Mixed media installation
White cotton kitchen thread, cotton threads unravelled from jeans, Indigo-dyed cotton kitchen thread, stretchers, shutter shelf, archive boxes, folders
Variable dimensions

Gênes Archive is part of an ongoing body of work initiated by Selina Zürrer in 2020 during her residency in Genoa. The project currently exists in an intermediate state and consists of four woven textiles stretched on frames and an archive shelf containing folders and
boxes.

The textiles differ in material, weave structure and production method and were created on various looms. Zürrer’s practical research includes, among other processes, dismantling a pair of jeans into individual threads in order to reweave them in a different structure, as well as constructing a historical weighted loom, one of the earliest loom types that enabled the production of twill weaves typical of jeans fabric.

Alongside the material works, the archive contains Zürrer’s theoretical research, documentation of practical experiments and collected materials. The folders and boxes are labelled but remain closed, functioning as a provisional structure rather than as a readable
archive.

The project engages with the history of weaving and jeans fabric, tracing their entanglement with labour, workwear and industrial production. From the origins of jeans fabric, named after the French term for Genoa, the research extends to harbours as sites of production, circulation and logistics, and to their political significance within global supply chains and contemporary labour struggles.

At this stage, Gênes Archive reflects a moment of accumulation and provisional ordering. The material points towards a broader narrative dimension that has not yet been fully developed, situating the work as a transitional configuration within a longer research process rather than as a finalised project.