For its 6th participation in the Milan Furniture Fair, HEAD – Genève, Geneva School of Art and Design, and its students invite you to The Animal Party. This title refers jointly to the celebration of animals, to a political party for the protection of their interests and to the inverted eponymous expression The Party Animal. The twenty-five products, accessories, spaces, jewellery, clothing and furniture, ranging from unique pieces to series and from the built form to the digital interface, offer the chance to establish new everyday relationships with our companion animals, birds or exotic pets. With great formal and expressive freedom, these original projects explore a sensitive and contemporary issue.
During the Middle Ages and right up to the 19th century in Europe, insects, worms, rats, cats, cocks, horses, pigs, etc., although held in low esteem, were accused of crimes and brought to trial before witnesses, judges, executioners and lawyers. In Switzerland, the leeches and eels infesting the rivers and lakes were even excommunicated by ecclesiastical tribunals. Only a few months ago, France joined Switzerland in recognizing the legal status of animals as “living beings” rather than “movable property”. The current debate concerning the judicial status of our pets raises larger questions: Are we legged creatures still? Do we give too much importance to animals? Have we succumbed to a sentimentality epitomized for years now by that never-ending flow of cute kittens on our screens? Or do we lack respect for animals and are indifferent to the suffering that we
inflict on them?
Ranging from a lounge henhouse that permits cohabitation within a single space to a nest whose tubular structure accommodates according to the seasons a striped jersey, an oilskin, a trench coat, etc. to protect your dog from sunshine and showers, together with a modular rodent cage that can be clipped anywhere onto the famous Billy shelves, as well as a love hotel for pigeons, an openwork leather ruff-collar, a fashion accessory that conceals slim catmint cartridges placed strategically to attract your beloved’s recalcitrant cat and so discreetly resolve that infernal relationship crisis and finally a vivarium for artificial animals, The Animal Party by the Bachelor’s and Master’s design students at Head – Genève invites you to consider how design can make a real difference.
Also significant is the partnership renewed for the third consecutive year with DuPont™ Corian® brand. DuPont™ design and technical specialists has trained a group of students led by Professor and designer Marco Borraccino, teaching them how to use the potential of DuPont™ Corian®. Three original projects in the exhibition are the result of this workshop showing that students succeeded in pushing the limits of DuPont™ Corian®.
A few projects in detail:
Louise Porche
1st year Master’s student in Fashion and Accessory Design
Pet Stockman, mixed media
Who hasn’t heard of the famous Stockman dummies invented during the Industrial Revolution, which still today enable couturiers and designers to create their patterns? This standard is employed for clothing production in both the ready-to-wear and haute couture sectors. Imagine having to design a mannequin for a ready-to-wear industry aiming to make clothes for animals of all kinds. What would be the standard, the specific features to include and the physical characteristics to be left out in order to achieve this? This is the task that Louise Porche set out to accomplish: now, can you recognize a kangaroo, a hen or even perhaps a pig?
Jessica Dubochet
1st year Bachelor’s student in Interior Architecture
Sidekick, copper, ABS plastic and epoxy paint
For 8 years now, Madame Geneviève Müeller, a lady in her nineties living alone in her flat in the heart of Geneva, has had a pet budgerigar, Bronco, that she lets out of its cage so that it can fly freely around her apartment. The two of them have taken to eating together, but no suitable crockery or support currently exists; nothing has been devised to facilitate this moment of sharing. So that both of them can participate daintily and comfortably in the ritual of the table, Jessica Dubochet has designed a ceramic dinner service for millet, seeds, fruit and water suited to the posture of a budgerigar when eating. Everyone is at the same height and so the dinners for two can now commence.
Taïr Delia Littman-Cohen
3rd year Bachelor’s student in Jewellery and Accessory Design
No More Shame, high-density foam, nylon
The plastic collars with which dogs and cats are fitted by vets after an operation are highly practical: they prevent licking of the wounds and so aid healing. However, as they are roughly made, they not only upset the animals’ sense of direction, but also hinder their movements and even worse, prevent them from reaching their food bowls, resulting in them becoming dejected. After discussions with vets, Taïr Littman has produced an ergonomic post-operative collar that is both technical, light, economical and washable, allowing the convalescing animals to be more autonomous, to move about freely and to feed themselves.
Roland Kawczynski-Pillonel
3rd year Bachelor’s student in Jewellery and Accessory Design
Her Name is Jewel, white rabbit fur, braided leather, satin and pink, grey and yellow pearls
Whether we succumb to their charm or despise them, the Sphynx hairless cats are easily recognizable as the only felines in the world without a coat. But this natural characteristic means that they have to be well protected when the chill weather sets in because they feel the cold. To mitigate this fragility, while steering well clear of the ridiculous clothes for animals, Roland Kawczynski has created a jacket-harness in white rabbit fur and leather whose elegance matches that of the sculptural Sphynx.
Charlyne Boulet & Virginie Taché
2nd year Bachelor’s students in Jewellery and Accessory Design
Have you put the flowers in the vase?, Corian® and water filter, Wet and Dry
With this spray of coral that rises up in arborescent scrolls and conceals a water filter, any of your vases can be transformed into an aquarium.
Images of a few projects here
An exhibition that brings together students from the Bachelor’s courses in Interior Architecture, from the Fashion, Jewellery and Accessory Design courses and from the Master’s in Design Spaces and Communication and Media Design courses and the Master's in Fashion and Accessory Design courses.
Project designed by Alexandra Midal and produced during a workshop directed by Mathieu Bassée and Marco Borraccino. Exhibition design led by Noam Toran and Arno Mathies and signage created under the direction of Ruedi Baur by students on the Spaces & Communication course of the Master’s in Design.
All the projects on display were produced by the students in the studios at HEAD – Genève.
