob van Leijsen, Graphic Designer, HEAD – Genève
11h30                             Q&A Moderation: Katharina Hohmann


SESSION 3                    DENIM POLITICS
Denim brings to mind iconic pop cultural moments. Yet it also stands as a symbol of capitalism’s wrongs: mass production, the plundering of natural resources and the exploitation of cheap labour. Alerting us to the production and consumption contexts of denim, this session will provide historical and anthropological insights into the fabric

13h00                             Obstructions / Jean Factory, film 12 min., 2008, Ali Kazma, Artist, Istanbul / Paris
13h30                             (UN)CHAIN a Global OBJECT : the jean as politics, Iulia Hasdeu, Researcher and lecturer, Geneva
13h45                             East Berlin, 1976, Katharina Tietze, Professor, head of the Trends & Identity program, ZHdK, Zürich
14h00                             Q&A Moderation: Mikhail Rojkov, Researcher, HEAD – Genève and Lorelei Regamey, Researcher, HEAD – Genève
14h30                             PAUSE

SESSION 4                     DENIM TROUBLE
What happens to the fabric’s Americanness and associated qualities when it is turned into a denim-wrapped anything? What happens to design when ‘vulgar’ denim objects claim a place amongst it? In a back and forth between fabric and objects, imperialism and gender, the vernacular and the institutional, this session will explore the ways in which the Jeansdinge, and projects that resonate with it, ‘trouble’ the symbols on which they rest and the spaces they occupy.

15h00                             Denim Land, Celeste Hay, Writer and print designer, Geneva
15h15                             Jeansdinge, or the cute and vulgar, Aude Fellay, Researcher and lecturer in fashion, HEAD – Genève
15h30                            The gender of jeans from menswear to normcore, Elizabeth Fischer, Professor in the history of fashion, HEAD – Genève
16h00                             Articulating sauce, Malique Mohamud, Writer, Researcher, het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
16h15                             Q&A Moderation: Camille Farrah Buhler, Artist and designer, Geneva and Chaïm Vischel, Artist and researcher, HEAD – Genève

SESSION 5                     ART IN DENIM
If denim has found its way onto commodities, it has also made a place for itself in art practices. Artists who have made use of denim will address its meaning and function in their work. The session will also look into the relationship of objects to the moving image, anticipating the research’s next step – the filmic activation of the Jeansdinge objects.

17h15                             Undestroyable Denim, Ernestyna Orlowska, Artist, Performer, Bern
17h30                             How to build a Cowboy, Vincent Kohler, Artist, HEAD – Genève
17h45                             Une goutte de soleil turquoise, Sabrina Calvo, Writer, Paris
18h00                             L’OBJET ANIMÉ AU CINÉMA, Lucien Monot, Film Director, Lausanne
18h30                             Q&A Moderation: Katharina Hohmann

SESSION 6                     THE SOUND OF DENIM
The words ‘jeans’ and ‘denim’ have an interesting linguistic history: ‘Jeans’ and ‘denim’ literally come from Genoa (de Gènes) and de Nîmes. Working through the record covers and tracks in the collection, this last session will dive into the sound of denim. Think ‘Venus in Blue Jeans’ (Jimmy Clanton, 1962), ‘From Levis to Calvin Klein Jeans’ (Brenda Lee, 1981), ‘Blue Jean’ (David Bowie, 1984) or ‘Hip Teens don’t wear Blue Jeans’ (Frank Popp, 2001).

19h00                             Comments on Record Covers and other Musicalia in the Collection, Ambroise Tièche, Artist, HEAD – Genève.
20h00                              Digging da denim, DJ set ANITA KIRPPIS