nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque,
quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis
totum utte faciant, Fabulle, nasum – CATULLUS
poetry
“There are strong perfumes for which all matter is porous. One would say they go through glass…” — CHARLES BAUDELAIRE
Scent Verse is a inspiring poetry project on Basenotes curated by writer Eddie Bulliqi.
What if every poem had its own fragrance, beyond the literal smell of the materiality of the page? What if one could smell a poet’s imaginative, conceptual, intellectual world, the text unfurling into an aroma? In Volatile!, curator and design historian Debra Riley Parr presents a number of objects and experiences that invite speculative connections between poetry and scent including our friend & collaborator Brian Goeltzenleuchter.
Scents of Exile is an olfactory art project curated by Ashraf Osman in partnership with Syndicate and Givaudan. It takes as its point of departure an evocative text about memory, identity and nostalgia associated with scents of cities and places no longer accessible, from In the Presence of Absence by renowned Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish.
Eduardo Kac is internationally recognized for his telepresence and bio art. Osmobox drawings were exhibited at Galerie Charlot in Paris (2014). Osmoboxes are visually identical but completely distinct in their olfactory identity. Every scent in the Osmobox series is unique and constitutes the core of the artwork.
The Book of Scented Things collects poems reflecting the experience of selected vials of perfume.