“The Perfumative. Perfume in Art and Design” was the title of an international conference at Zurich University of the Arts (8-10 November 2018). The conference seeked to open up a dialogue between perfumers, researchers, designers, and artists.
Art Now! Lecture at Columbia College Chicago
Portraiture is known as a visual art genre. Yet, working with body odors has given rise to artistic works that explore new sensory territories. A lecture with Claus Noppeney at Columbia College in Chicago discussed this development: Can a smell represent a person? How is an olfactory portrait experienced in...
ArtBasel 2018: Wake up and smell the…
Art Basel offers a premier platform for renowned artists and galleries. The 49th edition brings together about 290 galleries from 35 countries and opened earlier this week. In fact, “art is now absolutely a consumer product, and that’s the huge difference. It’s a whole different world”, as Paula Cooper recently noted...
Collector at Art Basel: “You have buried the smell of the oilstick…”
In today’s art world the sensorium is focused on the visual. A closer look however reveals that the sense of smell should no longer be neglected. Here is an ethnographic story from hanging out with art collectors at a recent edition of Art Basel that might be more telling and...
Gallery exhibition at Berlin: Perfume in art & fashion
Michael Müller, best known as a sculptor, shows in his recent exhibition at the Berlin based gallery Thomas Schulte a series of small sculptures taking the form of perfumes, soaps etc. The perfume contains a drop of the artist’s sweat as Michael Müller remarks in an interview:
Scent as a medium in contemporary art
Artist and writer Catherine Haley Epstein, provides an overview on the role of scent in contemporary art on Temporary Art Review. What is interesting is the broader storyline:
Virtual reality, digital lives & the interest in smell
A feature on some recent developments with respect to scent culture appeared in The Guardian on 16 September 2016: “technology addiction makes us crave smells”.
“There is a pleasure in the ‘Pathless Woods’”
The new Monda Gallery of Contemporary Art at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida opened on November 4 with a site-specific installation by American artist Anne Patterson, featuring a scent by Beau Rhee.
Major international art prize for Anicka Yi working with smell
The conceptual artist Anicka Yi, who makes sculptures out of smell, has won the Hugo Boss Art Prize 2016. The magazine Dazed entitles: “Fragrance artist Anicka Yi wins major art prize”.
Le Courrier: C’est dans l’air
The Geneva newspaper, Le Courrier, has published an article by Samuel Schellenberg on olfactory art, C’est dans l’air!, which features the Scent Culture Institute and our Kunstmuseum Thun series, as well as olfactory artist Peter de Cupere, Mike Bouche’s The Zurich Load at Manifesta 11, and Museum Tinguely‘s “Belle Haleine: The Scent of Art.
From Sniffing to Art: The Sense of Smell in Artistic Production
In the context of the on-going re-examination of the collection at Kunstmuseum Thun, the first exhibition curated by Ashraf Osman and Anja Seiler focused on the olfactory aspects of the material and techniques of art making, which are often smelly, yet widely neglected. In this context, Claus Noppeney gave a talk...
Elodie Pong: “Paradise Paradoxe” at Zurich
Elodie Pong, video and installation artist from Zurich, investigates the invisible olfactory architecture that surrounds us as the point of departure for her solo exhibition at Helmhaus Zürich.
Against the Scentless: Returning the Sense of Smell to the Arts
“…The arts world of the 21st century should take these innovations as a challenge to make resonant new works incorporating aromas, and not allow these tools to simply become devices for social grooming and more effective product placement.
Olfactory Politics in Curating
The10th Mercosul Biennial opened in Porto Alegre, Brazil with a major exhibition on smell: Olfactory: Smell in Art.
Olfactory Fatigue | Frieze
Pamela Rosenkranz’s Swiss Pavilion in Venice to the Serpentine Gallery’s own perfume, Alice Hattrick investigates the art world’s increasing engagement with scent.
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